It’s all about waists and mermaid hems as Schiaparelli kickstarts Paris Fashion Week 2025

And with each passing couture collection, creative director Daniel Roseberry is making sure that the French haute couture house’s sartorial legacy stays encrusted in otherworldly opulence. This year, opening the Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer showcase, Schiaparelli went down the Renaissance and colonial route when it came to the collection’s core aesthetic.

Textures reigned supreme, both standalone and in clash, beautifully balanced by soft, sun-kissed and moon-doused colour palettes. What was a near-constant through out the collection however, were tightly cinched waists, with most of them streaming down into statement, whimsical hems — the mermaid fit and flare being a clear recurring favourite.

Never really shying away from bringing worldly anatomy to the canvas, the size 0 honouring waists trailed down into artificially enhanced hip bones. Take Kendall Jenner’s motion-ridden satin and mesh gown, boned in nude to the Gods for instance. The icy blush blue in satin gathered in a layered hem, flitting with every movement. The hip bones jutting out were a sight to behold.

Think a svelte, bejeweled net maxi with a bush of Ostrich feathers commencing from the knees, complimented with an extravagant, matching throw. There really isn’t a maximalist detail to be honest, which Daniel hasn’t incorporated in this collection, dousing then down in soft nudes and pastels. Risque cuts, pearl embroidery, stretched satin, ruffles, layers visible to the naked eye and lots of fluid movement. One thing about this collection — extravagantly named Icarus, in a nod to how Gilded Age it is — is that there is never any dearth of fluidity in the pieces, each a different rhythm than the one following it. Daniel explains it better: “It’s the promise of escape — because he was looking to escape — and I just think that’s what couture can offer its audience and its clients: it’s the promise of just 15 minutes of a suspended reality”.

Both structured and fluid, Schiaparelli’s Icarus is sartorial poetry in motion.