Inside the Schiaparelli Haute Couture AW25-26 Show: Back to the Future

The teaser shared on social media featured an animated, rhinestone-covered anatomical beating heart, off to a promising start. Modern Culture of Tomorrow takes a closer look at the Schiaparelli Haute Couture AW25-26 show…

It is said that Daniel Roseberry, creative director of Schiaparelli, is planning radical changes for the couture house. His latest collection feels like a farewell to the past. Elsa Schiaparelli always challenged and questioned what fashion could be. When does fashion become more than clothing and turn into art? This season looks back on Elsa’s escape from Paris to New York in 1940—during a time when elegance was peaking, and the modern era of war was beginning. A time when escapism and surrealism became essential for the survival of many minds.

Conceived in predominantly black and white hues, with only three out of thirty looks featuring a daring red, this collection steps outside the confines of trend colours. Its focus lies solely on concept and craftsmanship. “I wanted the collection to ask whether we can blur the line between past and future: if I deprived these pieces of color, or any notion of modernity, if I focused obsessively on the past, could I actually make a collection that looks as if it was born in the future?”, says Roseberry and continues: “If last season was about making something baroque look modern, this season is about inverting archives to make them look futuristic.”

Alongside this conceptual approach, the house also offers new interpretations of typically Schiaparelli silhouettes. Classic corsets are replaced by explorations of waist and hips using unexpected techniques. A run-of-the-mill polka-dot pattern is reimagined using thousands of hand-embroidered beads, rather than printed fabric. The back of one gown features the frontal figure of a woman’s body – an inversion that feels both surreal and anatomical. The entire show was conceived as a surrealist trompe-l’œil –an offering that reveals new details with every glance.

This collection references the maison’s undeniably chic and surrealist past while simultaneously tackling the challenge of taking something historical and reimagining it through the lens of the present – toward the future. Much like the rhinestone-covered, anatomically beating heart that teased the show’s arrival, this collection pulses with duality: past and future, reality and illusion, emotion and intellect – beating together in surreal harmony.

Image credit: Schiaparelli