Schiaparelli creative director Daniel Roseberry is a master at creating viral red carpet moments: think Bella Hadid and her lung pendant at the Cannes Film Festival, or Beyoncé’s ruched leather Grammys dress with the gold fingernails.
His haute couture shows are no different. The grand entrances of Kylie Jenner and Doja Cat — the former in an animal-head gown, the latter dipped in red crystals — helped the brand win the attention sweepstakes last season, with its media impact value quadrupling to $44.5 million, ahead of Dior and Chanel, according to data firm Launchmetrics.
This time around, Cardi B — a longtime fan of the brand — caused a commotion by arriving at the Petit Palais swathed in a yeti jacket in black mohair fringes, her bosom spilling out of a black lace-up column dress.
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Roseberry sent out an even chubbier version on the runway: an ivory cocoon that he dubbed “the Fuzzy Wuzzy.” It was one of several monster coats in his fall collection, including a jacket made of bouncing fronds of black goat hair, and a huge puffer pieced together from 12,000 rectangles of leather hand-painted to look like oxidized mirrors.
“People are not coming here for something that feels real. This is about fantasy, this is about escapism, and as much as possible and as close as we can get, this is about truly fine art, in my mind,” the designer said during a preview.
![Cardi B](https://cdn.statically.io/img/wwd.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-wwd-2021/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif)
He drew on two main themes: the corset, a nod to the house’s Shocking fragrance bottle shaped like a dressmaker’s model; and artists, in homage to founder Elsa Schiaparelli’s friendships with the likes of Salvador Dalí, Man Ray and Jean Cocteau.
Roseberry worked an extreme hourglass figure with designs like a nude lace gown with a cutout corseted satin bustier that strangled the waist. Body-conscious looks contrasted with whorled sleeves, maxi collars and cascading trains.
Irina Shayk, in a revealing nude corset draped with a wisp of sheer black jersey, wore a sweeping shawl covered in black hydrangea petals. “We feed them sugar water while they’re at their peak and it preserves them like it would preserve a jam,” Roseberry said of the flowers.
It’s often said that couture is the laboratory of fashion, and few houses are as boldly experimental as Schiaparelli. “I just want people to be overwhelmed by the joy and the creativity coming from inside the house, and also the freedom and the risk-taking every season,” Roseberry said.
A model’s midriff was spray-painted Yves Klein blue, as a foil to a broken mirror cardigan and skirt inspired by Jack Whitten’s mosaic sculptures. The paint splatters on a duvet coat were modeled on the palette scrapings that caked the walls of Lucian Freud’s London studio. Was it clothing? Was it art? The distinction grew hazy.
Oscar Wilde once said: “One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” A quick glance at this front row left no doubt: the Schiaparelli client is all in, only too happy to let her clothes make a grand entrance.