Sometimes a Great Notion
The handful of designers who make clothes to order for a slightly larger handful of their impossibly rich customers showed spring collections in Paris this week notable, as always, for sparkling ideas executed with admirable restraint and a few unfortunate cases of wretched excess. (And we’re not just referring to the prices, which can easily range into the upper five figures for a single outfit.)
To the average person--or at least the sort who does not aspire to homes on several continents and a Lear jet to access them--haute couture can only be taken seriously if it’s regarded as a laboratory of ideas.
And although designers who produce clothing for the mass market will never replicate the extraordinary workmanship and quality of what appears on Paris runways at this time of year, it’s a safe bet they’ll be moved to reinterpret a look or two. (Safari suits, anyone?)
In any case, it’s not just the mass market looking to the haute couture world for inspiration--the best fashion minds in the world feed on each other’s creativity as well: This week, Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld reinterpreted Christian Dior’s famous 1947 New Look (trim, fitted jackets over full, knee-skimming skirts). And Oscar de la Renta, designing for Balmain, showed lovely suits in peach or rose tweed with what one fashion writer jokingly called a “suspiciously Chanel-like look” (but, she added, he gave his signature light, offhand touch to the suits).
But who knows?
Given the fact that fashion is the ultimate two-way street--ideas may trickle down, but they also rise like helium from the streets to the fanciest ateliers--could it be that Yves Saint Laurent’s khaki safari suit was influenced by Banana Republic? And John Galliano, designer for Christian Dior, seemed to use the bag lady for inspiration. He showed torn-up luxury linens and silks, corsets all askew, messy ruffled outfits, cheeky splits in skirts and funny pants with attachments such as tin cans and rabbits’ feet. Who, wondered many, will pay thousands to look like that?
