The Incredible Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Schiaparelli

These unforgettable looks are all the work of Schiaparelli, the historic fashion house that has once again found its voice. And this time it is louder, more avant-garde, and unapologetically surreal than ever before.

But Schiaparelli’s story is about more than just celebrity showstoppers and couture that belongs in museums. It’s the tale of a woman ahead of her time, a brand that lost its way, and a 21st-century renaissance that proves femininity and eccentricity can be a power play. Here’s how the Italian-born house rose, fell, and rose again, and why it matters.

The 1930s: Schiaparelli’s Daring Debut

It all began in Paris in 1927. Elsa Schiaparelli, a Roman aristocrat with a rebellious streak and a love for art, launched her first collection: a simple, yet shocking, series of hand-knit sweaters with trompe-l'œil bows. Vogue called it “an artistic masterpiece,” and just like that, a star was born.

By the 1930s, Elsa had become the darling of haute couture. She wasn’t just making clothes; she was crafting wearable Dadaism. She collaborated with surrealist legends like Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau, introducing the world to the lobster dress, the shoe hat, and the infamous skeleton dress—pieces that mocked convention and elevated fashion to fine art.

Her contemporaries were designing for elegance. Elsa? She was designing for disruption.

Elsa’s legacy wasn’t just about shock value, it was about imagination, confidence, and the sublime absurdity of the world.

She was Coco Chanel’s archrival, not just in style, but in spirit and pretty much everything else. There’s an unconfirmed story claiming that one night at a party, Coco Chanel pushed Schiaparelli towards a candelabrum and her dress caught fire. The fact that some believed it and the story has survived this long is almost more important than whether it is true or not. 

In fashion, Chanel emphasized restraint and uniformity while Schiaparelli celebrated flamboyance, irony, and rebellion. The contrast was obvious. She was the woman who made shocking pink a cultural weapon, perfume bottles shaped like torsos before Jean Paul Gaultier ever dreamed of them, and jackets embroidered with eyes, lips, and hands. A’la surrealist. If fashion was a conversation, Schiaparelli was the one telling surrealist jokes in a room full of small talk.

The War and the Wane

Then came World War II and with it, silence.

Elsa Schiaparelli, like many designers of the time, closed her house in 1954. The post-war world demanded simplicity and austerity; Christian Dior’s New Look was taking over, with cinched waists and full skirts that contrasted Elsa’s bold surrealism.

By that same year, Chanel made a triumphant return. Schiaparelli quietly exited. Her final collection was underwhelming. Her last years in fashion were marked not by triumph, but by nostalgia.

And then for decades, Schiaparelli was simply a memory. A name in textbooks. A chapter in the history of haute couture. The house of Schiaparelli was officially closed, and though her influence lingered in the subversive designs of everyone from Alexander McQueen to Comme des Garçons, her legacy had no modern steward.

The Rebirth: A Sleeping Giant Awakens

In 2006, Diego Della Valle, CEO of Tod’s Group, bought the rights to Schiaparelli’s name and archives. It was more than a business move, it was a resurrection. But reviving a house so intertwined with one woman’s vision and an art movement particular to its time was no easy task. 

For years, the relaunch floundered. Designers came and went. Collections were sparse. There was experimentation but no clear identity. The house had the name and the archives but lacked the electricity that made Elsa legendary.

Then, in 2019, something shifted.

Daniel Roseberry: The Texan Who Got It

Enter Daniel Roseberry.

An American from Texas with no formal couture training, Roseberry was an unlikely choice. But his instinct? Impeccable. He understood that Elsa’s legacy wasn’t just about shock value, it was about imagination, confidence, and the sublime absurdity of the world.

Under his creative direction, Schiaparelli didn’t just return. It roared.

Roseberry’s couture collections are performance art disguised as fashion. He blends sculptural exaggeration with surrealist nods: gilded body parts, optical illusions, eye motifs, breastplates, and gloriously impossible silhouettes. He’s not replicating Elsa, he’s channeling her artistic vision and her partnership with the art world.

And the world noticed.

The Fashion Fairytale

Every season since 2019 has been a visual feast, but it was the latest collection that re-cemented Schiaparelli in the cultural canon.

Schiaparelli’s latest Fall/Winter 2025 collection solidified what many of us already suspected: this isn’t just fashion, it’s fine art. With every gilded contour, architectural silhouette, and sculptural flourish, the house has returned to what made Elsa a legend in the first place: imagination unbound by practicality, creativity that flirts with the divine, and surrealism that provokes as much as it enchants. The collection wasn't made to be worn; it was made to be collected, treasured, and placed behind glass like a Dali or a Magritte. And yet, somehow, it remains alive, wearable, even emotional. Watching the show felt less like witnessing a runway and more like walking through a moving exhibit in a modern museum. It’s a bold reminder that fashion at its best isn’t about trends, it’s about transcendence.

At times, I find myself frustrated by the sameness among clothing brands. They all stick to what sells and leave little room for creativity and imagination. In our daily lives we still wear loungewear as if we’ve remained in lockdown, but we stalk couture week for fantasy. We seek to fit in, but we ache for escapism.

Schiaparelli offers the antidote to everything safe and sensible. In a fashion world often dominated by algorithms and copy-paste aesthetics, Schiaparelli insists on emotion. On weirdness. On boldness. It evokes and whispers to the part of us that still wants to play.

It’s a bold reminder that fashion at its best isn’t about trends, it’s about transcendence.

It’s also deeply feminine in the most empowered sense. Elsa Schiaparelli created fashion that celebrated the absurdity and divinity of womanhood. Daniel Roseberry continues that legacy by crafting pieces that defy binaries: soft and sharp, serious and playful, modern and mythical. Everything a woman is and more!

The fact that Elsa Schiaparelli could open a company and run it at a time when women were not allowed to have their own bank accounts is in a way, its own form of surrealism. This reminds us that life, womanhood, and business can all be a surreal experience and we might as well dress accordingly.

The Future of Fantasy

Schiaparelli is once again at the forefront of fashion not because it conforms, but because it refuses to. It is couture in its purest form: rooted in craftsmanship, but more so in the power of imagination. And perhaps that’s the real reason for its return. In an age of AI-generated art and fast fashion fatigue, Schiaparelli dares to believe that art and fashion are still sacred. Still joyful. Still strange.

Elsa once said, “In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.”

She was right. And now, nearly a century later, her outrageous legacy is alive, thriving, and strutting down the runway with golden lungs and lion heads. We’re watching a brand reclaim the creativity and imagination it was originally known for; and in doing so, remind us all to reclaim our own. I can’t help but thank Schiaparelli for resparking everything that makes couture and high fashion important for our culture; because at the end of the day, it isn’t about brand snobbishness but about valuing art that inspires and transcends, and that’s Chiaparelli’s business.  

Long Live Surrealism. Long Live Schiaparelli.