Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring 2025: Roseberry’s Icarus- Flight Toward the Sun
February 2, 2025
Haute Couture remains the highest echelon of fashion—an art form that transcends mere clothing, occupying the rarefied space between craft and museum-worthy artistry. It is a discipline governed by meticulous precision, a beacon for the evolution of fashion itself. Yet, as fashion undergoes its cyclical transformations, so too does the very definition of couture.
At the forefront of this new era stands a maison that does not merely adapt to the times but dictates them. Schiaparelli, under the visionary direction of Daniel Roseberry, has redefined the language of haute couture—not by adhering to its limitations, but by liberating it. Where others see restriction, Schiaparelli sees boundless possibility. Where couture has long been confined to an exclusivity, Roseberry wields it as a tool for pure creative expression, turning “what is not” into “what is.”
Crowned International Designer of the Year at the 2024 CFDA Awards, Roseberry has been called many things—"the sculptor of couture," "Schiaparelli’s Renaissance man," a designer who does not just push the boundaries of couture but shatters them entirely. Yet, within the storied walls of the Maison, he is simply family—a leader whose unwavering dedication and hyper-intentional approach continue to elevate couture to a place beyond imagination. He does not merely dream; he executes, working in symphony with his atelier to craft fantasies into reality.
This season, in his relentless pursuit of an unattainable yet irresistible ideal, Roseberry presents another collection of crafted dreams and aspirations. Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2025, aptly titled "Icarus," opened Paris Couture Week with a striking, almost mythical proclamation—another chapter in the Schiap by Daniel universe, another testament to fashion’s ability to defy gravity.
"Haute Couture aspires to reach great heights; it promises escape from our complicated reality. It also reminds us that perfection comes at a price. How high can we couturiers go? As high as the sun—and the Gods—allow us."
—Daniel Roseberry
Beyond the Seams: Precious Archives
Couture, at its core, is a dialogue between past and future, a reverence for history expressed through reinvention. For Spring-Summer 2025, Roseberry’s vision is imbued with the weight of time—his inspiration found in the most unexpected of places. The journey began in an antique shop, where he discovered an inventory of ribbons from the 1920s and 1930s, once woven in Lyon and shipped worldwide before being hidden away during World War II. These delicate fragments of history, remnants of a forgotten past, became the foundation of the collection’s color palette.
From butter yellows, saffrons, and faded peacock greens to the now-iconic hues dubbed "toast" and "mink," these ribbons carried more than color—they carried memory. Their presence within the collection was more than aesthetic; it was symbolic. This season was not merely an exercise in design—it was an excavation, an unearthing of forgotten elegance that Roseberry sought to reimagine.
Beyond these textile archives, the sculptural minimalism of Alberto Giacometti’s lamps provided another layer of influence. The result? A collection where the essence of time is woven into every detail, where silhouettes reference history yet feel distinctly futuristic.
Look 9: Safran satin neoprene opera coat with single-cut floral embroidery and glycerine-treated ostrich trim. Paired with sand double satin column skirt and mink ostrich feather bra. Ivory dotted canvas mules.
Modernity as Baroque and Extravagant
In an era where modernity is so often equated with restraint, Roseberry dares to ask: Can the new also be opulent? Can it be baroque, extravagant, unafraid?
Schiaparelli’s Spring-Summer 2025 silhouettes are an audacious rejection of minimalism’s constraints. Instead, the collection indulges in liquid deco drapery, razor-sharp corsetry, and exaggerated proportions—a study in contrasts that reflects both Roseberry’s technical mastery and his flair for theatricality.
Among the standout looks:
- Snaking, curvaceous silhouettes of the 1920s and 1930s reinterpreted in fragile silk georgette, embroidered with Japanese bugle beads, then mounted onto French corset toile molded into sharp, hip-blade structures.
- Pre-war Schiaparelli jackets, their severe shoulders elongated and simplified, paired unexpectedly with 1990s-style bias-cut floor-length column skirts in double satins.
- An A-line baby doll dress, inspired by the rigid silhouettes of 1950s haute couture, reimagined with padded hips that echo the bust line, executed in lustrous satin cuir—a fabric known as “leather satin.”
The detailing is as innovative as the silhouettes themselves. Feathers, bathed in glycerin and brushed with keratin, replicate the movement of Ginger Rogers’ 1930s-era costumes, which once relied on monkey fur for a similar effect. Meanwhile, house codes—Elsa Schiaparelli’s keyhole, the dove, and anatomical motifs—are embroidered in padded satin stitch and trembling smoked quartz bugles. This collection is not about simplicity; it is about storytelling. It is Haute Couture as myth-making, couture as an elevation of the human form into something almost divine.
Perfection in Couture
Every couture collection is a battle against gravity, against limitation, against time itself. In his show notes, Roseberry speaks of the quixotic struggle to reach ever greater heights of execution and vision—a challenge that couture houses face each season, yet one that Schiaparelli embraces as its raison d’être.
There is a duality embedded in the collection’s title, Icarus—both an homage to the limitless ambition of haute couture and a cautionary tale of how close one can fly to the sun before the wings begin to melt. But if couture is about reaching, about daring, then Roseberry has ensured that Schiaparelli soars. At Schiaparelli, perfection is not an endpoint—it is the pursuit itself.
Final Thoughts
Daniel Roseberry’s Schiaparelli is no longer just about reinterpreting Elsa’s legacy—it is about building one of his own. Spring-Summer 2025 is not merely a collection; it is a manifesto. It is couture that honors time yet transcends it. It is modernity, not as sterility, but as baroque extravagance. It is the past and the future, colliding with the kind of precision only haute couture can achieve. With Icarus, Roseberry does not just craft garments—he crafts legends that define history.
Photos: Courtesy of Schiaparelli
