Marco Zanini didn t hold back with his second Haute Couture collection for Schiaparelli. At the time, his January debut seemed plenty shocking; looking back, it was just a warm-up. "Last season I felt really the fright," he said. "I was so afraid about touching the legacy, because camp is a trap that is always around the corner with Schiaparelli. But I realized if I wanted to find the look, I cannot avoid going there, so why don t I go there full-on?"
Indeed, a floor-sweeping coral pink mohair coat with giant ES initials in royal blue on the chest and attention-grabbing, pronounced shoulders (a bold silhouette it shared with other outerwear in the collection) will read as too literal for some tastes, too steeped in the couturier s 1930s milieu. Schiaparelli, as it exists today, is not the house for those clients. There are others, though, who will thrill to the developments at this Diego Della Valle-owned label. Once upon a time those women might have shopped at Christian Lacroix. Eccentricity has gone mostly missing from couture since Lacroix shuttered his business. A shame. Shouldn t couture, most of all, be a stage for flamboyance and provocation? Zanini is convinced of it.
Thus you had today s animal prints: nesting pigeons whose eyes were embroidered in sequins on high-waisted trousers, poodles on a simple pleated skirt, and vibrant purple "Central Park" squirrels and rats on a 1930s gown—street creatures all, made fabulous despite their mundanity. And thus you had surreal moments like the bleeding heart picked out in Lesage embroidery on a black dress. Surrealism was off-limits for Zanini last season, so essential was it to Schiap s oeuvre. Call it a missed opportunity that he s now open to embrace. Shocking pink, also off the table in January, looked fairly glorious here on a silk velvet dress with three-dimensional flowers at the shoulder. Elsewhere, Elsa s beloved monkey fur was reproduced with a modern touch in glycerine-treated ostrich feathers on a chic bolero. Also great: another bolero in Christmas tree tinsel fringe. Nearly every look was accompanied by a Stephen Jones chapeau, from a Simone de Beauvoir hand-knit turban to a Lesage-embroidered children s party hat.
"Schiaparelli is so vivid as an image in your mind," Zanini said. "As a designer you really need to confront the dragon and go there." He shouldn t be afraid to push further next season.
