In a show titled “Back to the Future,” Schiaparelli’s past became a launchpad for Daniel Roseberry’s vision.
On July 7 inside the Petit Palais, Daniel Roseberry staged a Schiaparelli Couture 2025 show. The invitation (a gold seashell pendant) hinted at a time-travel theme he called “Back to the Future,” and the runway delivered on that proposition with sharply drawn contrasts.
Roseberry anchored the collection in Elsa Schiaparelli’s own crossroads moment. “In June of 1940, Elsa Schiaparelli left Paris, a city she loved and had grown to call home, and boarded a ship for New York,” the designer wrote in his notes. “She questioned and challenged what fashion was.” Those words opened a dialogue between crisis and creativity that felt familiar in 2025.
The lineup opened in monochrome: sculpted bustiers that recalled the saddle forms of Roseberry’s Texan childhood, dinner suits cropped at the knee, and jackets cut with the new “Elsa” shoulder. Surrealist trompe-l’œil remained the house’s language of choice, rendered with a lighter touch.
Volume replaced the corset. Waists and hips found definition through graduated peplums, while skirts unfolded in tiered ruffles rather than boning. Even the matador coats, encrusted with baroque pearls, metallic leopard spots, and black jet beads, carried an ease that let models stride instead of mince.
Early on came a black silk-tulle dress whose aerodynamic bustier, stitched with a tonal galuchat pattern and crowned by gathered-tulle conical pleats, set the pace, followed by an asymmetrical strapless column in feather-light black crepe; its architectural bustier swelled at bust and hips, and brass “potato” earrings completed the silhouette. Soon after, a bias-cut lamé-chiffon gown swept past, its hand-worked silver embroidery glinting around a sheer tulle cut-out that traced the body’s curve .
The show’s metallic mood deepened when a sleeveless dress shimmered in silver sequins, rhinestones and mirror cabochons fading to clear; a bell hat echoed the galuchat motif, while satin pumps ended in a tiny sculpted hand for a heel. Next, a silver patent-leather Perfecto, softened under tulle and bulked up with matador-style saddle shoulders, topped a white poplin shirt, black duchess-satin tie and torero pants; rhinestone-crusted brass hat-earrings and mesh-veiled satin gloves pushed the bravado further. Red broke through the monochrome in a neoprene bustier dress whose close fit and enamel-sealed galuchat embroidery suggested body armor in motion.
Craft took center stage again with a saddle-shaped bustier in stretch velvet, satin and lambskin above a matte-velvet pencil skirt; satin ankle-strap pumps repeated the hand-shaped heel. A white silk-organza cascade of endless ruffles edged in black frills followed like sea foam against volcanic rock. Then came a trompe-l’œil trick: molded pearl-gray satin breasts extended into transparent black organza brushed with velvet, anchored by a necklace strung with aged-silver shrimp charms.
The finale segment opened with a transparent black-tulle cape showing the Apollo de Versailles motif in silver pearls, sequins and rhinestones, its edges weighted by tonal horsehair and a matching tulle skirt below. Last, a slanted black-satin bustier spliced with sheer tulle bared the hips, framed by a three-tier constellation necklace of metal stars and rhinestones, and finished with long black velvet gloves.
“This collection is dedicated to that period, when life and art was on the precipice: to the sunset of elegance, and to the end of the world as we knew it,” Roseberry noted. He stripped away digital noise and focused on craft turning nostalgia into provocation.
