It wouldn't be a Monday morning at Paris Fashion Week without Schiaparelli using his runway show to create a viral Internet moment.
Last year, Kylie Jenner took a front row seat with a giant, surreal lion's head on her chest. People went crazy because they thought it was real taxidermy and encouraged her trophy hunting. Apparently it wasn't. Made from sculpted foam, wool, and faux fur.
This year, the spotlight didn't belong to a celebrity, even though Zendaya showed up with blunt bangs. And Jennifer Lopez arrived ready to promote her new movie, “This Is Me: Now… A Love Story.” Her new hairstyle. She was a wet Bobbrook with gold eyebrows and Schiaparelli sunglasses with sculpted opaque jewel lenses. (Fashion can't always be stylish and practical.)
No, social media was abuzz this year thanks to a runway cameo from a giant robot baby. The popular new accessory, worn by model Maggie Maurer on one of her hips, is a dazzling toddler made of silver and green electronic panels, pearl-encrusted switchboards, broken cables, wires and thousands of sparkling Swarovski crystals. It was a shaped figure. Ms. Maurer, in her adventurous all-white racer vest, billowing combat pants and cowboy boots, clasped her tiny hand over her heart as she strode down the catwalk.
So what did it all mean?
Throughout the collection, Texas-born Schiaparelli creative director Daniel Roseberry explores the ideas of the Wild West and the unknown. Always one to tap into the fashion house's surrealist DNA, Mr. Rosebery said in the show notes that Giovanni Schiaparelli, the uncle of the house's founder, Elsa Schiaparelli, is credited with astronomy, after which he named many of Mars' oceans and continents. who also coined the term Martian.
“He inadvertently started our modern fascination with creatures out there,” the show notes read. “The show presents a series of profiles, some familiar and some not. Some are human, some are other things. So it’s totally Schiaparelli.”
In the preview, Mr. Rosebery said the robot baby was actually a tribute to the Ripley character from the 'Alien' movies. Ripley has an alien child. (Spoiler alert) That's it then.
This isn't the first time the fashion world has toyed with the idea of robot babies, sparking the ire of some who dislike the suggestion that children could be portrayed as fashion accessories. In 2021, Frank Ocean turned heads as he hugged someone named Cody on the Met Gala red carpet. The musician dyed his hair lime green to match the doll's face, and the doll nodded his head, blinked his eyes and waved his hand at fans.
Mr. The Roseberry version did not include such bells and whistles. There are no pockets or shoulder straps, and it is not likely to be sold. But maybe that's for the best. After all, in the 21st century, you have to buy a designer bag, not a designer baby. right?
Vanessa Friedman He contributed reporting from Paris.