Schiaparelli Spring 2023 Couture Review
Great art can often frighten, confuse, offend–and even sometimes causes mass hysteria!–when it comes to the general public. It gets people talking. Makes them heated. Propels them to argue. But, maybe, and most of all, it causes people to question their own perspectives. Perhaps that was the point of Schiaparelli’s spring 2023 couture show.
Creative director Daniel Roseberry took guests to the Petite Palais in Paris and left them breathless, curious and some might even say, infatuated with the idea of a new kind of fantasy unfamiliar to the current landscape of fashion. Dante Alighieri’s Inferno granted the inspiration for the collection full of extreme hourglass silhouettes, textural details and the trio of fake taxidermy looks that set the internet ablaze. Shalom Harlow wore a white tiger dress, Naomi Campbell sported a black wolf coat, and Irina Shayk donned a lion head gown that matched Kylie Jenner’s look in the front row. These each represented the fiery imagery and allegories from Inferno. Leopard for lust, lion for pride and she-wolf for avarice.
There were gasps, gawks, laughs and whispers of whether or not the pieces were, in fact, real animals. They were not: they were actually sculpted from foam, resin, silk, wool and other materials. This, in turn, started discourse on the ethics of animal imagery in fashion in 2023 and what it all means. Some were quick to claim that these pieces glorified trophy hunting and taxidermy. But I ask you: who in the world is going to see a couture show and decide to poach animals as a direct result? Animals have naturally been inspirational to fashion since the dawn of time, and Elsa Schiaparelli herself used real fur often in her designs. But besides that–if you eat meat, wear leather, silk, wool or have pets from breeders–do you really have any right to cry for animal rights over a fake resin cat head on a gown? It’s also interesting that the uber popular cultural crossover of animals in entertainment–think Tiger King–didn’t hold enough weight to spur this level of discourse when it came out just a few years ago.
Beyond the animal attraction, the Schiaparelli Spring 2023 couture collection included precision tailoring that jolted all the senses. The feminine hourglass figure, and the power of woman, was at the center of it all. These shapes came in the form of a corset (shaped like Schiaparelli’s infamous Shocking perfume bottle), in an ecru silk satin quilted coat that looked like an incredible duvet from a fantasy land, and again, in the form of a striking pinstripe suit that had a Schiaparelli-does-Constructivism-feel. Fueled by “the torment that every artist or creative person experiences when we sit before the screen or the sketchpad or the dress form, when we have that moment in which we’re shaken by what we don’t know,” Roseberry mined his own mind for newness, and it worked. Schiaparelli’s Spring 2023 Couture collection felt inherently different than his past work, and he called it “an homage to doubt”.
Roseberry, a jewelry magpie by nature in past seasons, narrowed down the selection for this collection to the essentials with a more raw and real feel, but he also added a new motif. When Roseberry mentioned he wanted to step away from surrealism and all its connotations during his spring 2023 ready-to-wear show, it was a sign. Gone are the orb-like planets, anatomical fingers, toes and nipple and in its place, a new statuesque, triangular face with a raised nose and eyes as earrings. The same figure was gifted to guests in the form of the show’s invitation as heavy brass keepsake. But to be sure, surrealism still lives on in Schiaparelli, just in more subtle, subdued and intellectual form. It’s all about the trick of the eye, in the truest form. What was real and what was fake? The animal gowns looked like real taxidermy, but they also sort of recalled those 3D realistic animal backpacks from the early 2000s, in a much more highbrow way. That’s mind-bending in the best way.
There was a lot to see, sure, but it wasn’t a madcap, unhinged collection because the craft held it together and completely grounded the surprise of it all. As the lion, wolf and tiger floated by, it was impossible not to notice the sheer amount of joy and delight it brought to every face in the room. It’s one thing to have a viral moment at fashion week (and judging by Coperni’s success for spring 2023, it’s becoming the norm) but that’s just the thing: this collection isn’t solely memorable just for that moment. These pieces will likely live multiple lives, whether that be on the red carpet of upcoming award shows or housed in the archives of future museums. Roseberry’s work stands on its own and challenges the very concept of fashion itself right now. What’s wearable? What’s art? What is a garment? And most of all, what is even real? This we already know–but it’s thrilling to see beyond the realm of surface level surrealism and into new, uncharted territory that riffs on history, culture, politics and literature, and has everyone talking about a literal lost art–couture. Is there any other brand doing couture that could achieve such a thing in 2023?
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