Schiaparelli’s "Matador Couture"

From July 5 to Thursday 8, Paris hosts the Haute Couture Fashion Week and, as always, among the most interesting proposals there's Schiaparelli. The new collection designed by Daniel Roseberry for the Maison of Place Vendôme is a tribute to the tradition of the brand, but also to the joy of making fashion by letting your imagination run free, a bit like when you are still a child. 

I hope this collection reminds everyone who encounters it of the sheer delight that fashion can bring us in hard times, and with it, the promise of more joy when the clouds part. Give me more fashion. Give me more hope.

Roseberry says, and among the inspirations he cites founder Elsa Schiaparelli, the colorism of Christian Lacroix, the art of Ingres and Manet, and the 1980s. The result, conceived as a tale in three parts, is a magniloquent, exaggerated and precious fashion that the designer himself defines as "vividly emotional, as dizzy as falling in love. A tribute to romanticism, to excess, to dreams". 

The first chapter of the collection is a matador-inspired take on the jackets created by Elsa Schiaparelli that acquire increasingly impressive silhouettes, with wide barrel sleeves and tapered busts, and are worn with wide tulle skirts. The jacket made with a patchwork of vintage fabrics from the archives and the denim one embellished with conical breasts in gold metal also stand out for their sculptural shape. The most evident reference? The model in black wool crepe studded with embroidery of shell-colored silk roses that recalls a masterpiece from the 1937 collaboration between Jean Cocteau and Elsa Schiaparelli. 

The second part is focused on jewels that are not just accessories, but, often embroidered on clothes, they become a sort of fetish, surrealist and ultra-chic extension of them. Noses, mouths with piercings, teeth covered with colored stones, breasts and sculpted abdominals blossom on the creations in gold or ceramic versions, giving an extreme but hyper-feminine look, absolutely perfect for a red carpet. Among bijoux details and minaudiere, the item that catches the most attention is definitely a lung-shaped necklace with capillaries dipped in gold that branch out like the roots of a precious tree and highlight the elegance of a simple black crepe dress.

The last section is dedicated to color. Black is broken up by giant salmon-colored silk faille roses, vibrant deep orange accents and vibrant cornflower blue, but also by a refined milk white and silver.