Haute Couture As many spend their days in loungewear, and new designers take the reins at iconic houses, we ask ourselves: what does the Haute Couture customer want in 2021?
By Liam Hess
Thousands of hours of care, craftsmanship and construction are hidden behind each Haute Couture dress or suit. Season after season in Paris, legions of ateliers spend countless hours molding individual buttons, sewing on rare feathers, or trimming the seams of custom gloves to bring to life the visions of the designers at the helm of the city's most storied fashion houses. But where are these bastions of old-school Parisian fashion to be found?
In a pretty strong place, surprisingly. While many corners of the fashion industry have been dramatically disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, from runway showtimes to manufacturing to the world of street style, the smaller-scale bubbles of Haute Couture ateliers They have managed to move on. Some fashion calendars may be shorter now, but Haute Couture season holds promise for most of the regular big players, even if they show up virtually.
See moreThe history of Haute Couture (in numbers)By Lauren Indvik
How has Spring 2021 Haute Couture been?
Likewise, though there are some notable omissions from the Haute Couture calendar this season. One is Balenciaga by Demna Gvasalia. While the renegade designer's highly anticipated first Haute Couture collection was originally planned to show last July, it has now been postponed to July this year.
An equally intriguing offering is Sacai's Chitose Abe Haute Couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier, also unveiled this July. When Gaultier announced that his Spring 2020 Haute Couture show would be his last outing, the legendary French designer promised his fans via Twitter that they could "rest assured that Haute Couture would continue with a new concept." It turns out that the new concept will be a revolving door for invited designers, and how Abe interprets the whimsy and exuberance of Gaultier's aesthetic spirit through his deconstructed design signatures. which has ensured that Haute Couture week continues to have an unpredictable fashion moment.
Instagram contents
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Most interestingly, however, the shows that are currently the most highly anticipated come from designers with a boldly new definition of Haute Couture. On the one hand, there is the debut of Kim Jones at Fendi. An appointment that brought with it a series of firsts: the first time that Jones has debuted in womenswear or Haute Couture for a major fashion house, and the first time that Fendi's Haute Couture production has undergone a major revamp since Karl Lagerfeld took the reins in 1965. An early image shot by Paolo Roversi that Jones posted on Instagram revealed a decadent, Fellini-esque take on Fendi's vision of classic Italian glamour. It's the kind of unexpected reference that's likely to hook Jones's new generation of fans and fashionistas, while also appeasing the house's traditional patrons.
Then there was the anticipation for Matthew M Williams' first Haute Couture collection for Givenchy, which was unveiled in late 2020. His predecessor, Clare Waight Keller, used her Haute Couture offering to express the flights of fancy of fashion that were clearly constrained by the commercial expectations loaded into their ready-to-wear line, but Williams's dramatic rebranding of the house suggests that he is being allowed free rein and, unsurprisingly, He gave a lot to talk about.
What do these changes say about Haute Couture today?
In fact, what feels most interesting about Haute Couture Week isn't necessarily the intricate details of the styles that will parade up and down the first floors of Paris's hôtels particuliers, but the way the current crop of designers generates interest in this esoteric corner of fashion could reinterpret it to make it feel relevant in the present.
Both Jones and Williams have built their brands and reputations by making clothes that a new paradigm of luxury customers want to buy. Yes, the traditional Haute Couture client will always be there. But is there room to invite today's increasingly casual, exclusive-obsessed consumer, always hungry for the latest product to quickly integrate into their daily lives, too?
See moreJean Paul Gaultier: l'enfant terrible of fashion who reinvented the industryBy Sebastian Cabrices
Or, alternatively, is the answer to try to reconcile the two? With so many around the world spending their days in sweatpants and hoodies, that 0.1 percent who spend thousands of dollars on Haute Couture are also buying tracksuits, even if they're lined with cashmere, it seems like there's never been a time more timely to address what the Haute Couture client really wants. Jones has already proven to be a master of mixing high & low: he only takes his collection for Dior Men, where Kenny Scharf's goofy, cartoonish paintings were embroidered onto bomber jackets with the meticulous technical savoir-faire of the finest ateliers. sewing.
In recent years, we have seen many corners of the fashion industry change radically. And thanks to designers like Craig Green, Wales Bonner, Martine Rose and Kim Jones, menswear has become the most exciting venue for next-generation design talent, offering a hotbed of innovation for the fashion show format. in circumstances where conventional catwalk presentation has become limited. So if you're looking for what will keep the Haute Couture client engaged in the post-pandemic era, designers like Jones and Williams aren't a bad place to start.
Is it a sense of trust and loyalty that drives the Haute Couture experience? Or will it be something more experimental, a willingness to dip its toes into new waters and embrace brands that are expanding their Haute Couture sales structure into something more casual?
Only after having seen this season's Haute Couture shows can we be sure. Whether this emerging new guard of designers fuels a redefinition of the nature of Haute Couture, or at least an update for a rarefied corner of the fashion industry that has, for decades, been reported as being in imminent danger of becoming Irrelevant, the Haute Couture scene is ready for a refresh. Fortunately, it has Kim Jones, one of the most notorious role models for where fashion is headed, leading the charge. So pay attention to this space (hand-embroidered, embellished with feathers): change is already underway.
