Schiaparelli: Icarus and the argument for elaborate craft

Newness does not always arrive through subtraction. Daniel Roseberry’s Icarus collection for Schiaparelli proposed that elaborate craft and historical reference could also produce something unfamiliar.

WAYFARER Brazil’s January 2025 account began with old ribbons found in a Paris antique shop, a starting point for the collection shown at the Petit Palais. The reference opened onto early twentieth-century embroidery techniques and a wider conversation with designers including Madame Grès, Paul Poiret and Azzedine Alaïa.

The clothes made that conversation physical. Basque jackets enlarged the relationship between waist and hip. Duchess satin bustier dresses caught the light, while opera coats and neoprene constructions brought an unexpected material to forms associated with older dress. A jacket shaped around an S and trompe-l’œil effects kept the house’s surreal vocabulary present.

The source’s language of flight belonged to the collection’s Icarus title, not to a claim that each garment shared one literal motif. What matters is the tension between a recognisable technique and an altered proportion. The archive records a particular show, not a later creative direction. Roseberry’s argument was that the past need not be copied to remain useful. Sometimes it supplies the tools with which a new silhouette becomes possible.

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Adapted from the WAYFARER Brazil archive, first published 2025-01-30. English adaptation: 6 October 2026. This is an archival account, not a report of a new visit. Exhibitions, collections and menu details are described in their original context, not as current availability.