Schiaparelli’s Celestial Fusion: Legacy, Avant-Garde, and Martian Inspirations for Haute Couture Spring 2024

On January 22, the Paris Haute Couture Week Spring/Summer 2024 began with a runway show by Schiaparelli.

The Schiaparelli show venue inside Petit Palais was graced with a front row of gorgeous celebrities including Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, and Jennifer Lopez.

Daniel Roseberry’s surrealist collections have always been quirky, strange, and shocking to audiences, but this Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2024 collection added new elements such as “space,” “Y2K technology,” and “western.”

The brand’s founder, Elsa Schiaparelli, used to incorporate the grand theme of “the universe” into her aesthetic, as well as surrealism. This was influenced by her uncle Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer famous for his research on Mars. With this history of the Maison in mind, Roseberry developed the brand into a progressive beauty while showing deep respect for the tradition created by Elsa Schiaparelli.

For example, a light-colored jacket was covered with braided protrusions on the shoulders, arms, and back, giving it the silhouette of an unidentified creature lurking in space, or a robot soldier from the Ghibli movie “Castle in the Sky.” Likewise, the pants as a whole were also covered with this three-dimensional braided detail, creating a truly original worldview.

In another look that added “technology” to the elements, model Maggie Maurer appeared in a white tank top and cream low-rise cargo pants, holding a baby-like AI robot. Evening gowns were featuring a collage of Y2K technology, including Swarovski crystals, circuit boards, cell phones, and calculators.

Roseberry calls the dress “a motherboard-and-strasse microchip dress encrusted with pre-2007 technological artifacts — now, the technology I grew up with is so antiquated that it’s almost as difficult to source as certain vintage fabrics and embellishments.” The show notes suggested that these were linked to the Maison’s longing for space and the possibilities of what could be found there, and to its founder Elsa’s record of mixing contradictory elements to create something new.

Roseberry’s roots are in Texas in the U.S., and he also incorporated “Western” elements reminiscent of his hometown. The sturdy and strong silver belt buckle, reminding one of a cowboy, along with the boldly curved patent leather top, exudes a dignity that is unique to haute couture. The funnel collar was also woven up to the back of the neck like a corset, and the cream-colored shirt with long fringes and Western-style embroidery that swung wildly as the wearer walked further added to the American Western atmosphere.

Other looks also expressed an unexpected novelty, sprinkled throughout with avant-garde evocations of the stars, universe, and paradox of things.

Simultaneously, the elegance rooted in the upper echelons of haute couture is beautifully harmonized within this sharp and outlandish world, which is perhaps the beauty of Roseberry’s creations.

See all looks from the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2024 collection in the gallery below.