IT IS hard to come to terms with the knowledge that Daniel Roseberry sits in front of his sketchbook with any doubts. The creative director of Schiaparelli, since his 2019 debut, has offered clients of the House along with the wider fashion community moments of intrinsically beautiful looks that have managed to cause gasps of admiration for the hidden craftsmen in the Parisian ateliers.
But, for the spring-summer 2023 haute couture collection, Roseberry confesses in his show notes that he, just like other creatives, had that moment of ‘what do I do next?’.
Finding a place of sanctuary in Dante Alighieri’s epic 1308 work, The Divine Comedy, Roseberry discovered an unusual comfort as he reflected on the piece with a discovery that in between the descriptions of hell and purgatory, it accumulates to an allegory of doubt.
Beyond its theatrics, he describes “it was how perfect a metaphor it provided for the torment that every artist or creative person experiences when we sit before the screen or the sketchpad or the dress form, when we have that moment in which we’re shaken by what we don’t know”.
Inspired by doubt – “the doubt of creation, and the doubt of intent” – the designer stood in the dark of the unknown and created a collection that swept across every corner of the internet causing a tsunami of memes, dividing audiences and for some, reignited once again the very magic that defines the precious nature of couture.
References lifted from the text found themselves immortalised into the show-stopping leopard, lion and she-wolf heads, respectively representing lust, pride and avarice. The faux-taxidermy creations were crafted by hand from predominately foam and resin, and finding themselves so life-like that questions arose as to their legitimacy – but after all its these moments that audiences can begin to distinguish the difference between ready-to-wear and couture.
The surrealism embedded into this collection was deliberate, purposely straying away from the signature gold bijoux and directing the clothes to Elsa Schiaparelli’s somewhat forgotten ability to blur the lines between real and fake. Still aligning with Dante’s text and his questioning of deceit, each one of the 32 looks was designed to play into this.
Shaping a bustier dress in black silk georgette to mirror the brand’s signature fragrance bottle is one subtle example of this, while a dramatic shell marquetry plastron is covered in mother of pearls and hand-molded leather ornaments echo the prestige of a sculpture rather than a dress.
“There is no ecstasy of creation without the torture of doubt” finishes Roseberry. Still baffled by the acceptance that someone that is close to being described as a genius would like us all have moments of doubt, this was undoubtedly another reappraisal of his vision. Far from the depths of any purgatory, Roseberry proved that he is on his ascent to heaven.
by Imogen ClarkÂ