By Jessica Ye (Jessica Yap)
Surrealism never walked off the runway at Schiaparelli. It just got quieter, stranger, and more deliberate. For Autumn/Winter 2026, creative director Daniel Roseberry embraced one of the house’s most enigmatic symbols, the sphinx, letting it thread through silhouettes, textures, and accessories. The result feels less like a collection and more like a dialogue between imagination and couture.
From the first look, Schiaparelli made it clear that this season is about surrealism as lived experience, not illustration. Sculptural tailoring elongated shoulders and defined waistlines with architectural precision. Oversized faux-fur coats sloped into sculpted leather trousers. Satin gowns glimmered under the lights, catching the eye like cinematic illusions. Every look suggested a story, a puzzle, a secret waiting to be discovered.
Knitwear challenged expectations. Compressed weaving revealed glimpses of skin, almost like a miniature architecture against the body. Feather-trimmed skirts shimmered subtly, and sequined gowns added a whisper of nocturnal glamour. Nothing was literal, everything hinted at the uncanny — the surrealism Elsa Schiaparelli celebrated so fiercely decades ago.
One standout piece encapsulated the season’s ethos: a sharply tailored pantsuit that opened the show, a mannish three-piece with popped collars, pleated trousers, and sculpted boots with gold-tone brass heels shaped like abstract faces. Serious in cut, playful in detail, it embodied Roseberry’s central thesis: fashion can be clever, theatrical, and deeply imaginative all at once.
Other silhouettes nudged further into surrealism. Trousers suggested exaggerated curves at the hips. Knitwear fragmented into strips clinging to illusion mesh. One skirt extended into a tail-like form, moving as if animated. These are not gimmicks. They are exercises in imagination, making the ordinary extraordinary, giving the wearer a sense of inhabiting a world slightly askew from reality.
Accessories were equally playful and symbolic. The house’s signature Keyhole motif resurfaced on handbags and hardware, rendered in polished gold. The iconic ‘Hand-in-Hand’ clutches and exotic leather bags became objects of curiosity, functional but also miniature statements, echoing Schiaparelli’s history of transforming the mundane into the surreal.
Colour added another layer to the story. Deep blacks and ivory grounded the collection, while bronze and metallic tones evoked the shimmer of mystery. Occasional flashes of iridescence brought a nocturnal, almost magical edge, as if the sphinx itself had wandered off the runway and into the shadows.
Why should readers care beyond the runway? Because Schiaparelli proves that fashion can still spark wonder. It reminds us that surrealism is not a relic or a novelty. It can be felt in the way clothes move, in shapes that challenge perception, in accessories that make you pause. Wearing it feels like stepping into a private gallery where imagination is the dress code.
Nearly a century after Elsa Schiaparelli first brought surrealism to couture, Autumn/Winter 2026 proves the language remains vital. The Sphinx is not just a motif, it is a declaration: fantasy, mystery, and creativity are still central to fashion that matters.
