Our Founder’s Thoughts on Schiaparelli’s SS23 Collection

Daniel Roseberry’s meditation on Dante’s Inferno traded the obscure for the macabre.

While I adore the surrealist aesthetic of Maison Schiaparelli, Daniel Roseberry’s meditation on Dante’s Inferno traded the obscure for the macabre with these three pieces representing lust, pride, and avarice in Dante’s iconic allegory. Art is subjective and Art should be created but it will inevitably be interpreted. Without the Dante meaning, these pieces lack depth and imagination. It’s not an interpretation, it’s a literal and a tasteless attempt at being transgressive. Craftsmanship should be used to elevate, and not just to replicate a careless, disturbing behavior glorifying trophy hunting. If realism is the standard of skills, we might as well praise a mirror for reflecting the perfection that nature has already created. Humans are doing a great job at killing these animals due to illegal hunting, climate change, and by our own existence. This is just a literal representation of something we should all be ashamed of: animal abuse.

The leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf are hand sculpted in foam, resin, wool and silk faux fur, and hand painted to look as life-like as possible as a confirmation that no animals were hurt in the process of making these pieces? As a reminder, wool and silk are non-vegan animal-derived materials, leading to the abuse or death of the animals providing it. 

The most disturbing thing to me is the global uproar (excuse the pun) surrounding this collection. The hypocrisy, outrage and blatant speciesism is outstanding. It’s a reflection of our society and its huge cognitive dissonance. The general opinion is shocked by literal fake animal heads but wears and promotes the skin of dead animals on a daily basis. More than a billion cows, goats, and sheep – and millions of other exotic animals – are killed for leather every year and their skin is seen everywhere, and on the most prestigious runways. Let’s not forget, it’s not only hurting animals, the planet, but the people working in the highly polluting and unsustainable leather industry.

While I am still reflecting on this, I appreciate the conversations that this controversy will unleash. Perhaps it will become more meaningful than the initial subject… What do you think?

Feel free to share your thoughts on my Instagram post.

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Emmanuelle Rienda