For years, Schiaparelli has remained one of those fashion houses that constantly balance on the border between art and couture. For Daniel Roseberry, the brand’s creative director, that boundary became the starting point for creating the Spring 2026 collection a story of clothing that soothes the body while seducing the gaze. The inspiration came from the genius of modernist sculpture, Constantin Brâncuși, whose work had only recently filled the halls of Paris’s Centre Pompidou. It was there, in the empty space closed for renovation, that Roseberry invited his guests to a nocturnal fashion spectacle.
The show carried something of a ceremony rather than the classic runway setting. The audience was seated at the very top of the museum. Among the guests were Kylie Jenner, Rosalía, and FKA Twigs, while the panoramic backdrop stretched from Sacré-Coeur to the shimmering Eiffel Tower. It was not just a presentation of a collection but also a meditation on the place where fashion intertwines with the history of art and architecture. Elsa Schiaparelli, the visionary who once boldly brought Surrealism to the runway, would surely have smiled at this union of space, form, and style.
Roseberry interpreted Brâncuși’s language in his own way: pure, geometric lines and a restrained, almost ascetic color palette translated into tailoring that emanated calm yet possessed a magnetic power. Softly structured coats gained character through pebble like pockets, while rounded belts looked as though lifted directly from a sculptor’s studio. Oversized buttonholes introduced a provocative element, appearing on leather shirts and knitted tube dresses, while hammered ruffles vibrated with every movement, completing the silhouettes of light trousers and cropped tops.
Surprisingly, Roseberry set aside the golden embellishments that had become his signature. Gold appeared only in subtle jewelry details: tiny nose ornaments or delicate chains draped across the shoulders of evening gowns. These creations, woven from shimmering satin panels and supported by transparent bases, carried echoes of the 1930s. Their quiet glow needed no flamboyance the movement of fabric and the light of Paris were enough to take one’s breath away. It was a rare moment when a designer known for viral creations chose silence over spectacle, and in doing so achieved an even stronger effect.
“I wanted the woman in my clothes to feel free, yet monumental,” Roseberry confessed after the show. That is precisely why he abandoned corseted constructions, allowing fabrics to breathe and silhouettes to live by their own rhythm. Bias-cut gowns softly draped the body, which itself shaped their form. In this simplicity lay power the discovery that luxury can be synonymous with comfort, and that drama need not equal heaviness.
The timing for a return to Schiaparelli’s roots could not have been better. The house is preparing for a spectacular exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, and Roseberry referenced one of Elsa’s most iconic creations: the Tears dress of 1938, designed in collaboration with Salvador Dalí. This time, the “wounds” of the fabric took the form of three dimensional panels of silk crêpe, revealing the body like abstract sculptures. It was a reminder that Schiaparelli has always flirted with provocation while never abandoning elegance.
Whether dressed in a minimalist suit or an almost sheer gown made of fragmented black fabric like the one worn by Kendall Jenner at the show’s finale the Schiaparelli woman is always a commanding presence. Her aura fills the space, just as Brâncuși filled marble, bronze, and wood with certainty of form and strength of vision. Roseberry’s Spring 2026 is not merely a collection it is a manifesto that fashion can be comfort, art, and pure magic all at once.
Photos courtesy of Schiaparelli
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