Dante’s Inferno at Schiaparelli
Few fashion houses are making a buzz at couture level as Schiaparelli. Led by Daniel Roseberry, the revived Italian fashion house presented a wild runway in Paris Haute Couture week. Lions, leopard and she-wolf heads walked down the runway and polarised the audience opinions.
Schiaparelli's Haute Couture spring/summer show was presented in Paris on Monday 23rd, and it was a media feast.
The show featured, amongst other looks, models Irina Shayk wearing a faux lion head, Shalom Harlow wearing a snow leopard print dress with a lion on her chest and Naomi Campbell in a full-length, black fur jacket that featured a wolf head on her shoulder.
Front row assistants such as LVMH’s executive director Sidney Toledano and Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour looked marvelled in the instagram stories of other front row assistants, as symbols as power, wealth and the elite walked down the runway.
The fashion house explained the inspiration being the lion heads on Instagram, writing, "The leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf—representing lust, pride, and avarice in Dante’s iconic allegory — in hand sculpted foam, resin, wool and silk faux fur, hand painted to look as life-like as possible."
"NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN MAKING THIS LOOK," the brand added.
Reality star and businesswoman Kylie Jenner created a first wave of media exposure with a severed lion head in her dress, the same Irina Shayk wore on the runway. The beauty mogul attended Schiaparelli's Haute Couture alongside figures as Emily in Paris actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, artist Doja Cat and actress Diane Kruger.
However, social media has reacted poorly to the show. Besides the fact of showing severed animals head pieces, which many interpreted as a wink to glorifying animal hunting, the gap with a younger audience is enormous. A quick look to Schiaparelli’s Instagram account unveil how much people felt aggressiveness and lack of social listening from the brand.
PETA’s response was surprising for many. The animal rights association president, Ingrid Newkirk, declared that “the three dimension animal pieces are incredibly innovative. The looks of Kylie, Irina and Naomi celebrate the beauty of wildlife and can be intepreted as a statement against trophy hunting, in which lions and wolves are massacred to satisfy human selfishness”.
