Haute Couture Clients

[LUXXX]

Becca Cason Thrash was interesting in the couture video...from working class girl to couture buyer...cool story. I like the Houston socialites...they're straight forward...LOL

 

[LetThemEatCake]

^ Just a reminder that we should probably stay OT & discuss those who are HC clients vs those who could be

Back on topic. I'm going to re-watch the secret world of couture...I liked the elderly lady who wouldnt allow any cameras in her closets so she had a whole rack of Dior couture wheeled out! And the woman (forgive me for not remembering names) who called Karl a genius. I want to know their world!

 

[LUXXX]

Back on topic. I'm going to re-watch the secret world of couture...I liked the elderly lady who wouldnt allow any cameras in her closets so she had a whole rack of Dior couture wheeled out! And the woman (forgive me for not remembering names) who called Karl a genius. I want to know their world!

The older women would probably be fascinating to talk to...especially the one who used to go to shows with The Duchess of Windsor and the other with Jackie Kennedy...it's pretty cool to think of time when fashion was so exclusive and women always dressed up...

I liked that Baroness who worked for YSL too...she had so much insight and her voice was great!

 

[KKnardi]

I find the documentary "The Secret World of Haute Couture" very fascinating, even though I knew everything about the couture-world! Thanks for posting it!

 

[Dkammern]

Liashoes posted this in another thread

Mouna Ayoub

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Mouna Ayoub (Arabic:منى أيوب) (born on February 27th 1957(reference needed) is a well-known French socialite and Businesswoman of Christian Lebanese origin. Very mediatized [1], she is often the guest of the Cannes film festival, and make headlines in the French people magazines. When she was 20 years old she converted to Islam to marry Nasser Al-Rashid, a 40 year old businessman and advisor of King Fahd. After eighteen years of marriage she left Saudi Arabia and made a fortune in real estate.
In 1997 she bought the boat of Bernard Tapie [2], Phocéa, for 5.56 million euros to which were added 18.25 million euros of work. To carry this work out Mouna sold a proportion of her jewels including one of the largest yellow diamonds of the world (112.53 carats) for a price of 2.52 million euros (16.5 million francs) and a Bulgari necklace for (15.3 million francs). Mouna Ayoub has owned since the beginning of the 1980s the largest private collection of haute couture, composed of more than 10,000 items, which she continues to add to each season. In 2004, "Arabian Business" Magazine ranked her 45th richest Arab with wealth estimated at $380 million [3].

10.000 HAUTE COTURE ITEMS!!!! THAT IS A LOT MORE THAN WHAT GALLIANO HAS DONE IN HIS WHOLE CAREER!

i learn about her that she owns one of the biggest private boats called PHOCEA (http://www.phocea-mouna-ayoub.com/) and looking at pictures of it, i found this!!

it totally looks Galliano-ish, but i'd swear it's a chanel hanger... just coincidence right? karl never ever did something like that, right? right?

(credit for the picture goes to the boats page mentioned above)

 

[ilaughead]

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

 

[LetThemEatCake]

I adore Mouna Ayoub. I made a thread many many months ago and was trying to get more info about her. Hadnt seen that dress...it looks like Dior.

You can see her in this video

John Galliano takes over Christian Dior, Mouna is at 1:05.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwLqC-YaaQo
I havent seen her at shows lately, or else she stopped going?

 

[j´adore dior]

During the summer 2002 collections i saw her on tv complaining about couture prices, saying they kept getting higer and higer each season to an unsoportable rate, have no idea is she still buys couture or not.

In chile we have a couture collector, who spends his life travelling and well, collecting couture pieces, he even created a museum who opened its doors last year with an exhibition that started explaining fashion´s evolution since the XVII centuary until today, there you can see recent couture dresses from Gaultier Paris and Dior, among vintage creations from all important designers, he is said to have enaugh Dior material to create an expo about him, fingers crossed
Heres a link: http://www.mmyt.cl/exhibiciones.php?f=7&s=2&z=2&scat=exhibicion

 

[nyc_art_style]

there is a whole process...
in order to even have access to the opportunity to go to the shows, let alone buy them, you must be approved by the Federation Francaise de la Couture. Like Meg has said, in order to get in you need to be invited by an existing member or inherit membership from a deceased member.

Are you serious? You have to apply to a federation in order to be allowed to buy couture? oh my goodness, this is so much more exclusive than i thought.

I knew there was a company of sorts that determined whether a house could be considered couture, but i didn't know they tested their clients as well.

Does anyone have anymore information on this federation?

 

[Dkammern]

^^i guess every country has it's own! there's an old lady here in Spain (madrid) who claims to wear nothing but (which i seriously doubt). Everybody in spain says she is beyond chic and elegant, although i dont quite agree... besides she is pretty self centered and in every interview i've read she just talks about her divine clothes, her "exclusive" pret-a-porter pieces, how much giorgio armani adores her, how much gianni versace used to...she even mentions that karl once told her she was the CHICEST woman he had ever met (CAN YOU SERIOUSLY BELIEVE THAT?!?!? ) i think it's all bull****!

mundo.es

i think she is just a good client, that's it: she buys one or two pieces of each designer she likes (chanel, dior, valentiono, armani, versace and balmain) every season!

 

[nyc_art_style]

well it looks like her buying days are numbered....

 

[seanutbutter]

The couture section at Nordtrom is not couture Couture, if you know what I mean. It's high-end designer. $5000 Donna Karan Signature rather than French Haute Couture.

I've actually seen some Christian Dior couture pieces at that particular Nordstrom's, though not in recent months. Maybe they've stopped carrying couture, because I visited just this past week and didn't find any.

Sorry for being off topic; I just wanted to say that.

 

[kiddokiddo]

^Couture is absolute made-to-measure..I find that hard to believe that we could find it in any department store other than the house's private showroom...perhaps they were simplified versions or perhaps on loan for display purpose?

 

[MissMagAddict]

^thank you kiddokiddo

couture is most definitely not sold in department stores

 

[augustus]

Perhaps it was on display? I have seen Dior HC on display in a department store in Taiwan....

 

[Dkammern]

well it looks like her buying days are numbered....

that is kind of mean! she is not even that old (70) however, as you can see in the picture, she claims she would rather wear nothing but couture, than undergo plastic surgery as other rich women would do.

 

[liashoes]

Here is an edited version of a NYT interview ( I cut out all the stuff which was not about couture clients or possible couture clients, but about couture itself). It's interesting how he speaks about working women raised on RTW who have made a lot of their own money and can "acquire appreciation for couture." I'm not sure that is true. You either like it or you don't, IMHO.

June 17, 2007, 1:08 pm Q & A: Alber Elbaz of Lanvin

By Cathy Horyn

Alber Elbaz in 2005. (Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones for The New York Times)
Q: But do you think Chanel and Valentino need to have haute couture once Lagerfeld and Valentino decide to retire?
A: I’m going to contradict myself big time. I had lunch recently with the president of DeBeers and I asked him who his competitors were. He said, “Art.” When you have a million dollars in your bank account ready to be burned, you have a choice today to buy a diamond ring or a painting. I see also another thing happening in the world. I read these stories in financial newspapers that say a business was sold for $3 billion. Wow! Or someone’s salary is $75 million. Doing what? Reading some lines? [He laughed.] I’m dying here. We’re working our ***es off, and we don’t even get close to one eighth of an eighth. So, I’m saying that maybe now with all this big money there’s going to be a new couture client.
Q: Yes, but people said that in the 90s with the high-tech explosion. But I don’t see folks from Microsoft or Google at couture. They’re into art, maybe.
A: Yes, but when they have the art in the house, next they want the dress. To go next to the swimming pool.
Q: Nan Kempner may have been ga-ga for couture, but she also appreciated the craft and fit. Can a generation raised in casual clothes suddenly acquire this appreciation?
A: I believe they will. They’re not dumb people. They’ve made a lot of money. These are also the kind of people who made their money themselves. And they’re new women with a new lifestyle. They’re working women. They’re something more pragmatic about their needs.

 

[liashoes]

Another Article I edited to only include info about clients or possible clients from the NYT . The photo is I believe the Haute Couture collector Diane Wolf mentioned in the article. (photo from Socialite.com.) I believe she just passed away January 10, 2008.
Review/Fashion; The Liberated Woman, Through the Prism of Couture


By GINIA BELLAFANTE
Published: January 29, 2002

Jean Paul Gaultier, who began turning out haute couture five years ago with 12 clients. ''I decided that instead of buying an apartment, I'd invest in couture,'' Mr. Gaultier said in his atelier a few days ago. It was a judicious decision. Some clients who for years spent considerable sums at Saint Laurent are now turning their attention to Mr. Gaultier. Diane Wolf, for example, a couture client for 25 years, said that she was struck by the beauty of Mr. Gaultier's latest clothes. ''I had to say to myself 'Diane, calm down,' '' Ms. Wolf said.

 

[LUXXX]

Is everything one of a kind in a couture collection...like can two people order the same dress...or is it only made for one women once she purchases it?

 

[liashoes]

^^^As I understand it, it is made for the buyer/wearer. If this person wants a piece she sees on the runway, she can then have it changed to fit her needs. Adding sleeves, dropping the waist---these are examples of changes this person can request be made.