Paris couture week kicked off this morning with Daniel Roseberry’s Schiaparelli Fall/Winter 2026 Haute Couture show. The bi-yearly occurrence pulls a devoted fashion audience and plenty of onlookers, who gather outside the show venue to witness their favorite celebrities arriving in Roseberry’s couture from season’s past. This season, celebrities like Hunter Schafer,Dua Lipa, and recurring friend of the house, Cardi B arrived in a custom couture look (Cardi immediately went viral for posing with a real raven perched in her hands).
Inside, the spectacle continued. Over the years, the word “spectacle” has received somewhat bad PR. There was a moment, back in 2022, where it felt like everything in fashion was done to garner some kind of viral reaction; the spectacle of designers attempting to one-up each other with show theatrics and ostentatious presentations began to come across as disingenuous and lackluster, especially when the collections suffered as a result of these over-the-top marketing techniques.
Schiaparelli
Schiaparelli
Daniel Roseberry is one designer who never played into this tactic, and yet each season, the craftsmanship upstages any trick he might have in his back pocket. The star of this season’s show was undoubtedly his dedication to truly impressive couture. Threading hyper-realist motifs with surrealist ideas, Roseberry’s vision this season steered from his exploration of technology into the realm of the body and the stuff we are made up of.
Schiaparelli
Schiaparelli
Silhouettes were softer, more intimate, in certain ways. There were suits of wool and silk with broad shoulders, nipped waists, and languid pants. Strapless dresses featured padded, exaggerated hips. Draped silk dresses flowed like water in red and black; one had a plunging open back with crystal hardware that mimicked the look of bones, another red draped chiffon and silk gown evoked drawings of exposed muscles, while another mimicked the imprint of a woman’s body through padded satin. As the model turned her back, what looked like a simple red crystal necklace at the front revealed an interpretation of Carlos Alemany and Salvador Dalí’s functional Royal Heart Brooch, at the nape, which beat on its own accord.
Schiaparelli
Schiaparelli
Elsewhere, old and new collide through black and silver bullfighting suits and a silver version of Elsa Schiaparelli’s sequin “Apollo of Versailles” cape, now lined with hair that was curled in ringlets. And then, an ‘80s-style silver leather suit with exaggerated shoulders—only the shoulders were mini saddles, which appeared later on, enlarged in silk, on the front of a black velvet dress. The ‘30s peeked through in the skirt suits, pillbox hats and all, and a silver partially-sheer evening gown, but the undercurrent of modernity carried through in every touchpoint. Where things started to feel a little too nostalgic, Roseberry would pull back with a sleek, sexy, modern evening gown.
Schiaparelli
Schiaparelli
This is one of the reasons Roseberry has been so successful as a designer. As much as he is someone who loves to dive into the surrealist ideas and references and motifs from Schiaparelli’s archive, his astute ability to hold their hand, confidently, and guide them into a contemporary framework is one that feels endlessly exciting.
