Waiting with bated breath for the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s forthcoming Costume Institute exhibition, Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations? Allow us to whet your appetite with a sneak peek at the show’s catalogue.

The exhibition appears to be divided into sections:    Waist Up/Waist Down, Ugly Chic, Naïf Chic, The Classical Body, The Exotic Body, and the Surreal Body, which each feature pieces by both designers.

The above images—a Cecil Beaton photograph of Wallis Simpson in Elsa Schiaparelli, taken for Vogue in 1937, and a David Sims photograph ofPrada’s Spring 2011 collection—are a part of the Waist Up/Waist Down section.

The catalogue also offers images of Diana Vreeland and Schiaparelli herself by the likes of Man Ray, André Durst, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, and Horst—which makes the book just as covetable as a ticket to the exhibition. Start lining up now!

Photos courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Miuccia Prada, left, and Elsa Schiaparelli, right.

-Jae Joseph, contributor