It wouldn't be Monday morning of Paris Haute Couture Week unless Schiaparelli used his show to produce a viral Internet moment.
Last year, Kylie Jenner took her place in the front row with a hyper-realistic giant lion head attached to her chest. People went crazy because they thought it was real taxidermy and promoted trophy hunting. Obviously she wasn't. It was made of sculpted foam, wool, and faux fur.
This year, the spotlight didn't go to any celebrities, even though Zendaya did appear with blunt bangs (gasp) and Jennifer Lopez, preparing to promote her new movie “This Is Me: Now… A Love Story,” arrived with a own new hairstyle. It was a wet-look bob, in case you're wondering, which she wore with Schiaparelli sunglasses that had gold sculpted eyebrows and opaque gemstone lenses. (Fashion can't always be fabulous and practical.)
No, this year social media was abuzz thanks to a giant baby robot's runway cameo. The new fashion accessory, worn on one hip by model Maggie Maurer, was a dazzling little boy-shaped figurine made of silver and green electronic panels, pearl-encrusted switch boards, broken cables, wires and thousands of sparkling crystals. from Swarovski. Maurer, dressed in an adventurous all-white sports vest, baggy cargo pants and cowboy boots, placed her small hand embedded in her heart as she walked down the runway.
So what did it all mean?
Schiaparelli's creative director, Daniel Roseberry, a Texan, had woven ideas of the Wild West and adventures into the unknown throughout the collection. Roseberry, always keen to tap into the fashion house's surrealist DNA, also explained in his show notes that Giovanni Schiaparelli, the uncle of the house's founder, Elsa Schiaparelli, was an astronomer who named many of the seas and continents of Mars and was also the inventor of the term “Martian.”
“Inadvertently, our modern fascination with creatures outside began,” the show notes read. “The program offers a series of profiles both familiar and not: partly human, partly something else. And, therefore, totally Schiaparelli.”
In a sneak peek, Roseberry said the baby robot was actually her ode to the character Ripley in the “Alien” movies, who (spoiler alert) has an alien child. There you go.
This isn't the first time fashion has toyed with the idea of baby robots, and it has drawn the ire of some who don't like any suggestion that children could be portrayed as fashion accessories. In 2021, Frank Ocean attracted attention when he hugged one named Cody on the Met Gala red carpet. The musician had dyed his hair lime green to match the face of his doll, which he nodded, blinked and waved at fans.
Mr. Roseberry's version came with no such luxuries. It also has no pockets or shoulder strap, nor is it likely to ever go on sale. But that's probably for the best. After all, in the 21st century one is supposed to buy designer handbags, not designer babies. Good?
Vanessa Friedman contributed reporting from Paris.
