Taking the magic of Elsa Schiaparelli’s childhood memories, flowers, and constellations, Bertrand Guyon scattered his whimsical and eclectic Schiaparelli Spring 2019 Haute Couture collection with flowers worked in a myriad of ways.

“It’s a very fresh, young and feminine collection, a little daring in some volumes (…) and as always with that touch of humour,” said Bertrand Guyon.

Imbuing his collection with a child’s sense of optimism, lightness, and freshness, the collection reflected in a playful palette that included unexpected mixes of pink, lime, icy blues, lilacs, and chrome-yellow.

The fragile blooms fashioned from 18th-century porcelain that were used to decorate candelabras, for instance, were replicated in a myriad tiny sequins, while those painted at the same period in astonishingly eye-popping and modern looking mixes of shocking pink and turquoise. Others were embroidered in silk thread with the naïve hand of a child’s drawing, or to add three-dimensionality to the luxurious warp-printed taffetas. The constellations appeared in various guises too, from elaborately embroidered Baroque maps of the skies to an intarsia of joyful pastel stars inset into a silk ziberline trapeze-line dress.

This season, Guyon looked to Schiaparelli’s postwar designs with a new jacket shape, for instance, with rounded hips emphasizing a small waist, a softer shoulder, and stand-away pockets, was taken from documents of this period. That flattering silhouette was echoed in abbreviated little hourglass dresses, while natural hair and makeup and the surprise of star-spangled cowboy boots cut the nostalgia with a knife.

Watch as design director Bertrand Guyon talks about the new Schiaparelli Haute Couture collection.