At Schiaparelli, Hope With a Side of Feathers
Someone recently remarked to Daniel Roseberry, “People don’t buy Schiaparelli, they collect it.” That comment crystallizes the fashion fanaticism so many acolytes feel towards the house. And surely many collections will be enriched by the haute couture collection Roseberry, Schiaparelli’s artistic director, unveiled today in Paris.
His starting point was very close to home: house founder Elsa Schiaparelli and her ability to endlessly reinvent herself. Specifically, he looked to one of her most memorable looks: a feathered ensemble she wore in the early 1940s, in tribute to the late ballerina Anna Pavlova and her signature “dying swan” performance. That idea of a phoenix rising from the ashes resulted in the title of the collection, and several looks that mimicked the bird’s plumage.
Continuing with the avian theme, thank Capote’s swans (the FX version) or everyone’s collective Mad Men rewatch, but midcentury style has definitely made a dent in the fashion calendar. And Roseberry is not immune to the appeal of a generous ’40s shoulder or a bow-embellished ’50s gown. (Or to the appeal of a midcentury author: this season’s epigraph came from Ernest Hemingway.)
He even nodded to an archival piece from 1938 and the lines of vintage shoes, which found themselves repurposed on headpieces (a Schiap signature) and the necklines of gowns. But the Schiaparelli creative director put his own spin on the era for his fall/winter 2024 couture show today in Paris. Meaning, this definitely wasn’t your grandmother’s haute couture.
The house’s history of Surrealist touches, and Roseberry’s own penchant for the wonderfully weird, were very much on display here, whether that came in the form of gowns embellished with dinosaur-like spikes or the transparent crinoline veils covering the faces of some of the models.
And with front-row regular Doja Cat in attendance in another sure-to-go-viral look and Kylie Jenner sporting the crinoline face covering, this collection has already undergone its phoenix-like trial by fire on some of fashion week’s most directional dressers.
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