Terror and then pathos and then catharsis. The complete emotional range of a Greek melodrama seemed to be writ across Hunter Schafer’s face at Schiaparelli’s haute couture autumn/winter 2024 show. Its moment of climax coincided with the arrival of a model in head-to-toe plumes drifting through the Musée Rodin – just the latest display of painstaking craftsmanship to come out of Daniel Rosberry’s highly inventive atelier.
What has become increasingly clear over the past couple of years is that Schafer, who works with stylist Dara Allen, has one of the most authentic and original relationships with clothing in Hollywood. For them, fashion is second nature. See: the jellyfish Prada gown she wore to the 2023 Golden Globes; the exoskeletal Marni bouquet donned for the New York premiere of The Hunger Games; and the Ann Demeulemeester feather bralette worn to the Vanity Fair Oscars party in 2023.
That last look perhaps represented a turning point in Schafer’s style. Since then, she has taken further steps to unshackle herself from the archaic rule of the brassière – Prada’s spring/summer 2009 distressed satin bralette, and the plunging sweetheart LBD she wore to the Schiaparelli show – which reached its zenith last night when she went braless beneath one of Roseberry’s tweed blazers, styled with double-fronted jeans. Schafer capped off the look with a pair of five-toed trompe-l’œil shoes. Perhaps toes really are the new legs.