Daniel Roseberry’s futuristic vision sets the tone for couture’s coming reset.

In a season brimming with industry shakeups and looming creative transitions, Daniel Roseberry didn’t just present a couture collection—he sent a signal. With Fall 2025, Schiaparelli’s creative director declared this moment one of transformation, both for himself and for couture at large. Fittingly titled “Back to the Future,” the collection was a bold, cinematic departure that looked to the past to imagine a radically stylized tomorrow.

And like many Schiaparelli moments before it, this one began with a spectacle: Cardi B, standing in front of the Petit Palais in a sculptural black bustier gown, calmly holding a live black raven. “I’m not scared of the bird,” she told WWD. “I control him. We’re best friends.” Whether omen or ornament, the bird captured the mood—darkly glamorous, unpredictable, and loaded with intent.

Dystopia Meets Deco

Roseberry’s references reached across time—from the interwar surrealism of Elsa Schiaparelli to the chrome-fueled fantasies of sci-fi cinema. The runway’s absence of color only heightened its metallic sheen: silver sequins, jet-black tulle, and high-shine surfaces gave the collection a cinematic, almost cyberpunk allure.

One standout was a reimagining of the famed “Apollo of Versailles” cape, first designed in 1938, here reborn in shimmering black tulle. Elsewhere, a black satin fishtail gown dropped low in the back to reveal a rhinestone G-string, a nod to Tom Ford’s infamous Gucci era. This wasn’t nostalgia—it was provocation.

For all the architectural tailoring and aggressive silhouettes—leg-of-mutton sleeves, hip exaggerations, and corset lacing—there was also vulnerability. Bias-cut dresses peeled away from the body, revealing skin and subverting form. In Roseberry’s world, glamour is always a little dangerous.

Fetish, Flesh, and Future

Schiaparelli’s anatomical codes got a futuristic twist this season. Molded satin breasts, complete with erect nipples, adorned a pearl gray body plate, while heart-shaped mechanical jewelry pulsed with eerie vitality. In a particularly theatrical look, a red corset gown featured sculptural breasts protruding from the back—a surrealist reversal that challenged perceptions of front and rear, subject and viewer.

Model Anasofia Negrutsa, slicked back and cyber-sleek, appeared in a silver biker jacket with matador epaulets, equal parts Blade Runner and Metropolis. She wasn’t just wearing couture—she was wearing armor.

“It’s about a world on the edge,” Roseberry said backstage. “A world about to change. I wanted this collection to feel like a farewell to one way of doing things.”

A Reset in Motion

With Jonathan Anderson at Dior, Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, and Pierpaolo Piccioli stepping into Balenciaga, couture is poised for its next seismic shift. Roseberry, whose tenure at Schiaparelli has been marked by surrealist storytelling and sculptural drama, knows the stakes. This collection wasn’t just a runway moment—it was a pivot. A message that he’s not content to ride his past successes, but ready to evolve.

“There’s a restructuring coming,” he said. “If you want a new result, you have to change the process.”

That process, it seems, begins with letting go—of color, of comfort, of convention—and embracing a couture future that feels electric, uneasy, and undeniably Schiaparelli.

Call it surreal fashion for surreal times.