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Schiaparelli’s Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2025: “Icarus” – A Study in Ambition and Artistry.


Photo: Schiaparelli
Photo: Schiaparelli

In the world of couture, ambition is everything. But as the Greek myth of Icarus reminds us, soaring too close to the sun risks a swift descent. Daniel Roseberry, Schiaparelli’s artistic director, leaned into this tension with his Spring/Summer 2025 Haute Couture collection, aptly titled “Icarus.” Drawing from history, mythology, and the surrealist legacy of Elsa Schiaparelli herself, Roseberry created a collection that aimed to push the boundaries of imagination, embracing maximalism in a fashion world increasingly preoccupied with restraint.  


At a time when quiet luxury and capsule wardrobes dominate the conversation, Roseberry challenges the notion that modernity must equate to simplicity. “Can’t the new also be worked, be baroque, be extravagant?” he posed in a rallying cry against the excessive refining of fashion. Roseberry took inspiration from icons like Madame Grès and Charles Frederick Worth, whose meticulous artistry redefined luxury in their time. The result was a collection that fused historical references with modern techniques, breathing new life into old-world opulence.  



Photo: Schiaparelli
Photo: Schiaparelli

The myth of Icarus, with its themes of ambition, hubris, and eventual downfall, provided the conceptual backbone of the collection. Imagine the moment Icarus soars to the sun. The air crackling with the heat of ambition as he ascends, his wings slicing through the heavens. Each stroke propelled by an intoxicating mix of freedom and folly as the sun's blinding radiance pulls him closer with its irresistible allure.


 Much like the titular character, Roseberry’s designs defy limits with glycerin and keratin treated feathers mimicking the delicate texture of silk, embodying both the fragility and grandeur of Icarus’s ill-fated wings. They also replicate the silk-like textures of 1930s Hollywood, these were paired with corsets built from layers of wool, cotton, and elastic-stretched silk satin, achieving a surface so flawless it felt sculptural. 



Photo: Schiaparelli
Photo: Schiaparelli

The collection’s garments were a masterful interplay of lightness and structure, evoking the delicate balance of Icarus’s wax and feathered wings. Prewar Schiaparelli jackets were reimagined with elongated proportions and paired with bias-cut satin skirts that nodded to 1990s minimalism, while liquid silk georgette embroidered with Japanese bugle beads layered over corset-inspired structures to create silhouettes both nostalgic and innovative. A-line baby doll dresses from the 1950s were modernized with padded hips, satin cuir offered a leather-like richness embroidered with Schiaparelli’s house codes, and moments of extravagance peaked with a butter-hued bustier gown inspired by a Giacometti lamp and ultrasuede blazers adorned with intricate silk satin threadwork. Together, these designs wove history, surrealism, and glamour into a dreamscape of couture ambition.



Photo: Schiaparelli
Photo: Schiaparelli

The collection also grappled with the risks inherent in such ambition. In its pursuit of beauty and maximalism, “Icarus” occasionally teetered on the edge slightly veering from the avant garde surrealism we know and love. Yet, in doing so, it captured the very essence of couture: the willingness to take risks, to dream boldly, and to embrace the possibility of failure as the price of greatness.  




With this collection, Roseberry reclaims the joy of dressing, pushing past the banal and the restrained to soar into the realm of the extraordinary. “Icarus” reminds us that in couture, as in life, it’s better to fly too high than never to take off at all.





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