Since taking over as creative director of Schiaparelli in 2019, Daniel Roseberry has won hearts with his spectacular haute couture collections and viral red carpet moments. Now he hopes to conquer wallets with the brand’s rapidly expanding range of ready-to-wear and accessories.
The designer brought a fresh ease to his spring collection, with travel essentials including knit dresses in primary colors and metallic finishes, hourglass tailoring in animal prints and trompe-l’oeil denim, and stretch corsets with everything.
“We’ve really experimented in the ready-to-wear on how to translate a couture sensibility in a way that feels comfortable and easy,” Roseberry said in a preview.
Long operating exclusively out of its historic salon on Place Vendôme, the brand owned by Italian entrepreneur Diego Della Valle is growing its retail footprint. In June, it opened a temporary store in Monaco, and a pop-up in Shanghai is set to follow next month.
Roseberry said the Monaco boutique performed beyond expectations. More locations are in the pipeline, in addition to planned extensions of Schiaparelli’s shops-in-shop at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City and Harrods in London.
The house is a niche player targeting a top-tier clientele, at a time when aspirational consumers are deserting global luxury brands in droves. “I feel like this is an amazing time to be small and growing, as opposed to huge and shrinking,” Roseberry said.
With its Surrealist signatures and gold hardware, Schiaparelli trades on a distinctive aesthetic that sets it apart from its peers. Roseberry calls it loud luxury. “I love that we’re making things that, I hope, bring a lot of joy to our clients,” he said.
This season, the lineup included tongue-in-cheek takes on menswear staples, like a corseted white tank top worn with swooping low-rise jeans, or a snatched white button-down shirt. More casual pieces included striped knits with a trompe-l’oeil sarong print that nodded to founder Elsa Schiaparelli’s original bow sweater.
Roseberry touted new shoe styles, including ballet flats with signature molded toe details. He also presented the brand’s first soft handbag, the Hobo, a squishy round shoulder style with gold anatomy charms forming a face on the handle.
A large crowd gathered outside the venue, directly across the square from Schiaparelli headquarters, to watch the arrival of guests, including Kylie Jenner.
The show featured a buzzy cast, with Adriana Lima returning to the runway for the first time in six years to walk alongside fellow Victoria’s Secret models Kendall Jenner, Irina Shayk and Candice Swanepoel.
But the location served neither these world-renowned beauties nor the collection, which was crying out for daylight exposure. A stuffy black box with hideous lighting, the Pavillon Vendôme offers few good vantage points for filming, meaning it’s also a missed opportunity for social media content.
Having presented his couture in the spectacular setting of the Petit Palais, Roseberry is ready to bring his ready-to-wear line to a bigger stage. A methodical, strategic thinker, he’s laying those foundations, one brick at a time.