Roseberry found his spark in a revelatory visit to the Sistine Chapel, where the tension between divine spectacle and mortal striving—grounded his vision. He married that emotional intensity by inviting the audience to look upward, both literally on the runway and metaphorically in the imagination.
Myth-Making Through Technique
Rather than softening couture into prettiness, Roseberry pushed technique to the forefront:
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Sculptural Construction: Corsets and bodices were engineered like armor. Shoulders spiked, hips flared and collars erupted with intent, shifting silhouettes into creatures that felt both divine and dangerous.
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Three-Dimensional Surface: Lace rose like bas-relief on fabric, embroidery became anatomical, and neon tulle layered to create a couture version of sfumato, where edges blurred while forms sharpened.
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Hybrid Creature Motifs: Looks evoked birds of paradise, sea life, and chimeras. Scorpion-tail embroidery and featherwork lent an edge of wild beauty and latent threat.
Roseberry called the women who wore these looks his “infantas terribles,” figures of contradiction—beautiful yet unsettling, graceful yet powerful. Their presence on the runway blurred the boundary between gods and monsters, inviting viewers to feel rather than simply see the collection.
Accessories as Altered Reality
Accessories amplified the dreamlike world. Shoes took the shapes of birds and snakes, with eye-like details that felt almost alive. Jewelry incorporated faux bird heads and surreal sculptural forms, extending the couture narrative into three dimensions.
Emotion at the Core
What set this show apart was not just its visual spectacle but its emotional intent. Roseberry emphasized how the collection felt to make, as much as how it looked. He let couture’s rigorous techniques provide a vessel for imagination—using structure, proportion, and craft to express wonder, fear, and awe all at once.
In this season, Schiaparelli reminded us why haute couture still matters: It does not simply clothe the body but gives shape to emotion and myth, and in doing so, it asks us to look beyond ourselves—toward the gods and the monsters we imagine.