Schiaparelli’s Mother Board
Everyone wants to be a part of STEM. Paris Fashion Week is no different.
The daily grind of a scientist is not as exciting as buzzy gadgets and machines hitting the market for public consumption.
Looking forward to using transformative innovation has placed us in a moment of heavy contemplation. Considering a simpler time of technology puts into perspective the technology of our sci-fi fantasies. Some so concerning that we are halting the progression of that technology.
Artificial Intelligence recently proved bigger than the biggest fish in the think tank.
So why not make a dress out of it, apparently whizzed through Daniel Roseberry’s creative consciousness.
The $cience
The pre-2007 tech items were sourced for this collection. (Image: Schiaparelli)
A bit of software and hardware comprised Schiaparelli’s haute couture Spring/Summer 2024 Paris Fashion Week show on January 23. Old phones, mother boards, CPU coolers and chipsets made for a shiny mini dress that sparkles more intensely than Mars.
Tradition interfaced with modernness to create a mesh between artistry and technology.
Antiquated technology fossilized in an old world structural dress. (Image: Schiaparelli)
Through today’s Meta Glasses, 17-year-old tech is virtually alien. Our hand-held computers were simpler and less life-consuming at the cusp of the iPhone era.
Creative Director Roseberry used relics predating 2007, the year iPhone 2G debuted, to create “part human part something else… totally Schiaparelli.” Hana Soukupova modeled the motherboard-and-strasse microchip dress carrying a clutch resembling a USB drive. The dress retains a classic structured shape that signifies the strange beauty Elsa Schiaparelli created. Hard-to-miss is the embedded nerd-friendly Citizen calculator and a CD in place of a pocket. Computer wires added color to the green and Swarovski encrusted garment.
This is not a dress to sit in. Ouch! She said it’s heavy, he said it’s easy to wear.
Fans, phones and chips. (Image: Schiaparelli)
Wired up and clutching the USB. (Image: Schiaparelli)
Maggie Joy Maurer held an AI-inspired toddler generated from the same artifacts. It looks creepy. It is unclear how she held in laughter while carrying this thing like a real child. Caressing its head in a protective way, even. Maybe that is how we all look staring at our phones at the dinner table with friends we haven’t seen in forever.
Robot toddler grounded by western influences. (Image: Schiaparelli)
Maurer letting it out with robot baby. (Image: Schiaparelli)
Both looks (6 and 7, respectively) were grounded in western effects and conventional materials like silk, leather and rhinestones. The cowboy boots connecting to Roseberry’s Texas roots.
Cowboy boot in patent leather. (Image: Schiaparelli)
Bottom Line
This addition to their PFW show is perfect timing because we are at such a critical turning point in considering where we are headed. No industry or person is immune to tech advances. Carry a flip phone to escape the madness, but a stranger’s eyeglass camera is recording your every move. So is Amazon when you walk down the grocery aisle. We are becoming tech. How we evolve is being demonstrated in the behavior physiology and psychology of the younger generations who only know AI-emergent-tech. It is a battle of the simpler times of how we were and where we may not necessarily need to be.
As Elsa’s uncle Giovanni prompted the fascination of Martians after his late 1800’s discovery of channels, Rosenberry’s embellished robot couture may spark deeper recognition of the impact of AI on human living and being. Unfortunately, Giovanni’s findings were mirages. His telescope just wasn’t that good. That’s technology.