A Bend in Time: Schiaparelli Opens Haute Couture Week in Surreal Style
Beating Heartbeat Ensemble at F/W 25-26 Haute Couture (Courtesy of Schiaparelli)
After the slow drift of a 4th of July weekend, what better way to jolt back into reality than the start of Haute Couture Week? Some might have preferred to sleep in, but it's not every day Schiaparelli opens the week with a new couture collection. Plus, Schiaparelli always feels more like a dream than a runway show anyway, so what's the difference, really?
The Veiled Heart, Salvador Dali, 1932
Schiaparelli’s Fall/Winter 2025-2026 Haute Couture Collection certainly felt nothing short of dreamy, and in moments, even prophetic. This season, creative director Daniel Roseberry played with the concept of time, titling the collection Back to the Future. In his designs, a compelling question arose: if we borrow building blocks of the past, can we construct the future? Indeed, it's an appropriate inquiry in the fashion world, where looks are constantly recycled and silhouettes reused.
Apollo of Versailles Cape at F/W 25-26 Haute Couture (Courtesy of Schiaparelli)
Original Apollo of Versailles Cape (Courtesy of Schiaparelli)
Roseberry embraced the title with characteristic wit, weaving in subtle references to the past while offering a freshness—a glimpse into the future. He felt especially drawn to 1930s Paris, a pre-war city teetering on the edge, full of glamour and uncertainty. With allusions to works of Salvador Dali and original founder Elsa Schiaparelli, the result was a collection that didn't just nod to history: it reimagined it, beautifully and meticulously. One standout look—a tailored jacket with gold thread embroidery that mimicked the sun’s rays—imitated Elsa Schiaparelli’s Apollo of Versailles cape from her 1938 Zodiac Collection. While her rival Coco Chanel was championing restraint and practicality, Elsa Schiaparelli looked to the stars. So does Roseberry now, crafting silhouettes that honor the House’s celestial past while forging fashion’s next constellation.
Crystal-encrusted Eye Gown (Courtesy of Schiaparelli)
There’s an intriguing sense of reversal at play here. While Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí famously fled Paris for America, Daniel Roseberry made the opposite journey, leaving the U.S. to root himself in the heart of French couture. He’s spoken openly about how living in Paris has only sharpened his awareness of his own Americanness, a tension that quietly threads through his work. For this collection, though, it was Paris’s own past—specifically the surreal, uncertain atmosphere of the 1930s—that he reached toward. And yet, he titled the collection Back to the Future, borrowing from a distinctly American piece of cinema. The interplay between these worlds—old Paris and new America—revealed itself in the details. An anatomical, beating heart. Crystal-encrusted eyes. Even sightings of delectable crustaceans. All echoes of Dalí’s surrealist provocations, and nods to Schiaparelli’s legacy. Through these elements, Roseberry built a collection rooted in liminality, hovering between eras, aesthetics, and identities, and made space for something new to emerge. He constructed a collection suspended between time zones and timelines. Yet it all felt unmistakably modern.
Crustacean Statement Necklace at FW 25-26 Haute Couture (Courtesy of Schiaparelli)
Lobster Telephone, Salvador Dali, 1938
In Roseberry’s world, time bends, dreams walk, and couture remembers—just long enough to imagine what comes next.