The Call of the Void … That’s the title of Daniel Roseberry’s
Schiaparelli Couture show for next Fall/Winter. In his handwritten note, he explains what “went wrong” in creating this collection. That was to apply a tried-and-tested method, the path that brought him great success last season with The Agony and the Ecstasy. “Last show,” Roseberry says, “seemed like a turning point, a new benchmark.
I said to myself, ‘Here’s the model to follow: Step 1: Go on a journey. Get inspired. Step 2: Visit an iconic architectural site and have a transcendent experience (this season I went to Barcelona to see Gaudí’s works). Step 3: Come back inspired and go! It didn’t work that way. By trying to control the creative process and ignoring what the French call l’appel du vide—the call of the void—I suffocated not only myself, but also the work. I realized that formulas are the opposite of the magic of creation. Only when I let myself go into the void did I really begin to enjoy creating this collection.”
The result, once you’ve let yourself go? A highly successful “tentacular” show—as one might say, using the facile metaphor suggested by the eccentric octopus-like jewel on the invitation. Starting with the fourreaux floating like sea anemones, the trousers jingling with shells. Or the caged tops in gold mesh and pearls with a matching handbag, the dresses dotted with circular embroidery like suction cups, or the astonishing jellyfish dresses with luminescent embroidery like sea monsters from the Mariana Trench. Down the mirrored catwalk of the Petit Palais, like goddesses, the models wore Schiaparelli’s iconic rigid jackets, yet seemingly loose on the body, pleated drape tunics, or the much-photographed “octopus dresses” that opened into infinite offshoots of feather-light crinoline or pointed tentacles in black latex, blacker than squid ink. And perhaps it was the call of the great emptiness of the ocean depths that inspired the designer who, carried by unexpected currents, resurfaced with this highly acclaimed collection. There’s even an outfit consisting of a jacket and matching leggings covered in real flowers, fish scales, and ribbon flowers. Following the founding principle of the house, as affirmed by Schiaparelli herself, that the familiar must become strange, experimentation is launched into a range of materials never before seen in couture: in place of traditional silks, satins, and wools, imaginative creations composed of backlit plastic or leather shells, silicone body-con corsets, and paint drips transformed into sheets and sculpted into silhouettes. “Because,” Roseberry reminds us, “the true luxury of couture is not the material, but the hands that work it.”