Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring Summer 2022
PARIS, FRANCE – JANUARY 24: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY – For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) Anita Pozzo walks the runway during the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 24, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Peter White/Getty Images)

All eyes were already on the French fashion house Schiaparelli by the time Daniel Roseberry showed his spring 2022 haute couture offering in Paris overnight. Julia Fox—girlfriend of Kanye West and current fashion world obsession—wore the brand’s spring summer ’22 denim cone bra and matching ‘derriere’ earrings to attend the Kenzo show the day befor, causing a proverbial internet breakdown in the process. If all press is good press, Schiaparelli has had a week of very good press.

As for the new collection, Ye and Fox were, inevitably, perched front row in matching black look by the brand. They were joined by the who’s who of the fashion world, all of whom have fallen for the charms of Roseberry’s vision for the French maison. Since his appointment in 2019, Roseberry has gleefully experimented with the surrealist sensibility that the brand’s namesake spearheaded in the mid-20th century (Elsa Schiaparelli is best known for her ‘lobster dress’ and collaborated with Salvador Dali). Recent hits by Roseberry include the cartoonish emerald green ‘breast plate’ Kim Kardashian wore to Christmas in 2020, and the voluminous, Hunger Games-style gown Lady Gaga wore when she sang at Joe Biden’s inauguration last January. Roseberry’s designs are self-referential and often tongue-in-cheek, but are also impeccably crafted and riddled with nods to the history of fashion, art, and culture.

Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring Summer 2022
PARIS, FRANCE – JANUARY 24: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY – For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) Maty Fall walks the runway during the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 24, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Peter White/Getty Images)

As for the spring couture offering, it was among Roseberry’s strongest collections to date. Debuted at the Petit Palais, an art museum in the 8th arrondissement, the collection was heavily inspired by sci-fi and space travel, Roseberry having binged on classic movies like Arrival, Interstellar, and the 2021 hit Dune, during Paris’ Omicron-riddled winter. A metal bustier was furnished with large planetary-style rings, hand-embroidered headpieces were made to look like an exploding sun (very on brand for a year which predicted a once-in-a-generation solar flare), and sculptural gowns looked as if they were made with the royal families of some interplanetary dynasty (did I mentioned Roseberry had recently watched Dune?) in mind.

Roseberry certainly does seem uniquely placed to explore our current era, which is nothing if not entirely surreal. “What does fashion mean, what does fashion have to say, in an era in which everything is in flux?” he asked in the collection notes. “What does surrealism mean when reality itself has been redefined?” When scrolling through Twitter or Apple News the answer to that question often feels bleak and joyless, but recast under the optimistic eye of Daniel Roseberry one can’t help but feel a little hopeful. The collection took elements of the outrageous and the avant-garde and grounded them in reality. The sci-fi elements worked because they were embellishing a perfectly-cut black trouser, a sharply tailored blazer, or a sigh-inducing black column dress. Roseberry knows, like the great courtiers before him (one couldn’t watch the collection without thinking about the late, great Thierry Mugler), that out-of-this-world fashion is great, but only if one loves the real world with just as much vigour.

Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring Summer 2022
PARIS, FRANCE – JANUARY 24: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY – For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) Mariacarla Boscono walks the runway during the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 24, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Peter White/Getty Images)
Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring Summer 2022
PARIS, FRANCE – JANUARY 24: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY – For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) Vilma Sjöberg walks the runway during the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 24, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Peter White/Getty Images)