Elegance endures
FRANCE’S haute couture displays ended Thursday with a small group of designers defiantly flying the flag for the ailing industry, which is drawing on an ever-shrinking pool of talent.
The names of the big houses unveiling their exclusive made-to-measure creations this season could be counted on two hands: Christian Dior, Valentino, Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Elie Saab and American Ralph Rucci.
Givenchy sat out the autumn-winter collections as it has yet to find a replacement for Welsh designer Julien Macdonald, who left the label in March. Emanuel Ungaro and Versace have closed down their couture divisions because of cost constraints.
Hanae Mori staged an emotional farewell show Wednesday evening after 50 years in the business. A standing ovation greeted the 78-year-old Japanese designer as she took a bow flanked by her team of seamstresses in their traditional white coats.
Doomsayers predict that at the current rate of closures, haute couture will be extinct in a few years. Yet this week’s vibrant displays showed there is plenty of life left in the industry, which employs hundreds of embroiderers, feather workers, milliners and other specialists.
British designer John Galliano let loose with a riot of ermine, silk and fur in his regal show for Dior, which was inspired by the Austrian Empress Sissi and Zsa Zsa Gabor.
One dress reportedly weighed 100 pounds -- as one television commentator wryly remarked, roughly the same as the model wearing it.
Lacroix and Chanel pared their designs but nonetheless showcased a wealth of luxurious detail, from the glittering sequins coating a floor-length cardigan to the painstaking embroidery on a black lace cocktail dress.
Valentino proved why he remains the designer of choice on Oscar night with a flawless collection that oozed wealth. Gaultier sent out swashbuckling heroines in swirling capes in a wealth of expensive materials.
French actress Catherine Deneuve, who has switched her allegiance to Gaultier since the retirement of legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent, said the survival of couture was crucial to France’s cultural heritage.
“It is still something marvelous, useless, transient and at the same time eternal. It provides jobs for a lot of people in a very artistic, very intense and very dynamic manner,” she said after Gaultier’s show.
But Didier Grumbach, head of the couture industry guild, said, “Most houses would rather invest in their luxury ready-to-wear.”
“It is expensive to give couture shows, and women don’t buy couture as they did about 30 years or so ago,” said Jean Lemarie, newly retired head of a company providing ostrich, swan and other feathers to the couture houses.
Dior and Chanel have both pledged to keep couture alive, however.
In the case of Dior, the extravagant displays have proved a formidable advertising tool allowing it to win over new customers in emerging markets like China.
As proof of its commitment, Chanel has snapped up five specialty suppliers, including famed embroiderer Lesage, effectively buying the endangered sector a stay of execution.
Rucci is one couture star on the rise, as evidenced by the presence of Oprah Winfrey in his front row.
After toiling in obscurity for more than two decades, the New York-based designer now dresses socialites including Lee Radziwill, sister of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
His label, Chado Ralph Rucci, is named after a Japanese tea ceremony and reflects his interest in Asian culture. This was seen on the runway in a sensual black crepe and leather dress featuring rows of buttons along the arms and back, some left undone to reveal tantalizing glimpses of skin.
Equally subtle was a camel’s-hair coat that peeled back to reveal an opulent sequined lining.
“I have several pieces and now I want more,” a smiling Winfrey said after the show.
