HAUTE COUTURE WEEK FALL/WINTER 2025: DAY 1
editors ELIANA CASA, MAREK BARTEK and MARIE-PAULINE CESARI
SCHIAPARELLI
review by MAREK BARTEK
all images SCHIAPARELLI provided by the brand
Daniel Roseberry has never been afraid of a headline. For much of his tenure at Schiaparelli, theatricality has been the point. Armour-like bodices, surrealist provocations, couture as confrontation. But this season, the volume dropped, the silhouettes thinned, and into that space came clarity.
The show opened with a replica. A classic embroidered jacket over a black skirt, took straight out of the house’s archive. It looked like homage, but it was a decoy. What followed wasn’t retrospective. Rather a reset. References to pre-war Paris, filtered through the lens of black-and-white photography of Man Ray and Horst, shaped the collection’s tone. Everything felt slightly muted, softened at the edges. Donegal tweed was veiled in black tulle. A polka-dot suit appeared almost solid until it caught the light and turned sheer. Bias-cut satin dresses recalled the elegance of the 1930s without leaning on nostalgia. Instead of corsets, there was movement. Instead of provocation, precision.
Still, Roseberry hasn’t left surrealism behind. One of the collection’s sharpest moments came in the form of a red satin dress, worn backwards, with moulded breasts along the spine and a crystal heart at the nape. The palette stayed close to monochrome, broken only by controlled flashes of red. Matador shapes and off-kilter proportions created tension without grabbing all the attention. Not everything felt completely aligned, but it still felt intentional.
What emerged was a new kind of elegance. Less about spectacle, more about suggestion. This wasn’t Roseberry’s loudest or most dramatic outing at Schiaparelli. But it may have been his most self-assured. A designer known for extremes finding strength in subtlety.
IRIS VAN HERPEN
review by NIA TOPALOVA
all images IRIS VAN HERPEN provided by the brand
Iris van Herpen’s ‘Sympoiesis’ explores the ocean not as a singular ecosystem but as part of a wider biospheric consciousness. It reflects on our oneness with the ocean, its life-giving force as a conceptual gateway, to then transcribe it into material.
The show opened with a performance created in collaboration with light artist Nick Verstand, who designed a biosphere light portal, in which dancer Loie Fuller became "morphogenic and more-than-human, seeming to shimmer in and out of perception”. This ecological choreography stood as a reminder of our ocean’s fragility, and an urgent call woven through movement, inviting us to protect and preserve its balance.
Iris van Herpen collaborated with biodesigner Chris Bellamy to create the 125 million bioluminescent algae look, emitting light in response to movement. The Pyrocystis Lunula algae were moulded into a protective membrane mimicking a natural marine home in which the living look can be nurtured. The garment therefore became a living cultivated force, rather a constructed material. A specially created fragrance accompanying each look, designed to express the immersive qualities of underwater life, was created by master perfumer Francis Kurkdjian.
Each look developed by Iris van Herpen’s team offered a multi-sensory experience, exploring the depths of the mystical underwater life, seeing the body not as isolated, but as an alive and responsive habitat, and ultimately, continuing their ongoing exploration of the vital relationship between nature and technology.