Robot Baby Born Out Of Tech Gadgets Graces Runway At Paris Fashion Week
Video screenshots via Schiaparelli and Maggie Maurer
At Paris Fashion Week, Schiaparelli wired up a storm with its haute couture collection. The newest member of the family, it seemed, was an animatronic couture robot baby that left the audience cooing and fawning.
The microchip-encrusted crystal baby doll, the size of a toddler, was wrapped around the hip of model Maggie Maurer when she took to the runway on Tuesday. Reincarnated from Swarovski gems, obsolete cell phones, and other tech components, this mechanical child symbolized the merging of new and old technology.
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Needless to say, the moment sent not just guests but also fans on social media buzzing.
omgg X Æ A-12 runway debut !! https://t.co/fa6P2QCCF2
— °â—‹Ëšï½¡ (@woeshy) January 23, 2024
The Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2024 line, aptly named ‘Schiaparalien’, served as an ode to the turn of the century. It paid homage to early-aughts technology with a Western touch, resulting in a unique space cowboy feel. Daniel Roseberry, Schiaparelli’s creative director, aimed to create a line that was a study in contradictions. He combined Martian-esque silhouettes with Western flairs, influenced by the tension between the earthbound and the heaven-sent.
closer look of the robot baby from schiaparelli couture ss24, made from swarovski crystals and old electronics
— alejandra (@wrkhs) January 22, 2024
pic.twitter.com/HNXvseUYBs
That crystal baby from @Schiaparelli SS24 moves?!?! pic.twitter.com/91rQG1Pi1N
— highsnobiety (@highsnobiety) January 23, 2024
In addition, this overall circuit board of innovation explored the tension between AI advancement and Gen Z’s nostalgia for Y2K devices.
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In an interview with Vogue France, creative director Daniel Roseberry explained the story behind arguably the show’s most compelling dress, The Mother.
“The whole collection is sort of a dialogue between the past and the future,” Roseberry detailed. The look is composed of “old pre-iPhone technologies” that he grew up with, like flip phones, a cooling fan, tons of microchips, a calculator, a CD, plus 20-year-old motherboards—hence the name ‘The Mother’.
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The metallic number blends “old-world techniques with new-world technologies,” Roseberry proclaimed.
Despite its couture status, the dress was designed for ease of wear, with model Hana Soukupova concurring that it was comfortable.
[via The New York Times and New York Post, images via various sources]
