24 – 27 JAN: LET THE FRIVOLITY BEGIN: PARIS HAUTE COUTURE WEEK

Haute Couture Week kicked off yesterday. But is high fashion still necessary or is it the utmost display of fashion frivolity?

Throughout the decades we have seen it all on the Parisian runways during Haute Couture Week: dramatic settings, colourful gardens of delights, a magic phantasmagoria of beauty combining fashion with art and cinematic inspirations.
Yet, in the last few years, as the crisis and recession hit us pretty badly, and especially after Christian Lacroix’s house went into bankruptcy, the debates about high fashion being still necessary have become more rife. Season after season the question comes back: is Haute Couture an unnecessary frivolity for very few wealthy international clients or is it maybe the ultimate spectacle we are left with in an era of instant 140-character reviews and very little beauty, the highest moment of creativity that also allows fashion houses to display the rare skills of talented seamstresses?
It is somehow amazing that, while the death of couture has been predicted for years and years, it still hasn’t happened. Au contraire, trend reports show that couture registered strong sales casino online also thanks to the Asian markets’ turbo-growth. Christian Dior’s fashion show was even moved to a larger space, the Rodin Museum to accommodate roughly 800 guests, a record number for a high fashion show. Who knows, probably even Lacroix, designing under the name “Monsieur C. Lacroix” and currently collaborating with Spanish high street chain Desigual, is dreaming of going back to the artistic excesses of Haute Couture.
And if you think that Haute Couture is only for mature and established designers, think twice: the spotlight this season is on 26-year-old Maxime Simoëns, the youngest couturier and the first designer to join the official Couture calendar without ever having staged a runway show. Will he manage to impress and maybe inspire a younger generation of designers to join the ranks of the small yet stubbornly resistant Haute Couture army? Place your bets and let the frivolity begin.

By Anna Battista