In
The Divine Comedy
, the immense work written by Dante in 1308, the wolf represents greed, the lion pride, and the leopard lust.
In the hyperconnected real world of the 21st century, these references do not matter.
The symbolism reinterpreted by the networks or the direct reading of an image are always more striking.
There's no way Daniel Roseberry, magician of trompe l'oeil and visual game, didn't know ahead of time that his
looks
of him with fake animal heads would go viral.
Perhaps he did not anticipate that they would eat an extraordinary collection for a while, number fifteen since the Texan began designing for Schiaparelli.
How does a creator face a collection?
What are his doubts, contradictions, his personal hell, his blank canvas?
All this Roseberry wondered before starting to design.
The answer she gave her this Monday in Paris at 10 in the morning.
Haute couture, she already saw herself at that time, serves just to show a show of crafts, fantasy, imagination, theater, philosophy, literature, hell and cheers.
More information
Schiaparelli reinterprets Dante's Inferno in a surreal key
Of the 32 passes in the collection, only three were fake taxidermy animals.
Seen together, they made sense of a chimera: that mythological being half human, half animal.
Far from looking like trophies, as some interpreted in a controversy that was the topic of the day, the animals simulated a part of the models, and the models part of the animals.
It was not the only game, always inherited from Elsa Schiaparelli, the first designer to use the animal print that she used as a surreal wink.
That is why all the creative directors of the house have reinterpreted this contribution from the Italian.
The models Shalom Harlow, Naomi Campbell and Irina Shayk parade with the three fake animal heads for Schiaparelli, on January 23, 2023 during the haute couture week in Paris.EFE
This time there were birds and peacocks in bustiers that stood stiff on the chest.
The tesserae in dresses and skirts and the games of wooden spheres completed highly complex creations.
Another fusion was that of men's clothing with the classic feminine codes: tuxedos with narrow waists and volumes on the shoulders and hips in homage to Shocking!, the perfume created by Schiaparelli.
For her, nothing was ever what it seemed.
For Roseberry, who, in addition to celebrities, filled the
front row
with clients sporting drawn skeletons, golden breasts on clothing, and ears and noses on bags, it never is either.
Other animals, these designed by the French artist Xavier Veilhan, Virginie Viard's collaborator in a creative dialogue that began in 2022, were the ones that hosted the Chanel show.
In the vast space of the ephemeral Grand Palais (the original is still being remodeled), animals created in wood and cardboard appeared from the edges, from which models emerged, like small Trojan horses.
“Virginie Viard asked me if she could work around the idea of Gabrielle Chanel's apartment and her bestiary.
I find the idea of the bestiary interesting to evoke the ever-evolving relationship in our society,” explains Veilhan.
An elephant, a horse, a fish, a dog, a crocodile, and of course, a lion, the emblematic animal of the French house.
Four models parade for Chanel haute couture, on January 24, 2023 in Paris.EFE/AFP
The collection showed all the Chanel codes:
tweed suits,
this time with a miniskirt or shorts, pink, delicate lace and overlapping silks and tulles, embroideries, ruffles, trimmings.
There were also volumes in the skirts, something not so usual;
references to the circus in top hats, double-breasted jackets, gloves, boots and bow ties.
The embroideries featured, in addition to flowers, a classic, animals such as foxes and swallows, protagonists of the bridal gown veil, which, by the way, came out in the last pass of one of Veilhan's elephants.
A collection of 51
looks
that created a playful universe, with “lightness and fantasy, but without naivety”.
Dior surprised with its simplicity.
It seems that Maria Grazia Chiuri does not need a show because her clients, and her sales, speak for themselves.
If couture is a demonstration of virtuosity and effects, the Italian designer distinguished herself by creating a formal and sober collection with delicate craftsmanship that she presented on a stage adorned with
collages
by African-American artist Mickalene Thomas that celebrated black women with a overlapping faces of artists like Ophelia DeVore or Nina Simone.
Four models, at the Christian Dior haute couture show held on January 23, 2023 in Paris.AFP
The collection, in fact, was based on Josephine Baker, the jazz singer who, at the height of her success, was a client of Christian Dior.
“The garments fall on the body and caress it.
In silk, velvet, often with a wrinkled effect, a syncopated rhythm that adds vitality to the fabric," explained the show's press release.
Metallic colors and fine lace, manual pleats and
silk
crepes coexist in the collection with austere cold wools and
tweeds
.
Four designs by Giambattista Valli at his January 2023 haute couture show;
the last of them is the wedding dress that closed the parade.AFP |
PA
Giambattista Valli's are other types of animals.
His virtuosity with tulle has reached a point where the volume reached by his dresses places them in a realm far removed from that of a closet.
The huge trains of overlapping layers of tulle that followed the models meters away seemed to have life.
An absolute fantasy that ended with an impressive wedding dress and an ending to the rhythm of
Rennaisance
, the theme of the series
The White Lotus
that has become a modern hit with its addictive and baroque instrumental mix.
A song that is the perfect summary of this start of haute couture.
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