Schiaparelli has wowed us all again with their newest couture collection. Daniel Roseberry, Creative Director of the Italian-owned luxury house, discussed his plan on moving away from something streamlined and towards something more abstract, a look which he executed perfectly.
In this season’s show notes, Roseberry discussed his newest revelation “…I realized what I wanted to do: Create something that feels new because it’s old. I’m so tired of everyone constantly equating modernity with simplicity: Can’t the new also be worked, be baroque, be extravagant? Has our fixation on what looks or feels modern become a limitation? Has it cost us our imagination?”
Roseberry talks about how this concept, dubbed Icarus, was first inspired by color references and ribbons from 1920-30’s found in an antique shop in Lyon. “Icarus is about the promise of escape, which is what Haute Couture can offer the audience and the client. Stanley Kubrick once said something like: ‘Everyone thinks the lesson of Icarus is not to fly too close to the sun. What if the lesson is just to build better wings? There is no tragedy here, just better wings and better angels.”
Along with the ribbon colors, which he dubbed “toast” and “mink”, Roseberry also dug into haute couture silhouettes from the past inspired by designers like Madame Grès, Charles Frederick Worth, Paul Poiret, Yves Saint Laurent, and Azzedine Alaïa. Resulting in nearly every look being dressed in corsets that were modern but not minimalistic.
“The silhouettes you see in this collection nod to a wide range of references—obsessions—from the past century plus: the snaky, curvy forms from the 1920s and 1930s (what I call liquid deco) here finds shape in fragile silk georgette embroidered with Japanese bugle beads, which is then mounted onto French corset toile molded into shockingly sharp hip blades. We took severe-shouldered prewar Schiaparelli jackets and simplified and elongated them, pairing them with 1990s-style simple bias-cut floor-length column skirts in double satins.”
These innovative techniques throughout the garments were the biggest takeaway that I had. However, my absolute favorite looks would have to be Look 2, Look 3, Look 14, Look 15. The embellishments, the refinement, the drop waists, everything looks expensive and strategic, which is hard to pull off when working with unconventional materials like glycerin-soaked feathers and treated silk. While it was nearly impossible to narrow my preferred picks, something which is not like me at all, this collection was breathtakingly gorgeous and constructed as close to perfection as you can get. After viewing the show, all I can think of is how Roseberry is planning to top the next season.
Words by Jade Pettyjohn
Graphic by Pj Weinhold