Fashion designers still need haute couture
PARIS: Haute couture simply refuses to lie down and die.
Fashion pundits have been predicting its demise for decades, but come the next round of collections, there are always new names willing to try their hand at the arcane art of made-to-measure.
France's Marcel Marongiu unveiled his first couture collection for Guy Laroche on Monday, the latest in a long succession of designers who have been brought in to attempt to resuscitate this once famous fashion house.
Because he is not showing in the ready-to-wear round in March, he opted to jump the gun and show couture for next autumn-winter, out of synch with everybody else this week who are all unveiling their lines for the summer.
Predominantly in black, navy, teal and slate blue, he went for sober tailoring, closely fitted to the body, with pointed shoulders for a sharp silhouette, often with exaggerated leg-of-mutton sleeves tapering into the wrist.
He opened with a cossack style mini double-breasted military coat and followed it with a blouse styled with the same high collar and rows of buttons and soft black leather gauntlets to the elbow.
The couture feel came from the attention to detail - a cape-collar and sleeves in Mongolian lamb, or mini-cape and trumpet sleeves embroidered with feathers, waist-cinching belts which looked like strands of liquorice, a wavy band of rhinestones peeping out from a hem or a broad swathe of shiny sequins on a matt midnight blue crepe dress - beautiful clothes shown without the usual razzamatazz.
But Marongiu - like many other would-be couturiers showing this week - does not meet the stringent criteria laid down by the French fashion body to have the right to designate their production haute couture.
That is the highest ambition of Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad, and one of the reasons why he has set up a showroom and workrooms in the heart of Paris' chic fashion district off the Champs-Elysees as part of his bid to enter the charmed circle.
"One day I hope to be on the official programme. We can't live without couture. Haute couture for me is a real art, like a painter with a canvas. You can do what you want. And the customers still want it."
For next summer he looked to the goddesses of the silver screen in the 1940s and 1950s - Hollywood heroines Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor - and recreated grand gowns in a range of appropriately rich gemstone colours, from ruby red and emerald to topaz and amethyst.
Murad, who counts Ivana Trump among his loyal customers, feels he is also struggling against a certain prejudice in France that Lebanese designers draw all their clientele from the Gulf, while his ready-to-wear line is based in Milan and his business is expanding fast in the United States, Russia and Asia.
Fellow Lebanese designer Georges Chakra has also recently opened a showroom in Paris so he can welcome customers away from the political turmoil in Beirut, where he still employs 90 staff in his workrooms.
Despite such high-profile customers as British actress Helen Mirren and Marcia Cross (of Desperate Housewives) and the admiration of Christian Lacroix, no less, he has not yet succeeded in gaining the coveted haute couture designation, but has not given up trying.
His collection for next summer includes ravishing ballgowns handpainted in Italy with giant stylised flowers - exotic orchids or chrysanthemums - picked out in pale pink ostrich feathers, with sleeves emerging from layers of petals like upturned roses. As well as fluorescent pinks and acid yellows, there are frocks in softer sorbet shades or neutrals, cream and ivory, sprinkled with cubes of iridescent crystals.
Article Source : http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2008-01-22/news/27708963_1_fashion-designers-zuhair-murad-guy-laroche
Fashion pundits have been predicting its demise for decades, but come the next round of collections, there are always new names willing to try their hand at the arcane art of made-to-measure.
France's Marcel Marongiu unveiled his first couture collection for Guy Laroche on Monday, the latest in a long succession of designers who have been brought in to attempt to resuscitate this once famous fashion house.
Because he is not showing in the ready-to-wear round in March, he opted to jump the gun and show couture for next autumn-winter, out of synch with everybody else this week who are all unveiling their lines for the summer.
Predominantly in black, navy, teal and slate blue, he went for sober tailoring, closely fitted to the body, with pointed shoulders for a sharp silhouette, often with exaggerated leg-of-mutton sleeves tapering into the wrist.
He opened with a cossack style mini double-breasted military coat and followed it with a blouse styled with the same high collar and rows of buttons and soft black leather gauntlets to the elbow.
The couture feel came from the attention to detail - a cape-collar and sleeves in Mongolian lamb, or mini-cape and trumpet sleeves embroidered with feathers, waist-cinching belts which looked like strands of liquorice, a wavy band of rhinestones peeping out from a hem or a broad swathe of shiny sequins on a matt midnight blue crepe dress - beautiful clothes shown without the usual razzamatazz.
But Marongiu - like many other would-be couturiers showing this week - does not meet the stringent criteria laid down by the French fashion body to have the right to designate their production haute couture.
That is the highest ambition of Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad, and one of the reasons why he has set up a showroom and workrooms in the heart of Paris' chic fashion district off the Champs-Elysees as part of his bid to enter the charmed circle.
"One day I hope to be on the official programme. We can't live without couture. Haute couture for me is a real art, like a painter with a canvas. You can do what you want. And the customers still want it."
For next summer he looked to the goddesses of the silver screen in the 1940s and 1950s - Hollywood heroines Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor - and recreated grand gowns in a range of appropriately rich gemstone colours, from ruby red and emerald to topaz and amethyst.
Murad, who counts Ivana Trump among his loyal customers, feels he is also struggling against a certain prejudice in France that Lebanese designers draw all their clientele from the Gulf, while his ready-to-wear line is based in Milan and his business is expanding fast in the United States, Russia and Asia.
Fellow Lebanese designer Georges Chakra has also recently opened a showroom in Paris so he can welcome customers away from the political turmoil in Beirut, where he still employs 90 staff in his workrooms.
Despite such high-profile customers as British actress Helen Mirren and Marcia Cross (of Desperate Housewives) and the admiration of Christian Lacroix, no less, he has not yet succeeded in gaining the coveted haute couture designation, but has not given up trying.
His collection for next summer includes ravishing ballgowns handpainted in Italy with giant stylised flowers - exotic orchids or chrysanthemums - picked out in pale pink ostrich feathers, with sleeves emerging from layers of petals like upturned roses. As well as fluorescent pinks and acid yellows, there are frocks in softer sorbet shades or neutrals, cream and ivory, sprinkled with cubes of iridescent crystals.
Article Source : http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2008-01-22/news/27708963_1_fashion-designers-zuhair-murad-guy-laroche
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