When he arrived in Paris from New York five years ago, Daniel Roseberry (Plano, Texas, 1985) was already a big story. Son of an artist and an Anglican pastor, before landing in the city of light he had spent a decade serving as Thom Browne’s right-hand man. His appointment as creative director of Schiaparelli, the firm created by Elsa Schiaparelli in 1927, made him the first American to head a couture house, and there is nothing more popular in the industry than that type of label.
Since then, the stories of Roseberry and the house have been enriched with a brilliant debut, ten haute couture collections and another ten ready-to-wear collections applauded by critics and the public (no one imagined that by becoming viral, fashion could not lose the aura of the exclusive) and dozens of iconic moments on the red carpet, which they have made the right place from which to communicate their proposal. They have also shown that in these times of inevitable realities there is a space to start conversations from the surrealist imagination.
Where is your relationship with Paris?
I’m enjoying the opportunity to create, I work all the time. Paris… I’m accepting it. For me it is more a movie set than a place to live.
Do you feel out of place?
Yeah… I haven’t cracked the code. It hasn’t been a priority and I accept that. I have chosen to follow the law of least effort.
He is so well known that on the Internet there are those who call him daddy just like Pedro Pascal. Do you identify with the vision that people have of you?
When you present your work publicly you have to make people experience it without giving everything away. I’ve become more protective of my personal life, so it’s easier to be at the center of those more performative moments. In the last two years I have distanced myself from my presence on social networks, I have acquired a more discreet profile than at the beginning.
Both his work and his person were globally recognized and quickly accepted. Did it seem strange to you?
In some strange way I think I was already used to it, because my father was the head of a church with thousands of members. I grew up feeling like everyone knew who I was as my father’s son, but without knowing everyone. It’s not very strange to me and I don’t think about it much. Surprisingly I’m not very neurotic about it.
Do they recognize you on the street?
Yeah.
To the point of asking for photos?
And also work. These are students on many occasions, they are the ones most willing to approach and say hello. It is nice.
Some of those students know the house through their work. Even so, she has always tried to distance herself from both the figure of Elsa Schiaparelli and the surrealist movement. How to continue a legacy without getting carried away by it?
I enjoy the challenge. I shy away from Elsa and her legacy because it’s overwhelmingly iconic. At the same time, the house needs to be propelled into the future. A friend says “The work you do should feel urgent and work that only you can do, a story only you can tell.” Being an American, a teenager in the 90s and 2000s, and now living in Paris running this house… it is a unique formula that I feel is increasingly important to embrace. The things that have always obsessed me are not disappearing, my personal iconography mixes with that of the house. I think it’s the secret to establishing an emotional connection.
What were the pressures upon your arrival and what are the pressures these days?
The beginning was a debut period, a honeymoon phase. Another friend says “fashion drinks from the blood of young people.” It is real. Then there is another stage, that of maintaining and reinventing. Almost five years later I think with absolute respect of my former boss, Thom Browne. Or Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Karl… everyone who has done this for decades.
Seen from the outside, his case seems unique in the sense that the Tod’s group, owner of the house, does not seem to be in an excessive hurry to expand. Do you think you would have the same approach to your work under other circumstances?
You have to know your audience. People don’t want mass Schiaparelli fashion, they want fashion that feels like art. It is not what is expected from Vuitton. Every house has a small niche or a large niche in the fashion multiverse. Here I think we are carving our perfect place, which is about building the business without losing what people want from us: emotion and a sense of artistry.
The question of being new or different from other experiences or stories that others have had in the industry leaves you with a long way to go. How do you deal with uncertainty?
I feel like I’ve done it forever. Where I’m from I never knew anyone who was gay, so I didn’t grow up with role models, no one to look up to and take as a guide. I feel like I have been forging my own path to adulthood. I was once told that “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I can look at what Jonathan Anderson or Demna or anyone is doing and find a reason to feel bad about myself. That’s why I try not to do it. Not always successfully, but I have really learned to step away from comparisons.
Ready-to-wear and couture are different things, but their interpretation of ready-to-wear is very luxurious. Is it based on price, exclusivity…?
We want to grow ready-to-wear while protecting what is beautiful about the brand. How many times have we seen firms that have become too big? Learning lessons from others is also important. Schiaparelli’s origin was ready-to-wear, sewing came later. For us it is quite natural to return to that origin. Furthermore, I also started with ready-to-wear. What’s been great is that the new house language was calmly established during Covid, now we have to give people the opportunity to participate in the story. It is very expensive, but no more than Chanel or Hermès. We’re up there, but it has more to do with creativity than just the fact that the product is pretty.
Are you more comfortable in sewing or ready-to-wear?
I like to do both, I do them at the same time.
But does it separate the times?
The dream is to dedicate one day to one thing and another to the other, but, honestly… Yesterday I spent the whole day doing sewing fittings and today I did both: trimmings, jewelry, fabrics… as soon as I leave I’m going to check on embroidery sewing. It is a whole at once everywhere.
How do you maintain relationships with clients? In sewing, do you deal with all clients?
Not with all of them.
In the case of ready-to-wear, you don’t know them.
No, but I always make clothes for someone. Even though it’s not a custom dress for my friend Julia, I think about her all the time. It is important for me to feel connected to what I do because it is a service. I want someone like you to wear this earring (she explains, picking up one of the prototypes on the table) instead of the ones she wears. That’s what I want Schiaparelli to become. I think that now people think about red carpets, celebrities, couture… maybe they know that we make ready-to-wear if they really like the brand or they follow it, but I don’t think they think “I can go to Schiaparelli to buy some earrings” or “That perfect cashmere sweater… I can go to Schiaparelli too.” It’s going to be classic, but also special. The idea is to add a new dimension to what people already think of the firm.
He frequently uses the word “alternative” when describing his work in this house. The industry tends to copy every time something considered alternative emerges. I’ve seen some things that I recognize as inspired by your work, but… have you ever felt uncomfortable with copies?
I don’t care because no one does it like us, in my opinion. I think there are brands that have copied or been very referencing many things, but it seems to me that they make the public appreciate real products even more.
It is easy to control the universe of the boutique located in Place Vendôme, but by expanding the points of sale (in Los Angeles and Dallas it is present in Neiman Marcus and in London it has a space in Harrods) you lose a little control over the experience shopping. How are they doing it?
The team. When I started Schiaparelli it was very small, there weren’t many people. He has grown a lot. It is a challenge. Just as it happens with the sewing workshop, where you depend completely on your hands, here you depend on the people who work in sales. The key is to establish a strong team. Also set standards and guides. We are in the process of doing it.
I’ve read that when you develop a collection you think about what you would like people to say about it. Do you do the same in your collaborations with celebrities?
I need to do it. It helps to know the celebrity and have been in her presence. I’m passionate about getting into an artist’s head, like when we worked with Doja. I knew what I wanted to take away from Paris: a transformative moment that would become fashion. We did it with the help of Pat McGrath.
What happens next with the dresses?
They keep them, when it’s custom made you assume it’s a gift. Many have their own files. Cardy B is building hers, Beyoncé has hers…
Speaking of archives: do you think much about the future?
Constantly.
So you don’t live in the present, you spend your life in the future?
It requires a lot of effort to be in the present. I am a future thinker.
Make plans?
Thinking about the future and having future plans is different for me.
But do you see the future with optimism?
I am neither fatalistic nor skeptical. I believe that as a society we will move forward and that I will too.
