With Haute Couture making a return this week, there’s still a level of uncertainty in the industry that’s leaving fashion houses cautiously optimistic. Senior Editor James R. Sanders reports.
It’s uncomfortable, this sense of uncertainty.
While fashion has been an industry full of forecasters who were able to predict where the industry was going, this time it’s different. A global pandemic that quarantined designers, models, and consumers to their homes took away the fancy fou-la-la that comes with the industry.
Today, Haute Couture made its return after what felt like forever — though it was only a few seasons.
Designers were cautious but played to their strengths. While no one knows fully how the industry will recover, or pivot — whether it be new platforms or ways to translate the art; the consumer is now king. Haute Couture must make sense to more than just the designer.
Christian Dior and Schiaparelli had strong showings.
Dior’s Exquisite Outwear Saves the Day
There are strict guidelines that qualify a fashion house — more specifically, a collection as Haute Couture. Those guidelines include quite a bit of craftmanship that takes days, weeks, sometimes months to complete.
With Dior finally returning to an in-person runway platform, Maria Grazia Chuiri took the opportunity to pay homage to the crafters that she works with each season to bring the iconic label’s couture collection to life. Chuiri knows what it’s like to be an artist in the background. She and Pierpaolo Piccioli were accessory designers. While their brilliance was never up for debate, in collections, everyone fawns over the garment designer.
Since 2016, when Chiuri became the first woman appointed to creative director at Dior, the designer has more than hit her stride. Her regal and inventive aesthetic is a runway mainstay.
“I think for the people working around the tables at our ateliers again, there was a different, incredible kind of energy in working towards this show,” Chiuri said.
The designer focused on garments that work during the day. Known for the beautiful and subtle details, this collection dealt largely with structure — allowing for tweeds and other knits to come full circle. Jackets and coats were beautifully draped, while the designer’s evening gowns had enough sexy to make a celebrity stylist drool during awards season.
The designer played to a controlled color scheme with muted greys and browns. It was moody, largely, because the people are still adjusting to the uncertainty of what fashion will be.
Why so much outerwear? It was an obvious decision.
Chiuri understands fashion, but she’s mastered style a long time ago. Outerwear is how you save Haute Couture in these fiscally-responsible days where consumers are no longer spending down payments on houses for a look they’ll only wear once.
This collection is a solid and beautifully executed return from the fashion house we love and missed.
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Schiaparelli’s Homage to Iconic Fashion Moments
At its most powerful, Haute Couture is fashion fantasy.
Coming on just two years at Schiaparelli, Daniel Roseberry has proven that he is a leader of the new class of couturiers who are burdened and blessed with the gift of blending practicality and high fashion together to accommodate a new customer.
This collection proves that.
A pandemic-pillaged industry stole the thunder from Roseberry, who at this point, has had several successful collections for the storied fashion house. This season, he colored outside of the lines, but kept the crayons on the page.
It made sense.
Schiaparelli’s Place Vendôme housed the collection. With jackets beautifully embellished in floral applique and vintage threading from original Schiaparelli collections, Roseberry made something as simple and accessible as denim feel exclusive and expensive.
There’s some obvious influence from the earlier work of Lacroix and Gaultier, especially with the draping and embellishment choices but the designer references collaborations from Shiaparelli’s earlier days such as the Jean Cocteau collection in 1937.
The bride is a Parisian staple in Couture culture and so it has become a rite of passage to receive that first round of applause for a job well done. If that’s the case, the designer’s bride stole the show. There’s nothing understated about this girl, she’s intentional in her bombastic presence and makes no apologies for it.
Roseberry is a strategic designer — no doubt due to fashion’s post pandemic pret-a-porter new normal. Lady Gaga at President Biden’s inauguration and Beyonce at the Grammys is an indication of his agenda, intentional exclusivity.