Zendaya debuts a dress straight from Schiaparelli’s runway show
From the runway – straight to the premiere
Paris has officially welcomed Haute Couture Week – one of the most highly anticipated events in the global fashion calendar. As tradition dictates, Schiaparelli opened the season, once again becoming the first fashion house to unveil its new couture collection and turning its show into one of the most talked-about moments of Paris Couture Week.
This season, creative director Daniel Roseberry presented the Fall/Winter 2026/2027 haute couture collection, The Abyss. The collection explores the emotional space between ecstasy and anxiety – a state of mind that, according to the designer, served as its primary inspiration.
Roseberry drew from the underwater world, Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem «You, Darkness», avant-garde cinema, and the architecture of Antoni Gaudí.
Marine motifs run throughout the collection, though never in a literal sense. Instead, they are filtered through the surrealist aesthetic that has long defined Schiaparelli. Tailored jackets resembled coral reefs, trousers were embellished with seashells, octopus tentacles appeared to come alive across gowns, while jewelry echoed the forms of oysters and pearls.
Traditional couture craftsmanship merged with experimental materials, including latex, a newly developed «satin-like» silicone, and translucent textures used to create fluid gowns, sculptural corsets, and illuminated design elements.
Equally striking was the colour palette, inspired by Gaudí’s work, with vivid shades of pink, blue, yellow, and violet evoking the shimmering depths of the ocean.
Yet before the fashion world had fully absorbed Schiaparelli’s latest collection, its closing look had already made its way onto the red carpet.
Zendaya became the first celebrity to wear a design from The Abyss. For the world premiere of The Odyssey in London, the actress chose the very look that had closed the Paris runway show only a few hours earlier.
Her ensemble featured a sculptural white silicone bustier with the glossy appearance of glazed porcelain, meticulously shaped to mirror the anatomy of the human body, paired with a floor-length skirt adorned with cascading mirrored fringe that faded seamlessly from white to silver. According to the fashion house, the skirt incorporated internal illumination designed to create the illusion of a soft glow as the wearer moved.
The look was completed with a statement diamond necklace, natural makeup highlighted by pearlescent accents, and a braided crown hairstyle that referenced the goddess Athena, whom Zendaya portrays in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film.
Remarkably, only a matter of hours separated the Paris runway presentation from the actress’s appearance at the London premiere. Although the gown had not yet been perfectly tailored to her figure, stylist Law Roach managed to transport the couture creation from Paris to London in record time.
Photo: schiaparelli.com, Instagram @theodysseymovie
