Trends And Tremors At The Epicenter Of Couture

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Trends and tremors at the epicenter of couture
Suzy Menkes IHT  Tuesday, July 15, 2003

At the reception that closed the Paris haute couture season last week, Renaud Dutreil, minister for commerce and small business, announced a project to help finance young French designers who reached export targets. The plan is part of an overview of French fashion, recognizing that, for all its exceptional Gallic skills of craftsmanship, haute couture no longer has the monopoly on design talent or image creation.

The shows proved that the great names - Chanel, Dior, Gaultier, Lacroix, Ungaro and the Roman Valentino - have a brilliant luster. They remain unchallenged at the peak of the high-fashion pyramid. Yet a second tier of smaller Paris houses has crumbled. Balmain and Feraud have recently laid aside couture, just as Lanvin and Nina Ricci did before them. That void is being filled by a motley crew of designers, especially couturiers from countries where handwork, even if not up to sophisticated Paris standards, is easily available. This season's showing included designers from Arab countries and even India.

At the same time, designers with a sensitivity and imagination that links them to couture on a creative level have started to show their collections. Yohji Yamamoto and the Italian house of Capucci (with the Spanish designer Sybilla) fall into that category. Other hopefuls are showing at couture time to try to get a jump on the crowded October ready-to-wear calendar.

Paris as fashion's epicenter is becoming the victim of its own success. And perhaps the time has come to regularize the situation by demanding, as in the past, tough criteria for haute couture, but inventing other categories for international dressmakers with a proven client base and for creative ready-to-wear designers of proven talent. That would prevent the anarchy in which gaps are filled by anyone who chooses to show.

Even if it is no longer the "laboratory" of fashion or the sole purveyor of smart clothes for society women, the autumn couture came up with strong trends. Winter tailoring was sparse, and the only seasonal element was the widespread use of fur. But even when the couture only endorsed ideas seen previously in ready-to-wear shows, finesse and craftsmanship lifted them to a higher level.

I agree. Raise the standards for couture! Kick out Elie Saab and those designers from Arabia and India who have no talent. Even French locals Nicolas Le Cauchoix, Fred Sethal have no couture bearing in their work at all.

I don't care if only Chanel, Dior, Ungaro, Valentino and Lacroix and Gaultier are the only designers showing. They should only chose only the 'worthy' ones.

They should also invite those who have couture like craftmanship. . .Hello! Yamamoto's number is . . . also Olivier Theyskens.

 

[Acid]

i find it very sad that these days there are a very small handful of women who can afford and buy couture.
once upon a time there were some 20 000 couture customers worldwide, this is before they could even fly to paris on a plane!
nowdays most of the couture worn is by celebrities who dont even pay for it, and rich customers whom we never actually see wearing it.

i hope that the next generation of super riche will take more pride in themselves and buy couture. we're already seing super grooming amoungst teenagers, hundreds of dollars flying at single items before they even have a credit card......so maybe we'll be seing some haute 'culture' in the not so distand future

 

[Serena]

Originally posted by Acid@Sep 3rd, 2003 - 4:38 am
i find it very sad that these days there are a very small handful of women who can afford and buy couture.
once upon a time there were some 20 000 couture customers worldwide, this is before they could even fly to paris on a plane!
nowdays most of the couture worn is by celebrities who dont even pay for it, and rich customers whom we never actually see wearing it.

i agree. couture is ultra expensive now & my guess is it won't get any cheaper in a future. at the same time, if you can afford couture but it does not really suit you lifestyle, people think, why buy it? if these women have a big event, they'll wear Herrera or Vera Wang, and if they're younger they'll wear Gucci & Prada. from what i understand, wearing couture is almost an art in itself, no? but when you see so many women in Juicy 24/7 couture seems like fantasy wear

 

[Spacemiu]

Fred is great you can kik her out!