08-07-2025
Schiaparelli Fall 2025 Couture: Back to the Future
Daniel Roseberry is no stranger to a gear shift. At a time of seismic evolution in the luxury sector, the Schiaparelli designer sent out his most futuristic collection to date — the prelude, he said, to a reset of his creative process amid a flurry of designer changes that promises to reconfigure the competitive landscape next season.
It started — as most Schiaparelli couture shows do — with a viral moment. Cardi B, dressed in a black bustier dress with a dramatic raised neckline dripping curtains of fringe, stood in front of the gilded gates of the Petit Palais holding a live black raven. 'I'm not scared of the bird,' she told WWD. 'I control him. We're best friends.'
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Still, the image was strikingly on-point. Was the Gothic bird a harbinger of doom, or simply a reflection of ambient angst?
As it happened, Roseberry's fall collection harked back to another chaotic moment in time: the inter-war period when founder Elsa Schiaparelli revolutionized the language of fashion with her Surrealist designs, often created in collaboration with artist friends like Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí.
Roseberry pulled black-and-white photographs from the archives and transcribed them into an edgy collection where color was stripped away in favor of metallic surface effects. 'There's something about that era that felt mournful and also turbocharged at the same time,' he said backstage after the show, which he titled 'Back to the Future.'
Silver sequins glistened on a black jacket with ramrod-straight shoulders and slim leg-of-mutton sleeves, and exploded across a transparent black tulle reproduction of the 'Apollo of Versailles' cape designed in 1938 for U.S. actress and interior designer Elsie de Wolfe — one of the highlights of the brand's museum retrospective in Paris in 2022.
While hourglass constructions stuck to the designer's body-conscious playbook, for every bulging hip pad there was a slinky bias-cut gown sliced away to reveal acres of flesh — none more so than a black satin fishtail gown scooped low in the back to reveal a rhinestone-encrusted thong, evoking Tom Ford's famous Gucci G-string.
Roseberry leaned into fetish glamour with a black saddle dominatrix bustier, and molded breasts with erect nipples. They appeared on a pearl gray satin body plate with black harness trim and protruded from the back of a red satin corset-laced gown, accessorized with a mechanically pulsating rhinestone necklace shaped like a human heart.
With her sleek bun, glossy black lips and silver spike heels, Anasofia Negrutsa, dressed in a silver biker jacket with matador epaulets, appeared like a cross between sci-fi classics 'Blade Runner' and 'Metropolis.' Roseberry said the collection was inspired by a world, and an industry, on the precipice — both then and now.
'I wanted it to feel like a bit of a farewell. We're gonna be restructuring everything after this,' he said. 'I think if you want to change the result, you have to change the process, and I just want to keep pushing forward.'
Having dominated the post-pandemic couture scene with his sculptural creations and mastery of red carpet moments, Roseberry is wise to position himself for next season's great reset, when Jonathan Anderson at Dior, Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and Pierpaolo Piccioli at Balenciaga will all make their couture debuts. Call it surreal fashion for surreal times.
Launch Gallery: Schiaparelli Fall 2025 Couture
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