Elsa Schiaparelli was a master at melding fashion and art, so it was fitting that the brand staged its spring show at the Pompidou Center, which is currently closed for renovations. 

Guests including Kylie Jenner, Rosalía and FKA Twigs gathered at the top of the museum, which offers a sweeping view of Paris, from the Sacré-Coeur to the Eiffel Tower. The show space hosted an exhibit last year of the work of Constantin Brâncuși, the starting point for creative director Daniel Roseberry’s collection.

The modernist sculptor’s clean lines and essential palette resonated in his pared-back tailoring, which was punctuated by off-kilter details like pebble-shaped pockets and curved waistbands. Oversized holes were punched through everything from leather shirts to knit tube dresses, while hammered frills adorned cropped tops worn with flowing cream pants.  

Roseberry dialed back his signature gold hardware, save for a couple of nose jewels, and the chain straps on his exquisite 1930s-inspired evening gowns made of glossy satin panels floated on a sheer base. Rarely has the designer, loved by celebrities for his viral designs, exercised such restraint. 

“I wanted to do extreme wearability, but still maintain the extreme drama that sucks the air out of the room when you wear Schiap’,” he said after the show. 

That meant stripping away his hourglass corsets to let the fabrics flow. “It was sort of revelatory to go into bias-cut gowns and watch the body make the silhouette and do the work,” he said. “This was really about going back to the roots of the house.”

As the brand gears up for a major exhibit next year at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, it was the perfect moment to revisit one of Schiaparelli’s most famous creations, the Tears dress designed in 1938 with Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. Its print, which creates the illusion of strips of flesh, was brought to life in 3D with panels of flayed silk crepe. 

Roseberry shares the founder’s penchant for provocation. At times his dresses were little more than wisps of fabric, like the black negligee that Kendall Jenner wore to close the show. Because minimal or not, the Schiaparelli woman is always the center of attention.