Haute Couture Clients 2008

[augustus]

My friend also went to this exhibit...Isn't this collection gorgeous!?

Thanks for the pictures.

[KKnardi]

splendid! thank you for pictures

[borjacapella]

I just remembered that one of the windows at the dDior flagship in paris (av. montaigne) this summer had 3 shoes on display. 2 of them were from the fw rtw collection, and the third one was from this couture collection with obvious signs that they were a bit worn out (from the show i asume). the price of the rtw was written next to their description, and for the couture (which it didnt specify it was haute couture) it said to "ask an SA for the price".

[eternitygoddess]

The clothes are stunning up close.

[LetThemEatCake]

Thanks for posting the photos, Mishahoi! Beautiful, amazing creations and what a treat to see the exhibit and be near them in person! Still fascinated with that collection.

[dior_couture1245]

So jealous, mishahoi.

[Miss Galliano]

i love this collection.. i missed it .. i want to see it again

[JJohnson]

Originally Posted by ilaughead

^Definitely Dior. I'll find a runway picture.

Yea It's Dior Couture from a few years ago, I cant remember exactly, but here are some pictures. AMAZING dress:

[christina126]

That Dior collection looks much better on the manequins, because now they look more wearble (without all the other distractions of a Dior runway show).

[ilaughead]

^Ah! Thank you for finding that picture! I must've gotten distracted when I was looking for it.

[Street_a_Licious]

i still love that Japonism collection.... god, gorgeous!

[Love$2shop]

Originally Posted by eternitygoddess

How many of those women actually made their own fortunes instead of marrying into money or inheriting?

Who cares ...

[borjacapella]

^exactly!

in fact, many of the women in the Secret World of Haute Couture documentary are powerful working women, no?

[Fontenrose]

Young at Haute

At 24, Chanel fan Jade Lau is a new convert to the cult of couture.

wmagazine

Jade Lau, wearing a Chanel couture dress and a Chanel ready-to-wear cardigan, in a hallway at The New School

Like many college students studying abroad, Jade Lau wears jeans, takes public transit, volunteers, does her own laundry and visits her family on breaks from school. But the soft-spoken young woman has an additional reason to cut class that few of her university peers share: couture shows and fittings. Since 2005 Lau has been a regular client at Chanel—emblematic of a new generation of customers, mostly from the Far East and Russia, who are keeping high fashion growing. A natural beauty with wash-and-go hair, little makeup and few airs, Lau lights up when she recalls her first encounter with the world’s most expensive clothes. Thanks to the fact that her late mother, Theresa, was an important client of Chanel Fine Jewelry and ready-to-wear, Jade was invited to the fall 2005 couture show at the Paris house. Afterward, she told her father, Hong Kong real-estate titan Joseph Lau, how much she had loved Karl Lagerfeld’s spellbinding coat and dress presentation, which was featured in Francis Veber’s 2006 film The Valet.
“I thought I was just there to watch the show, and that was going to be the highlight of my trip,” Lau recalls. “And then [my father] caught me by surprise and said, ‘Well, if you really like it, you can get something.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ I was 21.”
According to Lagerfeld, the numbers of fresh-faced recruits to the couture are rising. “There are more and more younger women with more and more money,” he says. Clients of all ages are also seeking more youthful styles today. “Why buy couture and look dated?” Lagerfeld asks. “Designers have to keep the spirit of their dresses in the mood of the moment.”
When Lau ordered a black wool coat and a ribbon-trimmed evening dress for a New Year’s Eve ball in Hong Kong, she became the first member of her family to own a couture piece. Wealthy Asians typically spend more money on things like fine jewelry, she notes. “Because I am the younger one, [my family] thinks that I should be the one taking care of myself and looking nice,” Lau says matter-of-factly. “Obviously, they have more authority or right or money to order it for themselves, but they are just happy for me. I’m very lucky.”
Lau, who is working on her master’s degree in psychology at The New School for Social Research in New York, has been under fashion’s spell for a long time. Born in Toronto, she grew up in one of the great shopping capitals, Hong Kong. At age 12, she intercepted one of her mother’s Chanel deliveries and discovered that a long-sleeve dress fit her perfectly. And when she was at the Institut Le Rosey boarding school in Switzerland, she and her friends preferred glossy magazines to textbooks.
By Miles Socha
Photographed by Sean Donnola

February 2008

[thesiren]

what a lucky, luck gal.