Schiaparelli’s Lobster Skirt Is a Real Fashion Delicacy
In the series “What I Loved Yesterday,” Harper’s Bazaar editors highlight one standout look from the previous day at Paris Fashion Week.
I love lobster but I don’t really like to look at it. Lobster rolls are great but seeing the crustacean swim around in tanks or dangle from my uncle’s hands before he drops them into a boiling pot of water makes me uncomfortable. I will still eat them, because I love luxury, but I want to at least feel good about it.
Yesterday, Daniel Roseberry practically put me face to face with my discomfort. And by that I mean, I couldn’t help but slam my face up against my computer screen to make sure I was seeing look 14 of his Spring 2024 collection correctly: a sharp white button down with too-long sleeves worn with a long white skirt whose ruching culminates around a large sculptural lobster; its claws pawing at the skirt’s waistline as if it was daring to pants the model.
Roseberry has avoided the lobster in his four years at the brand, claiming it was too obvious of a callback to Elsa Schiaparell’s work. Back in 1937, she worked with Salvador Dalí on a dress for Wallis Simpson with a large lobster painted on the skirt, placed low between the legs with its tail fawning upwards. It was one of 18 pieces designed by Schiaparelli for the occasion of Simpson’s wedding to the Duke de Windsor and the lobster’s placement caused an uproar, with many claiming the dress was charged with eroticism. And it was! Dali’s famous 1938 lobster telephone wasn’t formally titled “Le Téléphone Aphrodisiaque” for nothing.
While a lot of designers right now are pulling through the archives and making new work that feels repetitive, Roseberry’s use of the lobster didn’t feel tired because he still did it his way. He also did it more than once. Aside from the skirt, look 12 featured a gold lobster necklace, its claws flanking the model’s chest.
But it’s that white lobster skirt I can’t personally stop thinking about, despite my aversion to truly facing my favorite delicacy. It reminds me of why I and so many others love Schiaparelli right now. It’s freaky and weird and sexy and yes, delicious, in a way nothing else is. And while it feels like most fashion from this past fashion month has been described as “wearable,” Roseberry provides us an alternative. It’s clothing you want to wear but that’ll make you a little nervous and giddy before you step out the door.
Like Elsa’s, his creations are capable of causing an uproar (see last season’s lion’s head dresses) or making people uncomfortable. Maybe seeing one on somebody in the flesh might remind me of the screech of a lobster in a pot or the tingling of a claw unexpectedly pinching my toes at the beach. But at least it’ll make me—and everyone else who sees it feel something.
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