Sandra‘s Closet

Pony Kids and Petticoats: Simone Rocha’s F/W 26 Love Letter to Ireland

High above London, inside the faded grandeur of the Alexandra Palace Theatre, Simone Rocha sent out one of the most poetic collections of the season. The Victorian venue, left in a state of beautiful arrested decay, was the perfect stage for what the Irish designer does best: romance cut through with reality.

For F/W 2026, Rocha turned her gaze homeward. The collection unfolded in three chapters rooted in Irish culture. The first act conjured Tír na nÓg, the mythical Celtic land of eternal youth, painted in moss green, olive and deep ruby, with a voluminous satin gown cinched at the waist that felt like folklore made fabric.

The final act celebrated the Weird Sisters, the eccentric siblings of the Yeats family who shaped the Irish Arts and Crafts movement, honoured through rich tapestry prints and tweeds that felt loved and lived in.

But it was the middle chapter that gave the collection its heartbeat: Pony Kid. Rocha drew on Perry Ogden’s cult 1999 photo book Pony Kids, which documented the working class children of Dublin, from both Traveller and Settled communities, who kept and traded horses at the Smithfield Horse Fair. Ogden captured them in the sportswear of the era, tracksuits and trainers worn with a fierce, tender pride. Together with Mike Newell’s 1992 film Into the West, these images of Irish kids and their ponies became the emotional core of the show.

The new Pony Kids collection by Simone Rocha is available now here.

This reference also unlocked the season’s big surprise: Simone Rocha’s debut collaboration with adidas originals, woven directly into the mainline rather than presented as a separate capsule. The designer, who spent her own teenage years wearing adidas running shorts under vintage tutus, made the pairing feel completely natural. Track jackets came with pouf sleeves and her signature pearl zipper pulls, tracksuits erupted in ruffles and scalloped edges, sporty knee high socks were bedazzled with trefoil logos, and a picot edged dress in ivory paper nylon carried a Rocha redesigned trefoil. Lace boiler suits and frills on your tracksuit, as she put it herself.

Of course, the Rocha girl was never far away. Corsages and ribbons trailed from masculine coats, equestrian prize ribbons were pinned to tailored trousers, and hints of vintage lingerie flashed beneath sheer layers. A moss green gown with an oversized bow, a curvy ruby sequin dress with a matching cap and shearling lined aviator jackets in olive grounded the fantasy in wearable, statement making reality.

What I love most about this collection is its emotional intelligence. Rocha took the myth of eternal youth and the very real, disappearing world of Dublin’s pony kids and stitched them into one wardrobe where a ballgown and a track jacket speak the same language. It is femininity with grit, nostalgia without sentimentality, and proof once again that Simone Rocha is one of the most compelling storytellers in fashion today.

The Adidas pieces will no doubt sell out in a heartbeat, but for me the true magic lies in the juxtaposition. Frills on a tracksuit have never looked so poetic.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Simone Rocha
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Salsa has rhythm, whether you dance it or spoon it. This summer, the Aquazzura Bar serves both at once with an exclusive taco that lands every Tuesday in the Secret Garden of the Hotel de Russie, styled with tequila, salmon and lime.

The Aquazzura Bar is the result of a remarkable collaboration between the Italian luxury brand Aquazzura and Rome’s legendary Hotel de Russie. Tucked into the hotel’s Secret Garden, it unfolds as a small oasis of calm where Mediterranean flair meets Italian elegance, the perfect hideaway for intimate summer evenings under the open sky.

Throughout July and August, every Tuesday brings exclusive tacos to the menu, created especially for Taco Tuesday and available for a limited time only. Fresh and smoked salmon meet creamy avocado, fiery jalapeños and the delicate citrus note of finger lime, a harmonious composition that pairs beautifully with one of the bar’s signature tequila cocktails. Taco Tuesday becomes a delicious summer ritual: relaxed, refined and full of intense flavour.

Taco Tuesday Experience: € 32

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Hotel de Russie / Aquazzura
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Walking into the John Madejski Garden on Wednesday evening, you could feel that this one was special. The V&A Summer Party was turning ten, and the museum had pulled out all the stops, throwing open its courtyard for what has quietly become the most coveted night in London’s summer calendar.

With interior designer Pernilla Bennet of House of Bennet

A decade ago the museum turned its annual fundraiser into something far cleverer than a gala. The concept is simple and rather brilliant. Every summer the V&A invites a committee of leading creative voices to shape the evening and, crucially, to bring emerging talent into the room.

One of my favorites and definitely one of the most outstanding talents at the moment: Harris Reed, who officially stepped down as the creative director of Nina Ricci in March 2026, after a three-and-a-half-year tenure, is now focusing entirely on his eponymous namesake demi-couture label that is to die for!

Another designer I adore is London-based Molly Goddard, who is a real sweetheart, and truly deserves the title «Queen of Frill».

This year that committee included Harris Reed, David Furnish, Grayson Perry, Sandy Powell and Yinka Ilori, and the result is a guest list where a fresh Central Saint Martins graduate might find themselves deep in conversation with the patron who goes on to change their career. The party raises vital funds for the museum, but it also does something money cannot buy. It keeps British creativity alive, connected and celebrated.

Opening speech by Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Returning this year carried its own meaning, because the party had taken a break in 2025. In the past the evening often doubled as the curtain raiser for a major new show. When I last attended in 2024, the night marked the opening of Naomi: In Fashion, the museum’s glorious tribute to Naomi Campbell. This year there was no exhibition opening to coincide with the celebration, which personally speaking I missed. Half the thrill has always been stepping into a brand new world the moment the doors open.

The weather, for once, played its part beautifully. Glasses of Nyetimber caught the last of the evening light, Jessie Ware took to the stage, and the garden hummed with that particular energy you only find when fashion, art, music and a little British eccentricity collide all at once.

Performance by Jessie Ware.

I will be honest with you. I did not see everyone. The garden was so full of wonderful people that I spent most of the night lost in the kind of conversations you simply do not want to walk away from. That, for me, is the real luxury of an evening like this. Not the spectacle, but the company.

Photos: @gettyentertainment

The room held its share of icons, too. Mick Jagger, effortless as ever. Ellie Goulding, radiant. Maya Jama, Akshata Murty, Edie Campbell, Olly Alexander and Munroe Bergdorf were among the faces moving through the candlelit garden, alongside what felt like the whole of London’s fashion and art world gathered in one glorious place.

Always fun seeing my friend Mark-Francis Vandelli, who stars in «Ladies of London».

Ten years in, the V&A Summer Party has lost none of its magic. It remains a love letter to creativity, a celebration of one of the great cultural institutions of our time, and proof that the best nights are the ones spent among brilliant people under a perfect summer sky.

Here is to the next ten.

LoL, Sandra

So nice seeing Juergen Teller again with whom we worked so much at Marie Claire Germany many years ago. He is one of the best photographers I know that has a very special language.

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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Where Fashion Meets Wallpaper:
A Morning at Annabel’s with Martin Brudnizki and de Gournay

Few interiors in London stop me the way Annabel’s does. As a member of the Membership Committee at the club, I spend a fair amount of time on Berkeley Square, and yet Martin Brudnizki’s work hits differently every single time. His studio MBDS created something genuinely unique here: a universe of controlled fantasy, English eccentricity and absolute attention to detail. The kind of space that makes you want to dress up just to be worthy of it.

Last Tuesday, I was at the club for breakfast with Martin Brudnizki and Hannah Cecil Gurney of de Gournay to see a new installation celebrating the English summer, which London, with its characteristic sense of humour, chose to mark with a day of horizontal rain. Inside, none of that mattered. The new de Gournay panels are breathtaking: a sweeping floral composition alive with birds, painted in that unmistakable hand that de Gournay has made its signature. Lush, layered, luminous. The moment I saw them, my mind went immediately to the Erdem collaboration, and for very personal reasons.

Those who have followed my interiors journey over the years will know that my previous home was conceived as a love letter to fashion. I dedicated each room to a different designer, with de Gournay as the connective thread running throughout. My study was entirely devoted to the Erdem x de Gournay collection: chinoiserie of birds and blossoms, handpainted in watercolour, in a design that Erdem Moralioglu and Hannah Cecil Gurney brought into being with a shared obsession for the handmade, the romantic and the rare. I lived inside that collaboration, quite literally. And I dressed to match it.

So when I sat down for breakfast last week, I wore my Erdem x de Gournay Giudita tie-neck belted floral-print silk-voile dress. The only possible choice. It felt like a small homage, and it was received as such.

Over breakfast, Martin and Hannah spoke about something that I think many people do not fully understand about the de Gournay design process: the role of the client. The vision, when it is strong and specific, is not a constraint. It is the starting point from which something truly singular can be made. My own vision for that home was fashion, always fashion. With de Gournay, we translated it into walls, into rooms, into an entire way of inhabiting a space. A collaboration in the truest sense of the word, unfolding slowly, with intention.

I will write more about this process another time, because it deserves the space to be explored properly. For now: a dress that was exactly where it needed to be, a room that understood it completely, and a conversation at the table as beautiful as everything else around it.

LoL, Sandra

With my beautiful girlfriends Marijana Matthäus and Monica Perlman.

Photos: Courtesy of Annabel’s / © Sandra Bauknecht 
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Just in time for the summer season, the Costa Smeralda is getting its most glamorous and quintessentially Italian makeover yet. Dolce & Gabbana has partnered with the legendary Hotel Cala di Volpe to transform one of Europe’s most storied luxury retreats into a sun-drenched stage set worthy of a Vogue editorial.

The Cala di Volpe needs little introduction. Designed in the 1960s by French architect Jacques Couëlle and nestled into a breathtaking Sardinian bay, the property has long been regarded as a sculptural masterpiece, its whitewashed terraces and terracotta rooflines evoking the romance of a traditional fishing village. It is, in short, the perfect canvas for Italian fashion’s most theatrical house.

At the heart of the collaboration is the iconic Majolica print, one of Dolce & Gabbana’s most beloved and enduring signatures. Rooted in the centuries-old ceramic tradition of Sicily, the motif draws directly from the hand-painted tiles of Caltagirone, a city whose majolica staircases and intricate decorative craftsmanship have defined the island’s visual identity since the Arabs brought the art form to Sicily in the 9th century.

Domenico Dolce, himself a Sicilian, has woven this heritage into the brand’s DNA since the print first gained widespread attention with the S/S 2016 collection. What makes the Majolica print so compelling is its characteristic bi-chromatic palette: elaborate botanical and arabesque motifs rendered in rich contrasting hues against a light ground, evoking the hand of a master ceramicist translated into fabric.

Each season, Dolce & Gabbana reinterprets the print in a new signature colour. Last summer, that colour was a luminous lemon yellow (gialla). This year, the house has moved on to a vibrant orange (arancione). And it is that very yellow, from the 2025 season, that forms the backdrop of the Cala di Volpe takeover, tying the hotel’s sun-soaked aesthetic directly to one of the most talked-about print stories in recent fashion memory. I have the perfect outfit for the occasion, click here to see it.

For this exclusive partnership, the Majolica Gialla pattern envelops the two terraces of the hotel’s iconic Atrium Bar, the chicest meeting point on the entire coastline. Elaborately decorated cabanas and hand-painted vases complete the immersive tableau, turning every corner into a moment.

Beyond the visual takeover, the brand has opened an exclusive pop-up store directly within the hotel, offering a curated edit of ready-to-wear and accessories conceived specifically for this setting. Think effortless summer dressing with the unmistakable DG sensibility: bold, sun-kissed, and unapologetically luxurious.

For anyone fortunate enough to be on the Costa Smeralda this season, a stop at Cala di Volpe is more than a hotel visit. It is a full Dolce & Gabbana lifestyle experience, set against one of the Mediterranean’s most spectacular backdrops.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Cala di Volpe and © Sandra Bauknecht
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Ralph Lauren and the USPS Just Made Stamps Worth Collecting
For nearly six decades, Ralph Lauren has been synonymous with American style. Now he is leaving his mark on something even more quintessentially American: the postage stamp.

To celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, the U.S. Postal Service invited the designer, and 2025 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, to curate «American Icons,» a 13-stamp commemorative pane. It is the first time in USPS history that a single individual has been handed the creative reins over an entire official stamp issuance, and the result feels exactly as considered and layered as you would expect from Lauren.

The pane draws from his personal archives and the visual touchstones that have shaped his career over the decades. Twelve stamps line the outer edges, each one a quiet portrait of American life: Jackie Robinson’s worn baseball glove, a Diné blanket woven by Naiomi Glasses, a pickup truck, the Empire State Building. At the centre sits a 13th stamp, larger and anchoring the entire composition, featuring Lauren’s own knit flag design framed in blue denim and marked simply «1776 to 2026.»

Separately, the USPS is also releasing a 2026 U.S. Flag Mail Use Stamp, its design pulled directly from the distinctive knit texture of Lauren’s iconic Flag Sweater.

A Ralph Lauren project without a wearable counterpart would be incomplete, and so a limited edition capsule collection launches globally on June 9, the day of the official dedication ceremony. The lineup brings back a reimagined American Flag Sweater alongside a classic Polo Shirt and a tailored Ball Cap, each piece rooted in the same heritage the stamps celebrate.

The stamps are available now for pre-order through USPS locations and online. The apparel drops June 9 at select Ralph Lauren stores and on ralphlauren.com.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Courtesy of Ralph Lauren #AmericanIconsStamps
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This week, I had the absolute pleasure of being invited to the Zimmermann boutique here in Zurich for an exclusive event celebrating their new collection and it was nothing short of magical.

The boutique was alive with beautiful cocktails, wonderful conversations, and enchanting musical performances that set the most perfect atmosphere. It was one of those rare evenings where everything just felt at ease, the people, the energy, the setting, and of course, the clothes.

(If you like my Zimmermann look, click here for the details).

Zimmermann needs little introduction for those who follow fashion. Founded in Sydney in 1991 by sisters Nicky and Simone Zimmermann, the Australian label has grown into one of the world’s most beloved luxury brands. Known for their dreamy femininity, intricate craftsmanship, and that signature blend of romance and ease, Zimmermann has a way of making every piece feel like it was made just for you. Their designs draw heavily on delicate prints, flowing silhouettes, lace detailing, and an almost poetic sense of movement, clothes that feel as beautiful to wear as they look.

I have to confess: Zimmermann is one of my absolute favourite brands. I own an embarrassing number of their pieces and I regret none of them (scroll down and you see most of my Zimmermann outfits). Every single item tells a story and has a place in my heart (and my wardrobe).

The new collection did not disappoint. Seeing it up close, feeling the fabrics, and discovering the details in person was a true treat. If you ever get the chance to visit the Zurich boutique, do not hesitate, it is a beautiful space worthy of the brand it represents.

TO SHOP THE NEW ZIMMERMANN COLLECTION ONLINE, CLICK HERE PLEASE.

Thank you, Zimmermann, for such a wonderful evening. Until next time.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht and @SelinaSeibel
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Family Time 🤍… some things are just universal. A day in Boston with my daughter Anouk, my favorite kind of time. We ended it with Peking duck at JIANG NAN – Chinese Fusion, simple and perfect.

Wearing Alice + Olivia – I love how the brand creates pieces that feel playful, bold, exactly my style and with a fit that feels made for me.

And every time I watch the stories of Stacey Bendet, I can’t help but smile, the way her daughter Scarlet captures her, the little comments, that mother-daughter rhythm… it feels so familiar. Alice + Olivia was founded in 2002, the same year Anouk was born. A full circle moment.

My look: Bradley stretch cotton equestrian cardigan, and gorgeous corduroy jumpsuit, both by Alice + Olivia, Paris metallic leather ankle boots and Monogram fringed shoulder bag, both by Saint Laurent, cat-eye sunglasses by Gucci, and crystal-embellished clip-on earrings in gold by Alessandra Rich.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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Georgian Fashion: Why Tbilisi Belongs on Every Fashion Lover’s Map

There is a city where fashion is not a trend. It is a statement of identity. Tbilisi surprised me. Not with its architecture, not with its food, although both are extraordinary, but with the way people dress. Expressive, oversized, dark, fearless. Nothing for the shy. The women on the streets wear their individuality like armour. Deep, dark makeup. Sculptural silhouettes. A grunge-cool energy that feels entirely their own and entirely unimpressed by what anyone else thinks. I found it absolutely thrilling.

But the real story of Georgian fashion starts with two names the world already knows.

Demna & David Koma – Georgia’s Global Voices

Demna Gvasalia, co-founder of Vetements, the visionary behind Balenciaga’s radical reinvention, and now at the helm of Gucci, is Georgian.. His architectural, often raw approach to fashion has always carried something of his homeland in it, that particular tension between brutalism and beauty that Tbilisi embodies perfectly. David Koma (in picture with me), born in Tbilisi and trained at Central Saint Martins, built an international career on precise, sculptural dressing that is quietly, unmistakably Georgian in its rigour. Both are proof that this small country punches far above its weight on the global fashion stage.

ANOUKI – Georgia’s Own Victoria Beckham

If there is one name that defines modern Tbilisi fashion for a wider audience, it is ANOUKI. Founded in 2013 by Anouki Areshidze, the brand is known for its bold colours, intricate embellishments, and a distinctive mix of textures that blends modernity with femininity. Anouki herself is something of a national icon, married to the mayor of Tbilisi, and often described as the Victoria Beckham of Georgia.

She has her own flagship store in the city (2 Tarkhnishvili Street), and her pieces are available internationally on Farfetch and Moda Operandi. I adore her designs (how cute are these tulle dresses?!) and not only because her name happens to be the same as my daughter’s.

Situationist – Fashion as Political Act

Situationist founder Irakli Rusadze has never shied away from using his collections to make bold, powerful statements. A self-taught designer born and based in Tbilisi, he started working in fashion at fifteen and presented his first collection at Tbilisi Fashion Week at twenty-one. Today, Situationist shows in Paris and counts Beyoncé, Bella Hadid and Doechii among its fans. The brand’s name is inspired by the mid-20th century group of intellectuals and artists known as the Situationists, emblematic of political dissent and cultural avant-garde. His clothes carry that weight as this gorgeous brown leather jacket. You feel it when you look at them. His designs are also available at Farfetch.

George Keburia – The Sunglasses Everyone Is Wearing

George Keburia is a self-taught designer born in Tbilisi in 1990, whose label is known for surrealist references and outlandish concepts expressed through exaggerated silhouettes and a synthesis of heavy and light fabrics. But it was his eyewear that made him globally famous. His sleek, angular frames found fans in Rihanna, Solange, and Bella and Gigi Hadid, a reminder that the fashion landscape is increasingly shaped by one iconic piece rather than an entire runway. If you have been wondering where those tiny cat-eye frames you keep seeing come from – now you know.

Tamuna Ingorokva – Tailoring with Couture Precision

Tamuna Ingorokva is the quieter name on this list, but no less impressive. Known for her minimalist tailoring crafted in her own Tbilisi atelier, each piece is cut and sewn by a small team with a couture-like attention to detail. Her work is the antidote to fast fashion – considered, precise, and built to last.

Aleksandre Akhalkatsishvili – Deconstructive Minimalism

Aleksandre Akhalkatsishvili is one of the most exciting names to emerge from the Georgian fashion scene in recent years. The award-winning designer is behind not one but two of Georgia’s best-known labels, Matériel, which he co-designs with Lado Bokuchava, and his own eponymous line. His philosophy is deconstructive minimalism, using vegan leather as a signature material, he creates a vision of the modern woman who is aligned with the 21st century and unafraid of its challenges. Straight lines, a precise mix of feminine and masculine, and pieces that are built to last beyond a single season. A name to know – and to wear.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi – Georgia’s Own Runway

Since 2015, Tbilisi has its own Fashion Week, and it is the real deal. Every October, international press, buyers and tastemakers fly in to discover the next generation of Georgian talent. Names like ANOUKI, George Keburia, Lado Bokuchava and Ingorokva have all shown here. Not every big name is on the schedule, Demna and David Koma built their careers on the international circuit, but for anyone wanting to experience Georgian fashion at its most raw and exciting, this is the moment to be in Tbilisi.

Where to Shop in Tbilisi – My Personal Edit

Ieri (Vasil Petriashvili 1) is not easy to find, which is part of its charm. Tucked into a wonderfully cool neighbourhood full of great restaurants and cafés, it is a destination worth seeking out. The concept store celebrates Georgian designers almost exclusively at the highest level, the sign at the entrance reads like a who’s who of the country’s best talent: Aleksandre Akhalkatsishvili, Situationist, Keburia, Lado Bokuchava, Sofio Gongli, Tata Naka, Lili Archive, David Koma, Ingorokva, and more.

Recently, Comme des Garçons joined the edit, after Rei Kawakubo visited Tbilisi, fell in love with the store, and personally wanted her pieces to be sold there. That alone tells you everything about the calibre of Ieri.

More is Love, closer to the hotel district, carries a wonderful selection of Georgian designers including ANOUKI, and is a perfect starting point for discovering the local scene in one visit.

Right next door, Archived Couture is a revelation for vintage lovers, an incredible selection of Christian Lacroix and CHANEL at a quality that would be hard to find anywhere in Europe.

Boygar’s – Tbilisi’s Luxury Destination

For those who want international luxury alongside the local talent, Boygar’s on Rustaveli Avenue is a must. Spread across three floors of a stunning historic building on Tbilisi’s main shopping boulevard, the store carries an exceptional edit of global houses, Prada, Loewe, Bottega Veneta, The Row, Jacquemus, Valentino, Khaite, Phoebe Philo, Saint Laurent and many more.

But what makes Boygar’s truly special is the interior, designed by acclaimed Stockholm-based studio Halleroed, it pairs the building’s ornate architectural heritage with contemporary minimalism, Georgian earthy tones and curated artworks by young Georgian artists. It does not feel like a luxury store you have seen before. It feels like Tbilisi.

Beyond these, the city is full of thrift stores and vintage finds at every price point. Just be aware: there are also many shops selling fake designer goods. My rule, if it feels too easy, walk past and never ever buy fakes!

A Final Note
Georgian fashion is expressive, political, deeply rooted in cultural identity and utterly unbothered by the mainstream. Whether you leave with a Keburia pair of sunglasses, an ANOUKI piece, or simply a new perspective on what dressing boldly really means, Tbilisi will stay with you long after you land home. I know it has stayed with me.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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«Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art» – an exhibition that sets out to explore the rare moment when clothing transcends function and becomes pure expression – opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum with a quiet sense of occasion that felt entirely fitting.

The evening began, as such evenings should, with a sense of anticipation. London suspended between history and spectacle, the museum preparing to open its doors to a world that has always lived slightly beyond the real.

With my dear friend Pernilla Bennet of House of Bennet at the opening.

I had flown in for the occasion, drawn not only by the promise of the exhibition but by something more personal, a long-standing admiration for Elsa Schiaparelli and the singular universe she created. Dressing for the night felt less like choosing an outfit and more like stepping into a dialogue with her legacy.

I wore Schiaparelli, of course, an ensemble rich in detail, anchored by those unmistakable buttons that are never merely functional but small sculptures in their own right. There is something transformative about wearing Schiaparelli: you don’t simply dress, you participate.

Beautiful opening speech by Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

With actress and singer Minnie Driver at the opening reception.

Almost as if the spirit of Elsa Schiaparelli was still quietly moving through the room.

With one of the UK’s first hijab-wearing models, Ikram Abdi Omar, both in Schiaparelli.

The Opening: A Living Surrealist Moment

The reception unfolded with a kind of cinematic elegance. Guests moved through the museum like characters in a dream Elsa herself might have approved of, where fashion, art, and personality dissolve into one another. It felt fitting, because Schiaparelli never believed in boundaries.

Elsa was not simply a designer; she was an instigator of ideas. She introduced shocking pink as a cultural statement, elevated the ordinary into the extraordinary, and treated garments as canvases for wit and subversion. Her fascination with the surreal, lobster dresses, skeleton gowns, tears rendered in silk, was never decorative. It was a way of seeing.

She brought so many extraordinary ideas into fashion. Her eye for surrealism, her collaborations with artists like Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau, her instinct for symbolism and illusion, and her fascination with remarkable details, especially her extraordinary buttons, helped redefine what couture could be.

On display is the Schiaparelli Harlequin Coat from the S/S 1939 Haute Couture collection entitled «Commedia dell’ Arte» inspired from Man Ray’s 1939 painting entitled «Les Beaux Temps».

Elsa did not merely create beauty; she created conversation. Her work had humor, elegance, and often an intentional sense of disturbance. That was part of her brilliance. She understood that fashion becomes unforgettable when it surprises the eye and unsettles expectation just enough to make people look again.

A Morning with the Past and Present

The following morning offered something rarer: stillness, and the privilege of understanding.

I was guided through the exhibition by Sonnet Stanfill, Senior Curator of Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), whose clarity and sensitivity brought the entire curation into focus. It was a deeply impressive experience and one that stayed with me on a very personal level.

One room is dedicated to Elsa Schiaparelli’s amazing jackets with incredible details.

What makes this exhibition remarkable is its rhythm. Rather than isolating history, it stages a conversation, one room dedicated to Elsa’s original creations, the next to the contemporary vision of Daniel Roseberry.

Daniel Roseberry’s dreamy designs.

This alternation is more than curatorial, it is philosophical. It allows you to see, almost viscerally, how a house survives time without becoming static.

Three rare pieces from Elsa Schiaparelli’s iconic 1938 Circus Collection.

From Elsa to Daniel Roseberry – a legacy reimagined, the inspiration found within the exhibition itself.

Elsa’s pieces remain astonishing: technically daring, intellectually mischievous, and deeply emotional. But what I just love as much is how seamlessly Roseberry’s work stands beside them. He has achieved something exceedingly rare. His designs do not imitate; they translate. The codes, bold symbolism, sculptural silhouettes, that slightly disquieting elegance, remain intact, yet they are sharpened for a contemporary eye.

Daniel Roseberry with me

For me, he is one of the most compelling designers working today. There is precision in his work, but also courage. He understands that Schiaparelli must provoke, not just please.

Walking through the exhibition, I felt something unexpectedly personal: a renewed conviction in the beauty of collecting fashion. To preserve, to curate, to believe that garments carry memory and meaning. And, quietly, the thought emerged, perhaps one day, my own collection Sandra’s Closet will live in a space like this.

Conversations at Annabel’s

From the museum, I hurried to Annabel’s, where another layer of the story unfolded in conversation.

On stage, Daniel Slater, Director of Exhibitions at the V&A, spoke alongside Francesco Pastore, Head of Heritage and Culture at Schiaparelli, about the making of the exhibition. What appears effortless to the visitor is, in truth, the result of years, seven, as it turns out, of discussion, negotiation, research, and patience. To gather these pieces, to shape them into a coherent narrative, required not only expertise but devotion.

Toward the end, Delphine Bellini, CEO of Schiaparelli, joined the discussion, and I found myself asking a question that had lingered with me: why choose Daniel Roseberry, at the time a relatively unknown name outside industry circles, despite his important work with Thom Browne?

Her answer was as precise as it was revealing. Roseberry had submitted a portfolio so extraordinary, so clear in its vision, that the decision became inevitable. What he offered was not just skill, but perspective: an ability to bridge heritage and modernity through what she described, beautifully, as a «quite disturbing view.»

It is exactly that tension, between beauty and unease, elegance and provocation, that defines Schiaparelli at its best.

Daniel Roseberry’s now-iconic look worn by Gigi Hadid in Cannes with its sculptural lung necklace born from an unexpected production accident, turned into one of Schiaparelli’s most striking modern signatures.

A House That Refuses to Sleep

What this exhibition ultimately makes clear is that Schiaparelli is not a house anchored in nostalgia. It is alive, restless, intelligent, and unwilling to settle.

Elsa once stood at the intersection of fashion and art, reshaping both. Today, under Daniel Roseberry, that spirit continues, not as imitation, but as evolution.

And as I left, still carrying the echo of the night before and the clarity of the morning after, one thought remained: some maisons dress the body, others shape identity. Schiaparelli does something rarer, it changes the way you see.

And that, perhaps, is the real triumph of «Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art»: it shows that the most powerful fashion does not simply dress the body. It leaves a mark on the mind.

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art runs until 8 November 2026 at V&A South Kensington.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
DISCLOSURE: We may earn commission from links on this page, but I only recommend products I love. Promise.