Schiaparelli's Haute Couture Spring 2024 Collection

Reaching for the Stars

Elsa Schiaparelli, the renowned fashion designer, had many interests, including Greek mythology, ancient religious rites, psychic phenomena, and astrology. The latter has been an ongoing theme in the fashion house she founded. In Schiaparelli's latest haute couture show for spring 2024, creative director Daniel Roseberry drew inspiration from the stars to create a collection that is both otherworldly and luxurious.

The Petite Palais in Paris was the venue for the runway show, with a visual exploration of space that took center stage in the design. The dresses were sculpted and curved, creating angles that were intrinsically out of this world. The haute couture gowns were a perfect blend of old-world ideas and artifacts with modern-day technology. A motherboard-and-strasse microchip dress encrusted with pre-2007 technological artifacts, such as circuit boards and cell phones, was one of the most deliciously shocking gowns of the collection.

The designer has mastered the art of contradictions, as demonstrated in this collection. Heavy Western-style buckles were juxtaposed with patent sculpted materials, and excessive fringe swayed and rocked. Roseberry, with Texas roots, has created work that is firmly planted in the upper echelons of haute couture. The stunning craftsmanship of couture was evident in the funnel collars that laced up to the back of the neck like corsets, armor-like silver spines that stretched towards the audience, and layers upon layers of fringe.

The extraterrestrial textures in the collection may be a nod to Elsa Schiaparelli's uncle, Giovanni, who was a director at the Brera Observatory in Milan in the late 1800s and coined the term "Martians." The guests were even sent an invitation to the show that resembled Schiaparelli's version of The Golden Record, which was placed aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1977.

Despite the collection's avant-garde contradictions and space themes, Roseberry was inspired by art and nature. He believes that combining opposing ideas can create something unexpected and new. At the end of the show, the audience gave a rousing standing ovation, a rarity in the buttoned-up world of haute couture.