Schiaparelli Haute Couture AW23
Daniel Roseberry shapes his new vision for autumn/winter. By THE FALL
A little drama is always advisable when it comes to couture. For Schiaparelli, it has always just been a prerequisite. And so it was for creative director Daniel Roseberry’s new AW23 haute couture collection recently unveiled in Paris. “A surrealist’s interpretation of a woman’s essential closet,” was how the designer himself put it. There was probably no better way to describe his new collection.
The drama to the looks came from the organic, sweeping lines to the silhouettes, the extravagantly bold shapes and the brave adventures into artistry. The black wool jacket with flared sleeves and featuring oversized asymmetric collars adorned with angular white inserts set the tone right from the outset. The corset canvas skirt fashioned into a lyrical, undulating wave that came with it underwrote that tone.
These exquisitely architectural underpinnings carried through to cream coats sculpted at the back to accommodate the bustle and cascading organza ruffles of the accompanying black skirts, the ultra-short bolero-style jackets teamed with belly-revealing velvet hoop min-skirts, and the wondrous ‘palm tree’ frames with leaves made of glossy black goat hair.
For other chapters of the narrative, it was the art in the designs that captured the attention. Stretched puzzle dresses crotched together from irregular hand-painted pieces resolved in a moment to a surrealist’s representation of a woman’s body. High waist, floor-length column skirts were embroidered all over with a glass tubes in vibrant, Dali-esque graduating colours. And iconic accessories like gold ‘leaf’ brooches inlaid with a moulded mouth pierced at the lip and wooden bead necklaces with clasped hands closures modelled on those of Schiaparelli’s muses led us further into those adventures.
Proportions were also some of the tools on hand used to emphasise the freedom of expression the collection was built on. Puffer coats were intricately crafted and all-encompassing, mohair coats were breath-takingly shaggy and voluminous, and oversized puffed skirts were awash with crushed ecru taffeta. Like everything else in the Schiaparelli Haute Couture AW23 collection, these were all designs for those destined to be seen, not merely noticed. As such, they’ll constitute the new creative ways of ‘bringing the drama’ this autumn.
For more information on the Schiaparelli Haute Couture AW23 collection, click here
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