The Tamesis
High fashion is a surprisingly small club. With two new additions this week at Christian Dior and Chanel, Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry knows it’s his time to shine.
In search of inspiration, he traveled to Rome, where he saw the Sistine Chapel for the first time. “I was really shocked by the difference between the walls and the ceiling,” he said. “The walls were done 40 years ago by a group of artists. They were so static, controlled and rigorous, and then the ceiling was like a slow-motion, culminating thing for four years. I was very inspired by that launch.”
The Michelangelo of fashion? No, but with the cancellation of Giambattista Valli’s fashion show due to financial difficulties and the death of Giorgio Armani last September, Roseberry suddenly found herself, at the age of 40, an “old master” in the craft world.
He designed a dramatic collection that showcased not only Schiaparelli’s craftsmanship but also his own fierce imagination. “The idea,” he said, “was to keep the rigor of previous seasons but make it more expressive.” Beautiful creatures that graced his runway included the “Isabella Blowfish,” a rigorously tailored, spiky dress named after the late fashion collector Isabella Blow; and a pair of “Infanta” Terribles,” one a corset and the other a fitted jacket with an almost menacing scorpion’s tail curving upward from the back.
These are not woman flowers. Other couturiers could have their own styles; Rosebery preferred Fauna. Of course, Elsa Schiaparelli had her own gift for the animal kingdom. There was Wallis Simpson’s shocking sheer lobster dress, and the Met Costume Institute had a fur jacket with a cat-head hood. Rosebery took it into new territory: feathered wings sprouted from the back of a strapless black dress, and claws (or was it beaks?) sprouted from the chest and shoulder blades of a feathered jacket. His Schiaparelli have attracted such serious collectors for their singularity that the healthy soup of beauty and weirdness becomes even more irresistible.
Roseberry designed the Golden Globes costumes for Teyana Taylor, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for “Battle,” and who was in the audience this morning as a new Oscar nominee. Taylor is a typical Hiap client: a bold extrovert for whom dressing up is performance art. For example, she is wearing a replica of the priceless Crown Jewels that were stolen from the Louvre last year. Should she choose to attend the Academy Awards with Schiaparelli, a bustier gown silhouetted “to mimic a bird in flight” would have the winner’s name written all over it.
