The Spring 2023 couture season wrapped up this week, and the first show, Daniel Roseberry’s Dante’s Inferno-inspired collection for Schiaparelli, certainly set the (big) cat amongst the pigeons.
During Dante’s journey, he confronts a lion (pride), a leopard (lust), and a she-wolf (avarice). So Roseberry’s atelier created incredibly realistic, but 100 per cent faux, heads of these magnificent beasts for his collection, adorning two dresses and a coat.
Following in the footsteps of Elsa Schiaparelli, Roseberry was obviously pushing the boundaries of fantasy and surrealism. But the literalism of the internet was fierce, and the backlash was enormous, as indignant animal lovers worldwide chose to misread the intent and accuse him of promoting big game hunting.
Are people really this stupid?
Happily, most global fashion houses have already or are in the midst of dumping the use of real fur and exotic skins. References to the animal world are now mainly in the realm of fantasy and symbolism, but internet critics want none of that, either.
So will that extend to no animal prints, no faux fur in the future?
There seems to be an assumption that people are so stupid they can’t tell the difference between wearing faux leopard and actually killing animals. Elsa Schiaparelli’s famous surrealist lobster dress, famously worn by Wallis Simpson in 1937, is an iconic motif of the house, but it seems safer for fashion designers to avoid referencing any wildlife, crustaceans included.
The couture shows always contain some wit. Victor & Rolf sent out a gorgeous and kooky show, with beautiful tulle dresses strapped sideways on the models. But from what I could see, the front row didn’t crack a smile.
Thin is back
Haider Ackermann’s show for Jean Paul Gaultier was a triumph, with pin-thin tailoring and wasp waist corsets with all the angular hallmarks of haute couture. But if we’re going to consider the concerns of today’s hypercritical audience, the return to using extremely skinny models was painfully evident.
Over at Valentino, Pierpaolo Piccioli sent out an astonishing 90 runway exits, which, while largely beautiful, reiterated that there is just too much fashion produced in general. The whispery coats were lovely, the bridal gowns super. The sheaths with the large cut-out holes and the overblown bows over the crutch of tiny shorts were superfluous.
Chanel showed little gelato-coloured miniskirts and jackets that are not exactly moving the needle on fashion but will probably look cute on the next generation of long-legged ‘it ‘girls coming through – as evidenced by the front-row appearance of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s daughter, Apple.
It’s important to remember that when viewing couture, the designers present ideas, their creativity unfettered. It is not meant to be taken literally, even for those very few customers that can afford it. They are dreams.
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