The crowd lining both sides of the narrow pathway into Schiaparelli’s Place Vendôme venue was hundreds of people deep. The irony is not that there were no celebrities at Daniel Roseberry’s show (there were, but they were minor ones): the collection was conceived and developed intentionally without them in mind.
“For the past few years the word visibility has come up,” Roseberry said at a preview in the Schiaparelli salons. His runway coups and front row gets have made the brand as visible as its significantly larger and better known competitors. But having done so, he’s moving on to another goal: “It’s more about adding a layer of legitimacy to the way people think about the house,” he said. “So that when you think of Schiaparelli you don’t just think of celebrities, you don’t just think of couture. You also think of everyday pieces that you could be wearing right now.”
Last season, Shalom Harlow opened in a minidress with shoulders out to there and a snatched waist. Tonight Mona Tougaard sported a tweedy mannish suit sans shirt and bra, the pants high-waisted and full through the legs. The tailoring felt new—more relaxed in cut and attitude—and so did the styling, which juxtaposed unlikely pieces. A corset, for example, was matched with ultra-oversized pants held up on the hips with a bandana tying the belt loops together.
Roseberry said he took cues from the things the women in his life want to be wearing. Top of the list is statement outerwear, from a navy peacoat, its buttons spelling out the brand name, to a puffer jacket quilted with six pack abs and featuring brass nipple buttons. “What they want from us is still this humor, this creativity, but made effortless,” he said.
Hence the stretch jersey dresses with the trompe l’oeil leotard, a nod to Geoffrey Beene, said Roseberry, and the hourglassly beaded evening equivalent. Another trick was to let a lot of the accessories do the work. High-top sneakers had the molded toes of previous seasons, and heels were shaped like S’s and picked out in rhinestones. “I think people only get a sense of the extraordinary with us and I want them to know that there’s a true reality,” said Roseberry.
