Paris Haute Couture Week started off with a bang this Monday with the Schiaparelli show in the Petit Palais. Headed by Daniel Roseberry, the collection was inspired by Dante’s Inferno and the nine circles of hell, with three looks per circle. The show opened with elegant black and white ensembles then progressed into gold, bronze, and emerald green accents. Recurring elements of the collection were intense hourglass silhouettes, gold-painted faces, and eccentric breastplates, but some of the dresses took Inferno a little more literally. One of my favorite looks from the show was a beautiful champagne-draped skirt accompanied with an oversized pastron covered in vintage mother-of-pearl crystals. This dress’s crafting was beautiful and highlighted Roseberry’s attention to detail. The leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf are all beasts Dante encounters in his story. Roseberry created dresses fitted with life-size heads of the same animals. These hyper-realistic heads were fake and constructed of foam resin and faux silk fur, a fact that Schiaparelli undoubtedly assured at every opportunity.
To no one’s surprise, the designs that are generating the most buzz are the heads. In a social climate that is sensitive and environmentally forward, dresses that seem embellished with taxidermied animal heads are sure to be controversial. Many people say these dresses glorify trophy hunting, while the opposers say Roseberry’s work is meticulous and beautiful. While these heads do show immense talent and artistic capability, my opinions are mixed. I enjoy the leopard dress, as it feels elegant and tasteful. Using faux snow leopard fur made the dress feel feminine, and the head seemed growling, adding intrigue. The wolf dress is inconspicuous, or at least as inconspicuous as you can get when sewing an animal head onto a dress. I enjoyed the silhouette and the masculinity of the design.
Interestingly, Roseberry chose to put the wolf’s head on the coat’s lapel in such a passive position, perhaps offering some distinction from the other two. While I liked the first two, I’m not a fan of the lion dress. The dress the lion head is mounted on is a black velvet gown; it is simply boring to me. The size of the head feels like an eye sore, and it is stuck to the gown in an untasteful way.
Kylie Jenner showed up to the runway wearing an altered version of Schiaparelli’s lion dress. With Jenner as one of the biggest names in fashion, and the lion looking all too close to taxidermy, controversial comments began rolling in before models even began to walk. Before anyone could recover from seeing Kylie Jenner petting the lion head on her bust, Doja Cat arrived covered head to toe in 30,000 blood-red Swarovski crystals looking like the devil herself. These two stars adorned in very surreal and eccentric Schiaparelli dresses were sure to turn heads and garner media attention. It was an odd choice to put Kylie Jenner in a dress that was sure to cause controversy since her fame is controversial itself. If a different celebrity, perhaps a more discreet one, showed up to the Schiaparelli show wearing the lion dress, there would probably be less attention. Memes, tweets, and posts about Schiaparelli’s designs circled the internet from the moment they both stepped onto the runway, giving the Haute Couture house considerable attention. It makes me think these dresses were made to go viral.
This collection begs the question, “Why?”. Why did Roseberry choose to create such a predictably controversial line? In the show notes, Roseberry wrote that Dante’s Inferno was a perfect metaphor for “the torment that every artist or creative person experiences” and that the collection was an homage to doubt. Elsa Schiaparelli took risks in her time as a designer, and I believe these designs were Roseberry’s risks. The backlash Schiaparelli is facing is a perfect illustration of the criticism artists face when thinking outside of the box and creating the uncomfortable. Even though some of the designs are shocking and maybe a little ugly but, they are new. I have to applaud Roseberry for taking the risk and creating designs that were unfamiliar to him.
Words by Alix Russell-Mann.
Graphic by Eve Friday.