Daniel Roseberry Honors the Power of Transformation for Schiaparelli Haute Couture Fall 2024

Ana Colón

June 24, 2024 at 12:53 p.m.·5 min read

It just feels right to kick off Haute Couture Fashion Week with Daniel Roseberry's latest for Schiaparelli.

The Fall 2024 Haute Couture collection is titled "The Phoenix," in honor of Elsa Schiaparelli, whom the brand likens to the mythical bird in her ability to constantly transform herself and her work. The same could be said of Roseberry, whose imagination seems to know no bounds: Each season, whether dealing in ready-to-wear or haute couture, the American designer has managed to earnestly surprise fashion enthusiasts (no easy feat) with his ability to explore themes, from the oft-cited and the mundane to the fantastical, through the highest degree of craft — all while maintaining a sense of continuity through his work, all of which feels distinct and identifiable as a product of Roseberry.

In the show notes, he writes: "I was told recently that, 'People don't buy Schiaparelli, they collect it.' That kind of devotion is inspired only by a unique relationship between client and creation." That could boost anyone's ego to an uncontainable degree — but Roseberry sees it as an immense privilege and responsibility, a testament to the power and importance of haute couture as the freest form of expression in fashion. It's "a way for me to honor that relationship, one of the most intimate ones in the world," he continued, "the one in which I give women the power to be reborn, again and again and again."

The "phoenix" concept can also be applied to the reimagined Elsa looks seen in this collection. Roseberry's a student of the archives — and Schiaparelli has one of the most studied and most influential — and will often weave in references to the house's past and its founder, which eagle-eyed commentators are quick and enthusiastic to side-by-side. (For Fall 2024, for example, there's a "shoe corset," calling back to Elsa's collaboration with Salvador Dalí, and embroidery on a top that borrows from the "Apollo of Versailles" cape featured in the 1938 Zodiac collection.)

What the brand does superbly, too, is create that world through its runways: The models take their time, their hips punctuating each step and their expressions unreadable save for a sense of confidence. So much of the magic of these garments come through movement; you can look at a still image and be wowed, but watch a video of, say, the "mille-feuille of moving circles" in motion, and it's spellbinding.

At Roseberry's Schiaparelli, the lines are sharp, but the curves of the body are respected and accentuated, with almost a reverence to the female form. The looks are serious Fashion, but exhibit a touch of humor — through an exaggerated shape (the high shoulders are described as "phoenix wings" this season), a cheeky accessory (see: the egg jewelry), an unconventional color, a surprising texture.

"Each piece is clear in its silhouette and its technique: you can see every look's origins, how each moved from sketch to study to fabric," he explained in the show notes. At the same time, each design is "meant to elicit some type of emotion, albeit — to paraphrase Hemingway — an emotion that is deeply controlled," he continued. "Each gown, each bustier, each shoe, every piece of folded velvet feather, or triple organza spike, seeks to catch the eye and hold it. The larger design, too, is meant to arrest but also to some extent mystify, to keep its secrets."

The result is undoubtedly elegant and technically impressive, but also carries an undertone of weirdness (surely something he learned from former boss Thom Browne, whose perfected that art form). And it's set a high standard for haute couture as a whole.

See the full Schiaparelli Fall 2024 Haute Couture collection, below.