"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook," Spanish painter Salvador Dali recalled in his autobiography. "At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."
Dali wound up being a famous artist, so adored for his surrealist masterpieces that his works are now housed in the world's most well-known museums. But beyond his paintings, drawings, photos, sculptures and films, ambition led the pop culture darling to a world filled less with canvases and more with runways: fashion.
Throughout his life, Dali gravitated toward wild and weird fashion creations. Who can forget his "Aphrodisiac Dinner Jacket"? He adored Elsa Schiaparelli, and the two created truly odd outfits like the "lobster dress" and a coat rigged with bureau drawers. After meeting with Coco Chanel, Dali began designing theatrical costumes and sets for works like "Bacchanale" and "Tristan Fou." He collaborated with Christian Dior and worked with Harper's Bazaar.
And then there was the jewelry -- "The Eye of Time," a not-so-subtle tribute to his painting dubbed "The Persistence of Memory," and the ruby lips broach based on his "Mae West Lips Sofa."
A new exhibition at Mayoral Galeria d'Art in Barcelona, Spain, is reminding fans of Dali's foray in fashion. The show includes a selection of six drawings -- all shown here -- that the artist did in 1965, after he reached an agreement with the Wisconsin clothing manufacturer Jack A. Winter to design a line of beachwear, swimwear, sportswear and autumnal styles for both day and evening.
Alas, the Dali clothing line was never mass-produced.These six drawings -- introducing the world to an absurdly small denim bikini, an accordion-like onesie, and pants that pay homage to the butt's answer to décolletage -- are all that remain.
The Mayoral celebrates the rarely seen sketches at nearly 27 years after Dali's death. "Salvador Dalí doesn't exist," the show's curator and critic Ricard Mas cryptically told Mayoral in a press statement. "He disappeared in the infinite distance that kept apart his physically impossible moustache from that popeyed look of his. The very same space, that distance which may occur between awe and desire towards death, between the universal and the ultramicroscopical, between genius and virtue or between a single secret and its publication in infinite issues."
For more on the mystery that is Dali's fashion drawings, check out the sketches here. If you happen to be in Barcelona before Feb. 29, 2016, you can see the works as part of "Dalí. Master at metamorphoses."
This post was adapted from a HuffPost Spain post.
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