Spanish artist Salvador Dalí was the very definition of flamboyant. His needle-sharp moustache, pet ocelot, immaculate pinstripes and unapologetically decadent lifestyle crafted an avant-garde persona worthy of the surrealist movement he helped ignite—a movement now celebrating its centenary. Dalí thrived on creative provocation, so when he was commissioned in 1971 to imagine what men’s fashion might look like in the year 2000, he conjured 12 paintings that felt less like predictions and more like portals into his fantastical mind.
Today, those 12 dreamscapes become the blueprint for SCABAL’s newest triumph in luxury tailoring. The Société Commerciale Anglo Belgo Allemande et Luxembourgeoise—SCABAL, to the well-dressed—has shaped the vocabulary of men’s sartorial excellence since 1938. From its heritage Yorkshire mill emerge some of the world’s most coveted textiles: cloud-soft cashmeres, superfine Super 100 wools, and fabrics spun with diamond fragments and 24-carat-gold thread. These are the materials that travel from Savile Row to global ateliers.
In its latest Vision collection, SCABAL distills Dalí’s irreverent imagination into fabrics that feel both daring and devastatingly refined. “A thoughtful translation of Dali’s artistic innovations into textiles that are both luxurious and refined, yet true to the eccentric spirit of his work,” is how Sarbinder Singh Bindra, founder of TSB Overseas and distributor of SCABAL in India, describes it.
The translations are subtle yet spectacular. A dark grey suiting, sliced with broken pinstripes in soft blue and deep purple, nods to the toggles on a violet cravat Dalí once sketched for an imaginary financial titan. A dandy in a double-brim hat—painted in airy red—reappears as two tiny hats, scattered like secret signatures across navy wool using delicately stitched mouliné yarn.
The standout, however, is SCABAL’s reimagining of Dalí’s most deliciously bizarre concept: the uniform of a footman attending a homeless vagrant. In Dalí’s painting, a lion’s head anchors the extravagance. In SCABAL’s hands, that lion becomes a micro-weave of swirling mane curls in dark blue suiting, layered with a restrained red check. The result is a fabric with a nocturnal gleam—aristocratic, enigmatic, almost hypnotic.
For its Indian debut, TSB Overseas invited homegrown designers to bring Dalí’s surrealism to the runway. Curated by fashion impresario Prasad Bidapa, the showcase featured three looks each from four distinguished ateliers—The Darzi Group, Diwan Saheb, Jade Blue and P N Rao. Their interpretations ranged from razor-sharp three-piece suits to whimsical bandhgalas, each ensemble cut from one of the twelve Vision fabrics, each a quiet marvel of craftsmanship.
And then came the finale—a gender-fluid sequinned masterpiece by Dhruv Kapoor. Navy, embroidered, corseted and gleaming under the lights, its sharply contoured blazer revealed just a whisper of skin, paired with wide-leg trousers that swayed with sculptural intent. It was audacious yet elegant, modern yet mythic. A look that didn’t just honour Dalí’s surrealism, but seduced it into the now.