In Spades

Viktor & Rolf couture F/W20

This week the world’s top fashion designers showed their couture collections.  Before we get into how different the shows were this season, let’s break down this oft misunderstood category.

What is Haute Couture?

Alexandre Vauthier couture F/W20

Haute couture translates to “high dressmaking”. It’s made-to-order clothing for a specific client – a very wealthy one. There are stringent standards a design house must follow to classify as a haute couture.  Namely, their clients must visit their atelier for private fittings and they must employ 15 fulltime staff as well as 20 fulltime technical workers.  These are the people that make the clothes by hand.  Their craft is passed down, generation to generation, and highly specific.  They truly are some of the most skilled artisans in the world.  Couture gowns can take over 1000 hours to create, all by hand!

Giambattista Valli couture F/W20

In the documentary Dior and I, a haute couture client almost derailed Raf Simons’ first show for the brand.  The show took place in Paris, but a New York client needed a fitting and took priority.  When you buy couture, a seamstress from the house is assigned to you.  Talk about customer service.

It was crazy to see this seamstress jet between Paris and New York and arrive hours before the show walked the runway.  In the film you see her rush in to put the finishing touches on gowns while Raf looks on, incredibly relieved.  Truly extraordinary.

Chanel couture F/W20. Regarded as a success and Virginie Viard’s first homage to Karl rather than Coco.

Speaking of Dior, they won haute couture F/W 2020.

Due to the pandemic, designers got creative on how they showcased their collections.  Some just did sketches, a la Schiaparelli, others showed teaser films with promises of full collections later in the month (Valentino, Margiela).

Schiaparelli couture sketch F/W20

Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato reworked classic white shirts, donated by 25 acquaintances, into one-of-a-kind garments.

But Dior created miniature versions of the real thing, presented to private clients in massive trunk.  Can you image receiving one of these?!  A socialite I follow, Elena Perminova, (read her story, it’s incredible) surely received one. All I kept thinking is that her daughter is going to have the most LEGIT Barbie clothes in the history of the universe.

Dior couture F/W20

The collection was shot in a fairytale esque film.  Although stunning, it lacked diversity.  Not one person of color was included in the cast.

Why is Couture Important?

Haute couture is the top tier of fashion.  Without it, designers wouldn’t be pushed to create masterpieces.  This painstaking work, with its beauty, detail and monumental effort, is paramount to continuation of the craft.

Everything we buy as “average consumers” is inspired by couture.  It’s a trickledown effect of the designer’s highest vision. Like the famous “cerulean blue” speech in The Devil Wears Prada, eventually, it affects us all.

The Future of Fashion Week

This season’s move to digital was hit and miss.  As Tim Blanks expertly expressed in his article for BoF, the power of a live runway show will never be paralleled.

“A fashion show can be something so profoundly ceremonial that it attains the peculiar power of an occult ritual.”
– Tim Blanks

I will never forget the first fashion show I attended.  There is an otherworldly magic to it.  Clothes are meant to be worn.  To see them move on the body, how they change a person and the mood they create… that’s true magic.

While the future of the fashion show doesn’t remain bright in the pandemic, I’m confident this stalwart will return to us.  It’s the only way to truly see a designer’s innermost visions come to life.

Images via IMAXTREE