Dua Lipa may have spent the weekend surrounded by books, but one particularly fashionable creature appeared to have crawled straight out of the ocean and wrapped itself around her waist. The singer was at the London Literature Festival on 25 October wearing Schiaparelli Spring/Summer 2027, complete with an elaborate gold octopus buckle whose tentacles stretched across the front of her black leather belt.
It was an unexpectedly aquatic finishing touch for a weekend dedicated to the written word, although Schiaparelli has never exactly been known for keeping its accessories on dry land. Dua Lipa had good reason to dress for the occasion.
The Service95 Book Club founder curated this year's London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre, where her opening weekend included conversations with writers and artists including Zadie Smith, Mustafa, and Patti Smith. True to her 'It girl' status, the 'Training Season' singer brought enough fashion drama to give the books some competition for the spotlight.
Dua Lipa's Schiaparelli Look Had Plenty of Tentacles
The octopus may have claimed the most arms, but it wasn't the only part of Dua Lipa's outfit snagging attention. Her sheer tulle top was embroidered with motifs inspired by the French fashion house's archives, combining velvet elements with hand-painted multicoloured badla, sequins, and rhinestones.
Then came the belt that could easily launch a cephalopod-core trend. Wrapped around Lipa's waist was black leather fastened with a sculptural gold-metal octopus, its curling tentacles making a standard buckle suddenly look painfully underqualified for the job.
The piece appeared as part of Look 47 from Daniel Roseberry's Spring/Summer 2027 ready-to-wear collection. On the runway, the same octopus buckle accompanied a similarly embroidered sheer shirt and oversized black shorts, alongside even more underwater details including gold tentacle earrings and sunglasses with tentacle-shaped temples. Apparently, eight arms were still not enough accessorising.
Schiaparelli Has Been Fishing for Fashion Inspiration
The octopus also fits perfectly into Schiaparelli's long-running appetite for turning unexpected objects, anatomy, and animals into surrealist fashion. For Spring/Summer 2027, Roseberry described jewellery including horses, dolphins, pigs, dogs, cats, and spiders as a menagerie of 'spirit animals'.
Marine life had already found its way into the house's recent designs, too. Schiaparelli's Autumn/Winter 2026–27 couture collection featured gold jewellery shaped like writhing octopus tentacles, shell earrings, and pieces inspired by sea anemones. Dua Lipa's golden hitchhiker therefore had plenty of company in the Schiaparelli universe.
Meanwhile, her weekend at Southbank Centre had more literary matters on the agenda, rather than aquatic ones. As curator, Lipa brought her Service95 Book Club into the festival programme, sitting down for conversations including Zadie Smith on 'White Teeth', Mustafa on his poetry collection 'Nour', and Patti Smith on her memoir 'Bread of Angels'.
Her wardrobe may have taken a dive underwater, but the occasion remained very much on land where the books stay safe and dry. Still, if Dua Lipa was fishing for a statement accessory to wear among some of literature's biggest names, she certainly caught one. Schiaparelli gave her eight extra arms for the weekend, and not one of them had to hold a book.
