…Well, not actually—though a quick look at Daniel Roseberry’s spring 2023 couture collection for the brand could bring on flashbacks from your childhood trips to the circus. Inspired by The Divine Comedy, Roseberry played with “the slippery, house-of-mirrors quality” of Dante’s writing, playing up the surrealist aesthetic for which Schiaparelli is known and sending dresses of leather-covered tin and gold-face models down the runway.
While the collection was filled with exciting looks which have since found their way onto the red carpet, it was a trio of dresses that really caught the public’s attention. A she-wolf, leopard, and lion topped the shoulders of Naomi Campbell, Shalom Harlow, and Shayk respectively—a nod to the three animals Dante meets on his journey, which represent the three divisions of hell and the sins of greed, lust, and pride. In addition, Kylie Jenner, who sat front row at the presentation, wore her own version of Shayk’s lion dress.
The pieces caused a bit of controversy, with some saying they glorified hunting. PETA, though, quickly stepped into the conversation, supporting Schiaparelli, and claiming Jenner’s look “celebrated a lions’ beauty and may be a statement against trophy hunting, in which lion families are torn apart to satisfy human egotism.”