Schiaparelli’s Spring 2022 Couture Collection Will Be Everywhere This Awards Season

Expect celebrities like Lady Gaga, Adele and Cardi B to be wearing this designer’s sci-fi inspired gowns at their next big event.

Only at Schiaparelli can a black dress with gold Saturn-like rings look understated. I mean, compared to this look Cardi B wore to the American Music Awards in November, the Schiaparelli Spring 2022 couture collection is downright casual. But this back-to-basics (so to speak) is precisely what creative director Daniel Roseberry intended.

In his show notes, the designer described his Fall 2021 couture show (which debuted this past summer) as a collection of hope. Think surrealist colour and pattern explosions. The show that premiered today was designed to be the exact opposite. Roseberry notes it’s a presentation about loss. Well, loss and aliens.

“Suddenly, colour felt wrong to me. So, did volume. All of the tricks that couture designers (including me) use to communicate grandeur and craftsmanship — big silhouettes, glorious poufs of fabric, huge volume — felt hollow. Instead, I wanted to see if we could achieve the same kind of drama and otherworldliness without relying on those tropes. All we needed, I realized, was black, white, and gold — yet it wasn’t so much a return to basics as it was a move towards the elemental.”

He continued: “After two years of thinking about the Surreal, I found myself instead thinking about the empyreal: The heavens as a place to escape from the chaos of our planet, but also the home of a mythical high priestess, at once goddess and alien, who might in fact walk among us.”

Cue the circular sun symbolism, creepy golden creatures resembling James Cameron’s The Abyss and other planetary accents. Roseberry even told Vogue that he took inspiration from space cinema like Dune, Prometheus, Interstellar, and Arrival for his looks that appeared to be from a galaxy far, far away.

It’s perhaps Schiaparelli’s penchant for pop-culture references that have made the brand such a favourite amongst celebrities in the past year. Last January, Lady Gaga wore a custom and bullet-proof outfit for President Biden’s inauguration. Bella Hadid made headlines at Cannes for her statement necklace ensemble. And Adele marked her return to music with not one but two off-the-shoulder black ballgowns. Roseberry has even managed to snag two back-to-back Vogue covers along the way.

But crafting memorable celebrity moments is in the brand’s DNA. While founder Elsa Schiaparelli started designing in 1927, it wasn’t until 1937 that she made a true name for herself, creating a tongue-in-cheek lobster dress in collaboration with Salvador Dalí, for socialite Wallis Simpson, who would soon become the Duchess of Windsor after her marriage to the former King-Emperor Edward VIII.

So whether Gaga chooses to wear one the golden finale looks from the Schiaparelli Spring 2022 couture collection when she’s inevitably invited to the Oscars, or a new starlett decides to be bold and enter the designer race herself, expect many more red carpet sightings to come. Below, we’ve rounded up a few of our faves.