Daniel Roseberry: A Surreal Texan Outsider at Place Vendôme

 

Without traditional training in sewing and without mastery of French, Daniel Roseberry became the first American to lead a historic French haute couture house. He would assume the creative direction of Schiaparelli in 2019. A recipe for disaster? For Roseberry, his atypical background was an advantage that freed him from the chains of tradition. This Texan outsider would transform into the creative director who brought radical freedom to the legendary and enigmatic House of Schiaparelli.

"Fashion is full of losers desperate to be loved. Once you get it, it ends so quickly, and the real work barely begins. Fame is the appetizer, legacy the main course," Roseberry shared about the desperation of young designers for immediate recognition, for being discovered before having discovered themselves. His advice is categorical: "Why start at twenty-three? Learn who you are, become emotionally adult, accumulate real life experiences. Patience is chic."

The time Roseberry spent working with Thom Browne, his only previous job in the industry, left him two lessons that would define his future: humor and irony as powerful tools for designing, and the constant need to push to the limits of discomfort. Roseberry adopted Browne's philosophy as a guide that would define his career: "Are we really pushing the boundaries?"

The creative directors before Roseberry fell into the tempting trap of getting stuck in the archive. Repetitions of icons from a past grandeur, made over and over until they became empty clichés. The fate of the House of Schiaparelli, legacy of Elsa Schiaparelli, seemed to be coming to an end. But Roseberry thought differently. He didn't want to draw inspiration from the great symbols of the House created by Elsa, he wanted to draw inspiration from Elsa's way of thinking. Roseberry sought to apply Elsa's transgressive thinking to achieve a total fusion between art and fashion.

Roseberry didn't ask himself "What would Elsa do?" but rather "How did Elsa think?" The first question led to sterile imitation. The second led to accelerated evolution. That is what marked the great distance between Roseberry and his failed predecessors. Elsa Schiaparelli had collaborated very closely with Dalí and Cocteau, positioning herself at the center of the surrealist avant garde. For Roseberry, that was the key: to make his own the ability to provoke a short circuit between habitual perception and hidden realities, the essence of great surrealist art.

The new creative impulse was born in an unexpected place: the Sistine Chapel. In front of Michelangelo's frescoes, Roseberry experienced an epiphany that radically transformed his approach, shifting it from "how something should look" to "how it feels while you're creating it." The Spring/Summer 2026 collection represents the house's most ambitious effort to date. Roseberry has achieved an approach that goes beyond mere visual impact. It is a profound meditation between the sacred and the profane, about faith and transcendence. Haute couture no longer as empty luxury, but as a conduit for the most intense human experiences.

Thus, "The Agony and the Ecstasy" is composed of demonic horns, wings, and celestial feathers that seem to grant power to whoever wears them. A set of silhouettes forming part of a new mythology. Scorpion tails mixed with floral appliqués to soften the present threat. An expression of something that can be beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Two emotions thrown at the viewer to test them. The ultimate deception to the eye with materials that appear to be oxidized metal when in reality they are delicate silk. The great clash between perception and reality. Pure surrealism.

Roseberry follows a radically unconventional creative process in an industry obsessed with image. Roseberry starts with words, not sketches. He imagines future magazine reviews and anticipates criticism of something that hasn't been created yet. In this way, he builds a deep and complete narrative that anticipates what people want to see or, better yet, feel. The mystery of Roseberry's creative process lies in discovering how to materialize what will trigger the emotions described in his narrative. Roseberry works backward, inspired by the emotions he has imagined and seeking how to create what can provoke them, a mind blowing method that intertwines the past, present, and future in an unconventional way. The ultimate transformation of emotions and experiences into fabrics and seams designed by his mind.