“When normal people think of couture garments — the extravagant custom designs using all but extinct techniques, materials, and craftsmanship — they probably dream of pieces made with luxurious silks, supple leathers, crystals, and tulle. Daniel Roseberry thinks of your old flip phone.
Roseberry, the creative director of French fashion house Schiaparelli, showed the brand’s 2024 couture show in Paris on Monday. Under Roseberry, Schiaparelli shows have become a buzzy event among fashion fans — not just for the A-list front row filled with celebrity clients but also for the unforgettable wearable sculptures that are reposted endlessly in each show’s wake. (Even those less tapped into high fashion might recognize last year’s lion dress or Lady Gaga’s Hunger Games-esque ensemble worn to President Joe Biden’s inauguration.)
This season’s standout pieces from the Schiaparelli show are as symbolic as they are visually captivating: a life-size robot baby doll and a short cocktail dress, both completely covered in tech waste. Old phones, calculators, wires, motherboards, and CDs are used as embellishments the way sequins or beads might adorn a less ambitious garment. Roseberry said the toddler was a reference to the Alien movies and told WWD that he mined his memories for inspiration in an age of AI-generated remixing of his collections.“