Why are Demi Moore, Beyoncé, and Ariana Grande crazy about a brand with surrealist roots?

BarcelonaAt the last Oscars, Ariana Grande didn't take home the Best Supporting Actress statuette she was vying for, but she was one of the winners on the red carpet at the film awards. The actress and singer captured much of the media's attention thanks to a spectacular pale pink dress—a nod to the color that characterizes her character in the film. Wicked– with a tight corset that ended with a peplum structure. The result was a silhouette inspired by an Alberto Giacometti lamp. The firm behind this original look It's Schiaparelli, which in the last five years has become the favorite of stars looking to surprise when they parade at all kinds of galas, from the Cannes Film Festival to the Grammys or the inauguration of the President of the United States.

Schiaparelli is not exactly a new brand, but in recent years it has experienced a renaissance to the point of becoming a must-have for actresses, singers and celebritiesDemi Moore, Beyoncé, Selena Gomez, Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Bella Hadid, Lady Gaga, Sienna Miller, and Natasha Lyonne are just some of the stars who have chosen to wear some of the always daring and imaginative creations from the Italian-French house.

Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel's rival

The origins of Schiaparelli date back to 1927, when its founder, the Italian Elsa Schiaparelli, daughter of an astronomer and an aristocrat, created her own atelier in Paris. These were the years of Surrealism, and the designer lived through the movement, collaborating with artists such as Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Cocteau, who had a powerful influence on her designs. In a short time, she became one of the women who set the standards of fashion, with the permission of Coco Chanel, her great competitor. She created iconic dresses, such as the so-called lobster dress: a flared design in white silk illustrated with a giant red lobster painted by Dalí, who saw this animal as a symbol of female sexuality. The original dress went down in history thanks to Wallis Simpson, who wore it in 1937 for a photo shoot directed by Cecil Beaton for the magazine Vogue.

Fashion owes to Elsa Schiaparelli the birth of the first women's frogs in the 1930s and a hybrid garment such as the skirt-trousers. Frogs, with large zippers and pockets, were the protagonists, for example, of her last collection before World War II. Schiaparelli continued operating after the war, but the Italian's star was beginning to fade while new designers emerged, such as Christian Dior, the new figure in French fashion thanks to his collection. New LookHowever, the firm remained a benchmark, and in 1947, Hubert de Givenchy was appointed creative director, remaining there for four years until he founded his own house. Schiaparelli's decline was gradual until the founder decided to close the doors in 1954, the same year that its great rival, Chanel, decided to return to the scene after a period of retirement.

While Chanel was creating fashion again, in 1957 Schiaparelli revived its brand, but only by selling perfumes and fragrances. How can it be that a brand that has been practically silent or dormant since the late 1950s is now the most coveted among Hollywood stars?

Daniel Roseberry, the reviver of Schiaparelli

Two men are responsible for the brand's revival: Diego Della Valle, the owner of Tod's, who bought the then-unknown Schiaparelli in 2007, and Daniel Roseberry, who has led the fashion house since 2019. Since Della Valle bought the brand, he has fought to restore it to its 1930s glory, making strategic moves such as signing Christian Delacroix in 2013 to create a capsule collection dedicated to Elsa Schiaparelli.

However, it was Texan Roseberry who truly revolutionized the brand. The son of an evangelical Christian minister and an artist, he abandoned the religious path—he considered becoming a minister—to study fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where he arrived after serving as a Christian missionary in countries like Jordan, Pakistan, and Israel. He left fashion studies halfway to work as an intern for Thom Browne, and ten years later he was the designer. His professional rise culminated in a personal liberation: in 2017, he decided to stop taking Adderall (the Spanish equivalent would be Ritalin), the medication a doctor in Texas prescribed to alleviate the various issues that afflicted him, such as his sexuality, his relationship with religion, and his lack of concentration. Two years later, he was signed as creative director of Schiaparelli and in a short time, he has achieved his ultimate goal: to restore the brand to its place as one of the most important houses in the history of fashion. She did so by reviving the brand's surrealist legacy and some elements of the human body that obsessed the founder, such as eyes, ears, noses, and lips. One example is the lung-shaped necklace that Bella Hadid wore to the Cannes Film Festival.

"Daniel Roseberry has updated and taken to another level the dream world and icons used by Elsa Schiaparelli, who was an absolute master and a modern and transgressive woman," explains the stylist and costume designer. Ester PalaudàriesFor her, the brand's new phase is especially interesting because, without being extremely transgressive, it manages to create original and attention-grabbing proposals. "It maintains something essential: elegance and care, which is especially important in haute couture collections," she notes. Anna Cabané, also a designer, agrees with Palaudàries. "Roseberry is American and thinks big. Each design is a work of art; the outfits make you dream and fully represent the founder's essence," she says.

Palaudàries, who confesses to being a great admirer of Elsa Schiaparelli, emphasizes that the boom The brand's rise on the red carpet is really recent. "It hasn't been such an easy path. They've gotten the momentum thanks to word of mouth and Roseberry's excellence. People want different things. At a time when we have very basic and fixed patterns, he brings a fantasy that we haven't seen since Galliano or Alexander McQueen," notes the stylist, who also highlights the stylists. "Each model is a visual spectacle. Plus, when it comes to sewing, they're incredibly complicated. Fashion is fun, and the brand captures that very well: they're designs designed for the red carpet," adds Cabané.

After triumphing on the red carpets, Roseberry believes it's time to hit the streets, and that's why, in 2023, he launched his first collection. ready to wear"If we want the world to understand Schiaparelli as something more than just red carpet and haute couture, it must be more available," the designer stated in a recent interview with the New York TimesThe way forward, for now, is to give a boost to accessories, such as platform boots, which are not within everyone's reach. trompe-l'oeil toe boots, the same ones that Law Roach, Zendaya's stylist, has, cost 4,500 euros.