By Jesse Scott
Invitations arrived in the form of gilded tentacles. The show was titled “Call of the Void.” And as Daniel Roseberry lured us into the depths of the ocean for Schiaparelli’s Haute Couture F/W 26-27 show, it was clear that his grip on the fashion world is, with good reason, stronger than ever. Roseberry has been fully unleashed these past few seasons, creating fantastical worlds that tackle ambitious philosophical themes, forcing us to re-examine what is possible in garment construction while remaining deeply rooted in the history of the Maison. After successive collections that took to the skies in birds-of-paradise splendor, Haute Couture F/W 26-27 dipped beneath the waves for a tour de force 30-look oeuvre that is one of Roseberry’s most creative yet.
Couture Week Opens in Dramatic Fashion
As is recent tradition, Schiaparelli opened the Haute Couture Week calendar. The show has been perennially seen as the most anticipated on the schedule since Roseberry took the helm some seven years ago, and as usual a who’s who of the fashion world was in attendance. Anna Wintour chatted with Bad Bunny, who was wearing a custom cream Schiaparelli suit that stands as one of the best men’s ensembles I’ve seen in the front row. Emma Louise Corrin arrived in an elaborately befeathered birds of paradise top that won my heart when it debuted last couture season. Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson looked elegant as always in a black dress featuring Roseberry’s emblematic gilded train. And Anok Joy, Amelia Gray, and Karlie Kloss were among those who walked.
The collection opened with two deceptively complex black looks that grounded it in timeless elegance and familiar Roseberry structures while belying the drama to come. Look 7 introduced high aquatic theater: a color-blocked black-and-white dress emblazoned with dozens of shimmering rosettes made from the most delicate seashells. Look 8 took us into the abyss, where a midnight corset with conical breasts shimmered with aquatic phosphorescence. Looks 9 and 10 then explored sea life in a way that felt alternately feminine and deadly. The gilded octopus motif that welcomed us to the show was referenced first on a semi-sheer dress covered in hundreds of hand-embroidered horsehair tentacles. Immediately after, it was alluded to on a ferocious latex number containing hand-molded tentacles that both snarled and winked at us in a spirited aquatic fantasy.
Schiaparelli Haute Couture FW26-27: Looks 7, 8, 9, 10. Courtesy of Schiaparelli.
Personal favorite looks included Look 18, highlighted by a pearl-encrusted rose silicon bustier, and Look 28, which featured a sculpted bustier painted in a delicate shade of milky blue. Such silicon bustiers were recurring motifs throughout the collection. This was a new frontier for Roseberry, who told guests that he has begun to “think beyond ‘noble’ materials, asking whether beauty resides in the material itself—or in the imagination capable of reinventing it.” Thus, he embraced the synthetic, from latex to silicon to, most impressively, literal balls of paint “baked then sculpted into silhouettes.” It’s a revolutionary approach that introduces elements of kink to his hallmark feminine elegance, speaking to the image of the contemporary woman who really can have it all. Yet it did not come at the expense of the delicate hand-craftsmanship best exemplified by the peacock-feather dresses from Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026.
Schiaparelli Haute Couture FW26-27: Looks 18, 28. Courtesy of Schiaparelli.
On Look 21, the undulating structure of a bustier was countered by a pair of delicate pants which contained some 11,000 pieces of embroidery taking 3,850 hours of work to complete. And on Look 20, 7,000 meters of horsehair were woven over 9,850 hours into the most astounding sartorial representation of a sea anemone that you will ever find. Roseberry embraces couture as the highest form of fantasy like no one else in the industry. Reminding guests of his philosophy that “couture’s greatest luxury isn’t its materiality but the hands that make it,” he exerted his imagination to push the boundaries of both form and the techniques used to create it. To Roseberry, “Elsa’s greatest legacy is not a vocabulary of symbols, but the belief that impossibility itself can become a creative method.” It’s a legacy that he has not only taken to heart but indeed expanded more than previously thought possible.
Schiaparelli Haute Couture FW26-27: Looks 21, 20. Courtesy of Schiaparelli.
Under the Sea for Must-Have Accessories
Roseberry set the bar inordinately high for accessories a few months ago when seemingly the entire fashion world became enamored with his literal “kitten heels” and “bird shoes.” He lived up to these expectations for Couture Fall/Winter 26/27 debuting a series of covetous bags alternately emblazoned with intricate pearls like in Look 17 or with sea anemone-inspired crinoline spikes concealing the iconic Schiaparelli keyhole in a cornucopia of color. Equally memorable was the bubble shoes, fitted with a silicon sleeve in a representation of those deep-sea creatures that seem almost extraterrestrial.
Schiaparelli Haute Couture FW26-27: Look 17. Courtesy of Schiaparelli.
The collection, presented under the towering frescoed ceilings of the Beaux-Arts Petit Palais, felt irresistibly joyful. Tangerine, saffron, lobster pink, pale mint, and violet blended in an uplifting ballet. Florals danced with coral on richly embroidered Looks 26 and 27, forming a veritable painter’s palette that recalled the pointillism of Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. These looks encapsulated Roseberry’s love affair with nature in all its forms, whether soaring above the clouds or 50,000 leagues under the sea.
Schiaparelli Haute Couture FW26-27: Looks 26, 27. Courtesy of Schiaparelli.
Roseberry Re-Invents Himself
Even with such success, Roseberry, like many of the industry’s greatest luminaries, treats reinvention as de rigueur. Describing the attempt to copy a winning formula as “possibility-denying” and “misery-making,” this season he allowed himself to “surrender to the void” and invited us to come along. The result: a blissful abyss born of unconditional creativity.