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In the hushed frescoed splendor of the Sistine Chapel, a revelation struck Daniel Roseberry, it was not the familiar narratives painted upon the walls that spoke to him, but the ceiling, Michelangelo’s transcendent tumultuous vision where agony and ecstasy merge into a single, breathtaking whole.
This moment of profound emotional awakening, encountered during a creative retreat outside Rome, became the pulsating heart of Schiaparelli’s Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026 collection, presented at 21 Place Vendôme. Titled “The Agony and the Ecstasy”, the collection is a masterful ode to feeling over form, a celebration of unbridled imagination within the sacred rigors of couture craftsmanship.
Roseberry describes a liberation from asking “what should it look like?” to embracing “how does it feel to create it?” This shift in perspective unleashes a menagerie of fantastical, venom-charmed creatures—the “infantas terribles” of the house. Reptilian and arachnid archetypes, rendered with sharp, rapid strokes, evolve into sculptural scorpion tails, serpentine details, and defiant, gravity-defying silhouettes. They are the collection’s ceiling, its soaring aspiration: birds of flight captured in explosive color and audacious form.
The technical prowess of the ateliers is in service of emotional resonance. Hand-cut lace is treated as bas-relief, gaining three-dimensional depth and drama. Feathers—both real and trompe l’oeil silk confections—are hand-painted, airbrushed, or delicately dipped in resin and crystals. Neon tulle is layered beneath lace to achieve a soft sfumato effect, a painterly blur that echoes the Chapel’s own play of light and shadow. Each piece is a named protagonist, like the remarkable “Isabella Blowfish” skirt suit, where layers of tulle and organza are dusted with crystal shadows and finished with delicate, spike-like frills, inspired by the vivid hues of birds of paradise.
Accessories continue this dialogue between the natural world and surreal fantasy. Artificial bird heads, meticulously sculpted from silk feathers with resin beaks and pearl-cabochon eyes, pay homage to Elsa Schiaparelli’s lifelong fascination with fauna, most famously, the lobster, while asserting a commitment to cruelty-free creation. The iconic keyhole, the maison’s portal to mystery, is reimagined throughout, adorning asymmetrical footwear with a persistent, elegant curiosity.
The looks unfold as a procession of wearable dreams. Look 3 presents a dress of hand-cut white lace, its shoulders glowing with a neon orange sfumato, accompanied by a voluminous warm silver necklace from the archives. Look 11, a defying-gravity gown in ivory tulle, features a bustier adorned with 25,000 silk-thread feathers—a staggering 4,000 hours of work—while Look 26, a molded gown embroidered with 65,000 kingfisher-blue and black raw silk feathers in 27 shades, required an astonishing 8,000 hours. The “Scorpion Sisters” (Looks 9 & 10) fully embody the collection’s dangerous glamour, with embroidered tails and transparent lace that morphs into exoskeletal form.
For Roseberry, couture is an antidote to reality, a realm where the hopeful adolescent who chose fantasy over convention can still thrive. It is an invitation, he insists, to stop thinking and start feeling. In a world often bound by the practical, Schiaparelli SS26 collection is a powerful, timeless reminder of fashion’s highest purpose: to unchain the imagination. As the final look—a sharp-shouldered Elsa jacket whose collar transforms into a wing of hand-painted feathers—takes its bow, the message is clear. In the house of Schiaparelli, the only direction to look is up.
