This really is a delightful couture season, with a renewed emphasis on the haute. Daniel Roseberry presented one of his strongest Schiaparelli collections to date – peacock-y enough to dazzle without tipping into gimmickry. “The idea,” he said, “was to keep the rigor of the last few seasons but make it far more expressive.”

Among the beautiful creatures stalking his runway were “Isabella Blowfish“, a rigorously cut tailleur bristling with spiny spikes and named after the late couture collector Isabella Blow, and a pair of “Infanta Terribles“: one a bustier top, the other a fitted jacket, both adorned with almost menacing scorpion tails that curved outward and upward from the small of the back. “Alien” meets the Sistine Chapel? Hell yes.

There was something extraterrestrial and otherworldly about the collection, yet also animalistic in the most untamed sense. Roseberry pushed that energy into new realms with a wing sprouting from the back of a strapless black dress, and with claws erupting from the breasts and shoulder blades of feathered jackets. Yes, there were unmistakable echoes of Alexander McQueen – but Roseberry is an A-plus student of fashion history, and he understands Schiaparelli as the ultimate sanctuary for fashion obsessions and passions, a place where they can freely collide, mingle, and fuse.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram.

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe.