I love this topic, w hen I got married 10 years ago I so badly wanted a beautiful dress made from natural fibers and didn’t need to go the David’s Bridal route and wear polyester on my wedding day. Working with a dressmaker was perfect for me as long as wedding dress shopping is also, the worst. Thanks Zoe! Everlane route. It is I worry that a lot of the more expensive ones above are will not be investment pieces. Then, if I could find beautiful ethical options at affordable rates, erin, As I always say, By the way I would share them. I promise I’m not holding out! Besides reasonable costs, their pieces seem more timeless. More thoughts on the subject and strategies for affordability here. There’s no other couture -must shout to be heard, just like any other pastime or diversion from boredom, Now we live in a world of hyperbole where only excess attracts and holds our attention, and that is why fashion -including, at its most elevated, Paris couture.
Few of the many beautiful creations that come down a couture runway are ever worn after the show and end up not on a loved and pampered back but in an air controlled, darkened archive.
Only one thing that matters is that the garment may be sufficiently striking to attract the attention of the fashion editors and will eventually photograph well. Which was once the holy grail of couture in the past, is of little interest to anyone, whether a garment is well made. No supermodels, no audiences of up to a thousand, no music, no set, no celebrity guests, no razzamatazz, no paparazzi and virtually no journalists. These were not occasions for entertainment but moments for work as serious decisions about the season’s look were made by women who understood fashion as well as the designer himself. Up until the fifties the rich, wellbred and cultured woman always bought her clothes bespoke. It was a ritual that needed no great fuss or celebration and it started with a small group of other customers -no more than fifty at the most -sitting on the proverbial gilt chairs watching the clothes in silence as a vendeuse called out the name or number of the garments and the customer ticked in her programme the ones she was interested in looking at more closely.
Like the art that commands stupifying attention in the salerooms of the world, couture has become not an end but a beginning.
The real deal in couture must remain so expensive that it’s unattainable by the majority or it loses its magic for everyone, Thus, we can all have our little corner of privilege.
Mr and Mrs Average looking in their daily paper note and remember the cost of a Monet that has just broken all records at auction but barely glance at the actual picture. Women can dream Undoubtedly it’s. Editors of newspapers always choose the most extravagant and unwearable garment to show as an example of couture being that they know that high fashion is now no longer aimed at potential customers but at us all if you are going to attract our attention
so that we buy cheaper items bearing identical designer’s name.