Lady Gaga’s Schiaparelli couture cover look took six weeks to make, but has roots in the 1930s. Current creative director Daniel Roseberry – the man tasked with translating house founder Elsa Schiaparelli’s iconoclastic, surrealist vision for now – became enamoured with a shocking perfume bottle he found in the archives. For months, he had the sketch of a silhouette replicating the curvature of the receptacle, but he didn’t quite know how it would become a fully realised garment – one that would go on to be worn by one of the biggest pop superstars in history.
The premise for Roseberry’s entire autumn/winter 2021 couture collection – to create singularly fabulous looks, each one worthy of the cover of a magazine – helped dictate the mood of the high-drama dress. “It was one of those great moments where the technique led the design,” explains Daniel of giving creativity free reign. “We didn’t know what the final result would look like until it was finished.”
It took five fittings to execute the undulating silk taffeta sleeves, which frame the black matte wool crepe dress in a cloud of gold lamé, and mere moments for British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful to recognise it as the one for Gaga. Call it positive manifestation, or just a sign that Daniel is really good at his job, but the dress’s fate seemed sealed from the very start.
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Of course, Daniel and Gaga had worked together before. The Texan designer created the star’s (bullet proof) inauguration look: a navy cashmere jacket bearing a gilded dove of peace brooch and a washed red silk faille skirt. The horizontal cartridge pleating on the voluminous ball gown-esque confection is, incidentally, the same technique Roseberry employed to bring his perfume bottle dress to life.
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The second look, a multi-coloured matador jacket featuring original Lesage for Schiaparelli swatches that were commissioned by Elsa herself, is a glorious marriage of past and present, which seems to chime with the strength of both Schiaparelli and Gaga. “When I think of Schiaparelli and its position within the constellation of great designers, the one word which comes to mind is iconography,” muses Roseberry. “And that’s the exact word I would associate with Lady Gaga. For me, it feels like such a natural union… this complete melding of the minds.”
When asked whether he was a Little Monster (the name for Gaga’s fans) before he met the artist (he also dressed her in a periwinkle taffeta-trimmed black gown for The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Opening Gala earlier this year), he quips: “Is there a more ridiculous question?”, and affirms that he knows all the words to her back catalogue. Seeing his work on such a shining star keeps him “hungry and humble”, but watching her sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” to President Joe Biden was an “unspeakable honour” he will remember forever.
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“So many people burst into tears when they saw her, because it was like they were seeing fashion for the first time again,” he shares of his mission to deliver true beauty into the world on that landmark day. “We question the value of fashion in these crazy times, but I don’t think that you can question the fact that it has a place in that kind of experience.” The transformative power of fashion is alive once again on the December 2021 cover of British Vogue.
The December 2021 issue of British Vogue is on newsstands on Friday 5 November.
