Schiaparelli’s First Ready-To-Wear Runway Show For A/W´23

Daniel Roseberry brought his signature flair to RTW for the first time for AW23; Anders Christian Madsen reviews the latest Schiaparelli proposition.

It was a full wardrobe

In his self-penned show notes, Daniel Roseberry gave a candid and very market-focused account of the intentions behind his first RTW runway show for Schiaparelli. Calling it a “long-planned and critical step in our ongoing revival of Elsa’s house”, he wrote: “Our mission this season was straightforward – to present an entire wardrobe, complete with everything from crisp white poplin shirts to short velvet cocktail dresses, and to infuse these classics with Schiaparelli’s trademark wit, irreverence, and drama.”

It took place in Schiaparelli’s own building

In an intimate staging in Schiaparelli’s salons on Place Vendôme – with Sade’s greatest hits on the sound system and Jared Leto in black Batman make-up in the audience – Roseberry presented his commercially viable adaption of the haute couture shows that have become Instagram gold over the last year, and catnip for a new coterie of clients who also indulge in a bit of off-the-rails fashion. “‘Quiet’ doesn’t work for our women. What they want instead are the pieces that already have become indelibly associated with the house,” he said.

It evoked the couture offering but with sportswear

Fulfilling the wishes of his clients, Roseberry presented a collection of super-sculptural coats and suits embellished with gilded hardware, moulded leather belts and cuffs, gold-buttoned denim suits, shearling outerwear with shaved-in face motifs, and similar wool manifestations with imagery achieved through stencilling. If those elements evoked his haute couture, puffer coats and jackets added a sportswear proposal to the Schiaparelli repertoire that felt decidedly St Moritz.

Roseberry debuted a new bag

Because much of Roseberry’s work for Schiaparelli is defined by surface decoration and three-dimensional elements – we all remember Kylie Jenner’s faux taxidermy lion head from January’s haute couture show – he amplified his accessory offerings. A new bag, the Schiap, adapted the house’s Shocking flacon and came with hardware coated in a 24ct gold finish. Golden-toed shoes and boots featured throughout the show, which could create a Tabi-like phenomenon for the house, if they take off.

It was pro-code and anti-logo

Throughout the show, Roseberry speckled his creations with the signature emblems of Schiaparelli: the keyhole, the measuring tape, the anatomy. “One of the challenges of making clothes now, in an age of rampant branding, is honouring Elsa’s codes while, at the same time, not reducing them to logos,” he said. In a logo-manic world, branding through symbols rather than monograms is an interesting experiment, and something Schiaparelli’s celebrity-driven profile might facilitate.