When Schiaparelli’s creative director, Daniel Roseberry, was asked to design a bespoke Met Gala dress for British actor Carey Mulligan some months ago, his objective became to create haute couture it was possible to fall in love with. “Couture is a very emotional, gestural process,” the Texan-born designer tells Vogue. “It’s truly about wooing everyone. That’s the magic of couture. I wanted to keep the dress very much dramatic, but simple.”
Roseberry, the first American designer to be appointed head of the French heritage maison, deliberately avoided silhouettes that felt “too historic” for Mulligan’s Met moment. In lieu of his sculptural six-pack chest plates and gold rendered headpieces adored by Kim Kardashian and Cardi B, the designer kept things classic, focusing on meticulous details that epitomized good old-fashioned Met Gala glamour, but from a forward-thinking viewpoint.
The designer, who previously headed up men’s and women’s collections at Thom Browne, filled his moodboard with images of garments decorated with large gold paillettes and embellished capes. He zeroed in on a black and gold column gown from Schiaparelli’s autumn/winter 2021 couture collection, which he thought was “perfect”. Following two months of solid construction—the team collectively spent 4,750 hours on the embroidery at Schiaparelli HQ—Roseberry’s vision was finally brought to life. “It’s been a pleasure having the time and space to make couture properly.”
“Seeing the embroidery in the flesh felt like Christmas morning,” Roseberry says of the gown’s first unveiling in the atelier. Bedecked with 79,000 gold sequins and 38,000 crystals across the bustier and train, the crepe column gown is truly a stop-you-in-your-tracks piece.