After days of men’s ready-to-wear clothes, Paris Fashion Week shifted up a
gear on Sunday to its marquee event: the Haute Couture shows that happen
only in the French capital.
Italian house Versace was the first to step into the prestige whirl of
handmade women’s collections for spring-summer 2015. American mother and
daughter actress duo Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn attended the glitzy event,
with models showing off racy soiree outfits in electric blues, reds and
whites.
In all, 24 catwalk shows, including ones by Chanel, Christian Dior and
Valentino, will take place until Thursday, filling palaces, museums and
other historic venues in Paris with celebrities, journalists and the
extremely wealthy women who splurge on the creations, whose price tags run
into tens of thousands of euros.
France is the only country to boast Haute Couture, twice a year, in January
and in July. The designation is protected by French law and attributed
exclusively by the ministry of industry. Houses — French and non-French —
that win the label have to show their high-end clothes are entirely made by
hand and tailored to each client.
Only 14 outlets are allowed to say they are full-fledged Haute Couture,
most of them highly recognisable French designers. The most recent to be
admitted into the very exclusive club is Alexandre Vauthier, which counts
pop divas Rihanna and Beyonce among its fans. Many other wannabes are lined
up hoping to get in.
Some of the other shows happening in Paris are by fashion houses that have
achieved an intermediate status, or which have been invited on a temporary
basis. Versace, Valentino, Viktor & Rolf, Yiqing Yin and Schiaparelli are
in those categories.
‘International notoriety’
“The Haute Couture label allows a brand to make its name internationally
more quickly and gives a lot more visibility,” explained Didier Grumbach, a
fashion expert and former president of the Federation Française de la
Couture that organises the shows. Schiaparelli, a legendary house founded
in 1930 that once rivalled Coco Chanel, will roll out its creation on
Monday despite the surprise departure of its esteemed Italian creative
director, Marco Zanini, last November.
The brand had been in hibernation for six decades before making its Haute
Couture comeback a year ago. Internationally famed brands Dior and Chanel
will show on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. And on Friday many eyes will
be trained on Jean Paul Gaultier, who late last year announced he was
ditching his ready-to-wear collections entirely to concentrate on Haute
Couture and other projects.
The biggest hole in the calendar is Maison Margiela, which has taken on
John Galliano three years after the British designer disgraced himself by
making drunken anti-Semitic comments in a Paris bar and was dropped by
Dior. In a snub to Paris and those who spurned him, Galliano opted this
month to show an “artisinale” collection in London — a decision that
raised eyebrows and that, if repeated, could cause Margiela to lose its
Haute Couture status. (Anne-Laure Mondesert, AFP)
Images: Models present creations by Italian fashion designer Donatella
Versace during the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2015 Versace collection show
in Paris (AFP Photo/Miguel Medina)
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