Surrealism at haute couture in Paris.
Fashion is obviously no stranger to scandal, but it’s fair to say that January 2023 haute couture Fashion Week had an unusually fiery start, designed perhaps to garner likes on social media.
“Memorable and controversial” is the key word in the vocabulary of Daniel Roseberry, fashion designer at Schiaparelli; His Spring/Summer 2023 Haute Couture collection caught everyone’s attention after sending foam animal heads to the catwalk in fake taxidermy.
A feat of virtuous skill in the tradition of Elsa’s propensity for indignation or a disturbing reference to hunting?
Interestingly, despite the intense work required by tailors, this season’s designers have also shown a strong focus on creating 3D clothes, creating looks that could be displayed and placed in a room, and not be treated exclusively as wearable art, but as real objects and fetishes that come out of the body, almost design objects.
Is it the body that wears the dress or the dress that wears the body?
Not only thinking of those three walking trophies by Roseberry, but of the clothes that come out of the body of Victor and Rolf’s models, of the red roses that form a real three-dimensional bouquet of the Valentino show, and of this strong air of Surrealism that has been emerging forcefully throughout fashion for some time.
