The Vibe :
⊹ Silicone skin, rubber tentacles and couture gone deep-sea strange
⊹ Red carpet dressing pushed well past the usual body-con fantasy
⊹ Fish scales and dried flowers sharing space with synthetic flesh
⊹ Handmade excess taking a swipe at AI-generated perfection
Schiaparelli Fall 2026 couture did not ease into the weirdness. Daniel Roseberry opened the door to latex tentacles, silicone gills and dresses that looked as if they had developed a pulse somewhere between the atelier and the runway. The collection, titled “The Call of the Void,” pulled its shapes and surfaces from the ocean floor, but this was not pretty mermaid dressing. The bodies looked inflated, armored, wet and occasionally one mutation away from becoming something else.
A latex jacket sprouted inflatable limbs. Molded silicone bustiers sat against the torso with the glossy stiffness of fabricated skin. Even the sweeter pieces came with a warning sign. Amelia Gray’s putty-pink prom dress was smothered in pearls, yet the color and finish made it feel slightly clammy rather than precious. Roseberry has never been shy about turning the body into an event, though these looks pushed past the familiar gold anatomy of Schiaparelli’s Fall 2025 couture collection and into something much less recognizable.
The materials kept the fantasy from becoming one-note. Silicone and latex appeared beside shells, fish scales, dried flowers and dense embroidery, so the synthetic pieces never sat in a separate “future” category. Everything looked equally strange. A Paris workshop known for creating photorealistic silicone babies for film helped develop the molded sections, which explains why some of the corsets felt uncomfortably close to actual flesh. Dresses quivered around the body. Others lit up from within. There was plenty of technique on display, but none of it was asking to be admired politely.
AI hovered over the collection without becoming a lazy robot-versus-human storyline. Roseberry had recently encountered student portfolios filled with computer-generated work and questioned how much of the designer remained visible inside it. His response was physical, excessive and occasionally awkward. These clothes had weight. They bulged, trembled and changed the wearer’s proportions in ways that a perfect digital image would probably clean up. The familiar codes of evening dressing were still there, but they had picked up extra limbs.
That makes the collection especially sharp for a red carpet culture where a dress is now expected to become a meme, a close-up and a headline before the wearer reaches the venue. Schiaparelli already knows how to deliver that kind of image. Fall 2026 went further by making the viral object feel genuinely odd up close. The tentacles were ridiculous, the silicone was creepy and the illuminated gowns were impossible to ignore. Subtlety was never invited.
Extra Style Notes
Brand DNA
Founded in Paris in 1927 by Elsa Schiaparelli, the house fused couture with Surrealist wit. Under Daniel Roseberry, gilded anatomy, trompe-l’œil details, bold volumes, and high-drama glamour propel that daring legacy forward.
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