A Wolf in Women’s Clothing?

Daniel Pepin

Paris Fashion Week. This key date is marked in the calendars of models, designers, influencers, and critics around the world. A holy week of exulting in the glory and glamour of high fashion. It elegantly marks the start of a new year of style and exhilaration in the industry. 2023 was no exception. One fashion house in particular has already set the internet ablaze: Schiaparelli. Schiaparelli’s Haute Couture opened this year’s proceedings with wild abandon. The timeless and debonair hallways of Petit Palais, Paris’s Museum of fine arts, became a hunting ground for the King of the Jungle. When Irina Shaykhlislamova prowled onto the runway she was accompanied by a life-size, photorealistic faux lion’s head upon her shoulder. Fixed in a proud snarl, this lion became quick prey for the show’s attendees who feasted themselves on the look. Of course, Shaykhlislamova was not alone, Kylie Jenner let the cat out of the bag as she wore the same piece in the front row – alongside Doja Cat and her 30,000 Swarovski crystals. It goes without saying that the ensemble is staggering. The visual treat of luxurious mane caressing the sculpted cheekbones of Shaykhlislamova, and Jenner is sublime. Silhouetted by the sheer black gown, the lion’s head takes on such a realism that, I’m sure, if a camera got too close to the lion’s jaws the lens would fog up. The lion was not alone. Shalon

Harlow was ferocious but flinty wrapped in the coat and head of a pale Leopard who’s wildness was tamed by its model’s coolness. Clad in an alluring yet guarded shaggy black overcoat, complete with Wolf’s head resting on her shoulder, fashion icon Naomi Campbell forced any challengers into submission. Daniel Roseberry is the creative mind behind these extraordinary designs. He cites Dante’s Inferno as his source for the beasts, each symbolising a deadly sin. The lion represents pride; the leopard, lust; and the wolf symbolising avarice.

Naturally, the main talking point of the looks was their authenticity. While they may look like the real thing, the heads are all completely faux and the result of hours of hand-crafted work from the creative team under Roseberry. However, there is no reason denying that they resemble hunting trophies. They do. Something one might find on the walls of a seasoned big game hunter’s home. Naturally, this has sparked incandescent rage online with swathes of people condemning Schiaparelli and Roseberry for glorifying poaching. Equally, people have come out in support of the astonishing craftsmanship and the playfulness of the show. Roseberry himself claims, on his Instagram, that the show celebrates the “glory of nature and guarding the woman who wears it”. Coming so close after a major ban on fur products from Gucci, and Oscar de la Renta banning its use of fur after pressure from its latest spokesperson, Billie Eilish;

Roseberry is certainly toying with the limits of the fashion industry. Referring to it himself as the concept of “the doubt of creation and the doubt of intent” Schiaparelli knew this look would please and disturb in equal measure. But is it not this innovation; this daring, risqué commentary on the fashion industry’s evolution, that makes it oh so magnificent?