Power (Dressing) to the People
Review of Schiaparelli Fall 2024 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
THE THEME
The ready-to-wear line is possibly the only avenue of access that many will hope to have, in order to own a small piece of the mystique that is Daniel Roseberry’s Schiaparelli. With his much-publicised adventures in the world of couture – from Kylie Jenner draped in a taxidermy Lion’s head to robot baby’s – you could almost forget that his mainline collections are equally as extravagant.
Power dressing, because when is the Schiaparelli woman not in her full feminine power when wearing the label, was the order of the day as the opening suits with their sharp shoulders and fully pleated tapered pants had the models exude a business-first attitude in their confident strides.
Channelling the 1980s with all of its broad-shouldered brashness, the sublime styling of today’s show was made to ramp-up the silhouettes. Quilted puffers were chopped in half to emphasize their volume and a tan croc set (of which we can only hope is mock croc, as you wouldn’t stand a chance meeting the animal that coat and boot co-ord were derived from in the wild) was given a trapeze shape. In their runway combinations they speak volumes to former ‘Working Girls’ everywhere (think more Sigourney Weaver in the hit eighties film of the same name, rather than Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman), but when separated from the whole and dressed up or down you can start to picture how the collection will fit into the season-long narrative of getting dressed for the everyday.
The brands armour-like shapes – breastplates and stiff fabrics which almost act like a cage over the body – were softened when inlaid in coloured fur or lined in cosy shearling, with the theme continuing into a section of Grecian draping, with curves folding back up into the hem of strapless dresses or overlaid asymmetrically on a knitted jersey dress, offering a way to balance daily daring with soft structure.
THE BUZZWORDS
Power-up, softly structured, oversized animal
THE SHOWSTOPPER
Look # 37
With capes having a true moment as silhouette of the season, at Schiaparelli Daniel Roseberry deconstructs the shape to act as a suggestive cover-up, protecting the modesty of the wearers chest while offering a sliver of skin highlighted by his signature gold hardware.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
Despite this being ready-to-wear there is no dialling down on the drama for Roseberry, as he took the idea of the suit as a vessel of power and added another set of silhouettes to his collection of lifestyle-driven silhouettes. And in only his third ready-to-wear runway outing the creative director is showing a keen sense of how to translate the house’s more outlandish codes into an everyday vernacular.
