Elsa Schiaparelli is known as THE surrealist fashion designer, and with that comes also avant garde style and a dose of wittyness and humour. But when the models Kylie Jenner, Irina Shayk and Naomi Campbell strutted out on the runway during Paris Fashion Week on Monday sporting faux taxidermy it just felt like very bad taste.
Maybe it was meant as a joke. If there was a hidden message there somewhere we didn’t find it. As some have pointed out: the planet is dying, we need brave new ideas – and the fashion world brings….more dead animals? According to the designer, Daniel Roseberry the theme of the Schiaparelli show was inspired by Italian poet Dante Alighieri, and his literary piece Inferno.
“The leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf—representing lust, pride, and avarice” read the design notes, and added was the information that the designs were “hand sculpted from foam, resin, wool and silk faux fur” – and “hand painted to look as life-like as possible”. What the actual F??As a style stunt this could never have been worse timed. Fashion is a business in crisis, it has a major cleaning up job to do. Launching tasteless pieces like this just confirms all prejudice against the business as decadent and hopelessly irrelevant. What to say? Off with the head!
Images via Instagram @schiaparelli
