Last season, the myth of Icarus inspired Daniel Roseberry to develop a couture collection. For the ready-to-wear line, the creative director found inspiration closer to home. He imagined how women dress for themselves rather than for others. Even though challenging, Roseberry took a leap of faith: he adopted a female gaze for Schiaparelli’s Fall/Winter 2025 collection. All imagery in this article: courtesy of Schiaparelli
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SCHIAPARELLI FALL/WINTER 2025
One thing Schiaparelli always does well is dressing the women of the moment. Enter Doechii, appearing on every front row and being the surprise act at the Louvre dinner’s spectacular after-party. The Schiaparelli women of the past, present, and future formed Daniel Roseberry’s primary source of inspiration for the season. “My observations reminded me that the women I know rarely, if ever, dress for men. When they dress up, it’s for other women, and women’s praise matters to them. Elsa, too, had little time for the male gaze: Yes, she collaborated with many male artists. But though her clothes may have been made with them, they weren’t meant to be looked at by them,” Daniel Roseberry explained about the Schiaparelli Fall/Winter 2025 collection. “How could I give them something that both riffs on masculine archetypes…while simultaneously allowing them to embrace the feminine divine? How could I give them something that would allow them to feel dominant when needed to be… without sacrificing their sense of tenderness?” he wondered.
Considering the house’s codes and signatures, it was one of his most daring collections. Silver buckled belts and leather pants that felt like chaps hinted at Roseberry’s origin. It was more than just a depiction of his roots, though. The influences, shapes, and silhouettes were about juxtapositions of submission and control, femininity and masculinity, and extravagance and rigor. Cowboy boots and buckle belts were more polished than their original versions. “What looks hard is soft, and vice-versa.” Once again, Roseberry played with trompe l’oeil mischief – something he’s proven to be a master in over the past seasons. What looks like a column skirt made from heavy jacquard is a light-as-air cut thread in pure ivory. Schiaparelli’s signature jewelry – which has been a collector’s item for years – has also become lighter.
But there’s more to the collection, Roseberry explains. “Meaning comes from recognizing what is still precious in life—the things and people that can’t be replicated. These are the things and people that have to be experienced physically and personally. I’ve spent the past few months speaking less and listening more. I wanted to make things that can inspire and never be replicated by fast fashion. The women in my life are lone stars—no one else like them, and there could never be. I hope they, and all women, feel the same about these clothes.”
Roseberry usually creates an image of women that’s equally beautiful and unattainable. Waist-cinching corsets that make the models look even tinier than they are a reference to times when the hobble skirt was a regular staple. It’s refreshing to witness the creative director interpret Elsa Schiaparelli’s designs modernly, still close to what she was about. It’s hopeful, and Roseberry knows. “We’re entering a second golden age of Schiaparelli,” he explained backstage. And if this is what the house’s rebirth looks like, it will be a promising age for both Schiaparelli and Roseberry.
