The Political Expressions of Haute Couture

The Political Expressions of
Haute Couture
by
Kaustav Dey
PGDM (C)
(2006-2008)
Submitted to MICA in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of the
Post Graduate Diploma
in Communications Management
Dissertation Supervisors
Dr. Somnath Zutshi
Prof. A.F. Mathew
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad
March 2008
2
© Copyright Kaustav Dey, 2008
and
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)
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4
To Mumum and Babai,
My Everything.
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I am indebted to Professor A. F Mathew for being such a force of nature. His infinite
wisdom, invisible yet palpable reins and guidance have been invaluable towards the
creation of this thesis and my evolution as an individual.
Dr. Somnath Zutshi helped me make sense of my work and provided valuable insight
and references. I will always be grateful for the opportunities, creative energy and
inspiration he has provided.
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Table of Contents
10 Abstract
Chapter One
Introduction
11 Definition of Haute Couture
21 History of Haute Couture
Chapter Two
30 Review of Literature
Chapter Three
Research Methodology
44 Research objectives
44 Types of research
45 Comparisons of Qualitative and Quantitative research
46 Data Collection
47 Characteristics of Qualitative Research
48 Misconceptions about Qualitative Research
48 The Case Study Method
50 Why Haute Couture as a case?
51 Advantages of Case study method
51 Disadvantages of Case Study Method
Chapter Four
The Political Expressions of Haute Couture
53 The Politics of Religion
53 L’Affaire du voile Islamique
56 Couture’s stand
56 The Clients
59 The Houses
62 The Muses
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Chapter Five
64 The Politics of Sexuality
Chapter Six
71 The Politics of Exclusion
73 The Clients
74 The Houses
75 The Credo
77 Conclusion
79 References
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Abstract
Far beyond the definition of clothing as an obligatory protective covering, this thesis
explores the political statements that Fashion facilitates by existing as a technique for
individuals to express themselves to others, to reflect portions of their personality in
their outward appearance and to distinguish themselves.
The scope of this dissertation is to explore the political expressions of that most
rarefied of all fashion subcultures, Haute Couture.
Considering the intricacy of detail that is invested into the technicalities of couture, the
creativity that emerges in each garment is truly the designer’s own. Free of the
boundaries of consumerism, mass production or the shackles of pragmatism and
wearability, the skill of the creator is set free in a couture collection, and they often
produce personal, political, and social expressions as a painter, sculptor or director
would. For instance, the constant questions that Alexander McQueen asks in his
astoundingly theatrical productions pertaining to Sexuality, Gender and Power.
There is also the great inherent social drama that couture lends itself to, widening the
barrier between the super-rich and the rest of the world, the politics of sexuality and
religion and the propagation of intellectual distance through perplexingly esoteric
themes.
But with the art slowly dying out and the inimitable workshops of artisans such as the
fournisseurs being bought over by powerhouses like Chanel and LVMH, is Couture still
a form of art where we can still discover a compelling expression of culture, politics, art
and most consequently ourselves?
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Definition of Haute Couture
Haute Couture is a french term which literally translates into ‘High dressmaking’ or
‘High Sewing’. It’s primary dintinguishing factor lies in the fact that it consists of the
creation of exclusive custom-fitted fashions.
Couture symbolises dressmaking, sewing, or needlework and haute means elegant and
could also mean high, consequently the two collectively imply exceptional artistry with
the fashioning of garments. Buying an Haute Couture garment remains at the highest
level of hand customised fashion design and clothing construction made by a couture
design house because it is prepared specifically for the wearer's dimensions as well as
the body stance. What makes the garments even more unique and desirable is the fact
that they are virtually created by hand, vigilantly interlined, stay taped and fitted to
faultlessness for each client.
Haute couture produces very sophisticated and expensive dresses for a distinguished
target market of high income and social visibility. Haute couture relies on restricted and
well-recognized channels of diffusion, and it aims to enhance the social distinction of its
consumers.
Haute Couture can refer to:
•
the fashion houses or fashion designers that create exclusive and often trend-setting
fashions
•
the fashions created
In fashion parlance, haute couture is something very specific: A garment that is wholly
custom-made, from unimpeachable lining to hand-stitched hem. It is not just the dress
that is bespoke, the fabrics and embellishments are of the uppermost superiority, and
the workforce which includes tailors, seamstresses, embroiderers, lace makers and
other craftspeople spend hundreds of hours assembling these pieces are the most
accomplished in the world.
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Haute Couture is the esteemed face of French creative fashion and innovative design.
This eventually translates into the much less expensive Prêt-à- Porter which is the
French term for ready to wear. As a result, the ready to wear and couture house
beauty industry employs a huge workforce for the many lower level sales of perfume
and accessories. Consequently, this equates to major profits for the couture design
house through the volume of mass market international sales.
The magic of couture also stems from the fact that equal if not more attention is paid to
the inside of the garment as the painstaking hours spent beading, gathering and
interlining the exterior. Truly, the insides are as magnificent as the outside and it is the
perfect example of something that is always the central issue in any kind of luxury goods
economy--that is to have something that is virtually unique, and not quite unique.
Right, detail of a dress shown after seamstresses put the final
touches to the Chanel Couture Fall Winter 2006-2007
during Paris Fashion Week in the Chanel Workshop in Paris.
Couture is in addition a solemn investment akin to a work of art that is displayed on the
body rather than a wall. Customers are willing to pay anywhere from $25,000 upward
for a couture gown; which in some cases can even reach into the millions. For instance,
the Scott Henshall diamond-encrusted dress worn by Samantha Mumba to the 2004
premiere of Spiderman II was priced at approximately $9 million.
It may be true that to the inexpert eye, there’s little difference between a high quality
Prêt-à-porter garment bought off the rack and a painstakingly created John Galliano
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evening gown. Those that frequent public fêtes such as the Academy awards and
Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Costume Institute Gala, see both in equal
measure. Nonetheless, when a woman chooses to wear couture it means she makes
two statements. One, that she is dead serious about fashion--and two, that she can
afford to.
That being said, it must be emphasized that the couture social circle is not an easy one
to access. One needs to be fortunate enough to have a ‘mentor’, say for instance,
Suzanne Saperstein, the woman who has been credited with being probably the world's
greatest consumer of haute couture.
This extreme level of exclusivity makes Couture almost like a private club. In spite of
being at the threshold of being obsolete, Couturiers are excessively picky about who
they choose to invite to their showings which in turn makes it almost next to impossible
at first to get invitations or to get to know the directresses of the houses. But,
according to Cason Thrash, a socialite and a couture connoisseur, “Once you navigate
your way through that rocky beginning, every show is a lovely reunion with like-minded
individuals."
In spite of its formidable expense (In more ways than being simply monetary),
aficionados still adore couture because it remains the pinnacle of fashion. One gets to
view the very epitome of the designer’s inspirational choices, in their pristine form – a
collective delight of creative juices in their finest moment going down the runway in
Paris every January and July.
Hence, there is a need to protect and nurture this form of art. In France, the term haute
couture is protected by law and is defined by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de
Paris based in Paris, France. The regulations of this body state that only "those
companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the
Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves" of the label haute couture.
The norms for being able to call oneself a house of haute couture were established in
1945 and were subsequently revised in 1992.
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These are the rules laid down by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris
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Design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more fittings.
•
Have a workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least fifteen people full-time.
•
Each season (i.e. twice a year), present a collection to the Paris press, comprising at
least thirty-five runs with outfits for both daytime wear and evening wear.
The Houses
The houses that at some point of time were Haute Couture houses are:
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Hanae Mori
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Atelier Versace
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Balenciaga
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Elsa Schiaparelli
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Guy Laroche
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Jean Patou
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Emilio Pucci
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Lanvin
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Loris Azzaro
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Marcel Rochas
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Nina Ricci
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Paco Rabanne
•
Pierre Cardin
•
Torrente Julien Fournie
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Yves Saint Laurent
•
Erik Tenorio
•
Erica Spitulski
•
Pierre Balmain
•
Louis Feraud
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•
The official Haute Couture houses that still exist are:
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Adeline André
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Chanel
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Christian Dior
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Christian Lacroix
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Dominique Sirop
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Emanuel Ungaro
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Franck Sorbier
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Givenchy
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Jean Paul Gaultier
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Jean-Louis Scherrer
There are also three correspondent (foreign) member houses:
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Elie Saab
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Giorgio Armani
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Valentino
The Cost
The cost of a couture garment depends on the Haute Couture design house and the
garment, and may range from about £10,000 to £40,000 and often beyond that
figure. Additionally, most of the factors that contribute to the relatively high price of a
couture garment are service, workmanship, originality of a inimitable design and
outstanding materials of premium quality.
From time to time designers work for their own label and sometimes they work for a
Haute Couture house of repute. A very small number of couture model sales are made
in a year and these infrequently total more than about 1500 sales for each house. This
is not astonishing considering that only about 3000 women or so worldwide can actually
afford to purchase couture, and lesser than 1000 buy regularly.
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As mentioned earlier, the workforce of the design house is also of paramount
consequence. The client gets a faultlessness of fit only achieved by painstaking methods
of cutting and fitting to the client's body. The manual labour required to construct a
garment this way takes between 100-150 hours for a suit and up to 1000 hours for an
embellished evening dress.
The textiles and fabrics handpicked by the couture house would be lush and incorporate
the most up-to-date novelty fabrics and expensive silks, fine wools, cashmeres, cottons,
linens, leather, suede, other skins or furs. Additionally, in the case of a design house of
considerable repute, the design and colour of a cloth may be exclusively held in reserve
for that couture house.
Most couture houses are reluctant to give exact prices for gowns. A woman's shape and
individual desires will factor heavily into final costs. More fabric or beading means more
time required of the atelier's highly-skilled staff, which of course raises prices.
A possible reason for the aspirational value of couture may be attributed to the fact that
when it comes to brand awareness, most consumers’ primary reason for purchasing a
product seem to be guided mainly by a concern for the psychological and emotional
rewards gained. It seems that, in terms of “value,” luxurious brands are better capable of
retaining an intrinsic value over a greater length of time. This ability of a product to
maintain its value naturally creates brand awareness and brand loyalty in the consumers
of couture. It is fair to say that the goods are usually of very high quality, so many
people are happy to pay a price that they feel reflects the image and standard.
Although within couture circles it is considered inappropriate to reveal the price of any
outfit, this has not deterred the fashion press from pointing out the main reason haute
couture resides at the top of the fashion pyramid. Its exclusivity lies in the fact that
although millions of women around the world may be able to afford the latest designer
clothing from the relatively lower priced prêt-a-porter lines, there are only a handful of
women around the globe, estimates fluctuate between 200-300, who have the means to
spend thousands of dollars on an haute couture garment hand-fitted to their every
curve, and created by the most gifted seamstresses and craftsman in the world.
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Unlike ready-to-wear, couture garments do not come with a price tag. Instead the price
of a particular piece is based on several factors. At the big couture houses such as Dior,
Chanel, and Gautier, a simple custom-made suit without any details to speak of can cost
about $30,000. If one were to add details such as a chiffon blouse embroidered by
Lesage, the famous Parisian embroiderer or a silk evening gown strewn with exotic
feathers, then prices can rise to a stratospheric $50,000-$100,000.
A model is often never reproduced more than three times, and then only with the
permission of the client who first claimed it. What follows is a cautiously regulated
process where the names and locations of the other clients are checked, in order to
ensure that no two clients are dressed similarly or wear the same dress at the same
time.
There is also the question of a customer’s size. Many of the regular clients often try to
maintain a thin frame in order to fit into the couture samples and acquire the garments
at a reduced rate. But if a larger customer falls in love with a dress she will have the
garment created for her from scratch. This often requires more fabric and costly
embellishment than for a slimmer client, and so the price of a new garment will often
climb.
The Process
Designers produce their preliminary designs either by by means of muslin, which drapes
well for flowing designs or by using linen canvas or calico for more structured garments
such as tailored garments like suits. These rudimentary prototypes are referred to as
toiles and are used for the sole purpose of saving exceptionally expensive fabrics that
can cost a £100 or more per metre. The designer and the workforce at his/her atelier
which include tailors, seamstresses, embroiderers, lace makers and other craftspeople
manipulate, mark and adjust to fit a particular live model's (or the client as the case may
be) dimensions.
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The couture house is customarily composed of two parts, one devoted to dressmaking
(flou), the other devoted to tailoring (tailleur) of suits and coats. Skilled workers in each
area practice the arts apposite to the area. Embellishments and accessories are added
incrementally as applied decoration, often from sources outside the couture house.
Above,“dart pivoting,” a technique for manipulating flat paper patterns. On the left piece, shaping for the bust is
provided through a dart from the shoulder. To move the dart, a line at the new position is drawn. The pattern is
cut along this line and pivoted, folding the original dart closed and opening the new dart. This method is also
called the “slash-and-spread” technique.
However, with regard to the unembellished garment, the modern couture house is a
completely autonomous workroom of dedicated ateliers. In fact, surprisingly, in view of
the elegant locations of most couture houses, the creation of the garments occurs in the
maisons particulières of the house, thus under the daily surveillance of the designer as
well as in intimate connection with the vendeuses. Depending upon the designer, the
design process might begin either with sketches or with a muslin or toile, draped and
cut. Fit, both in its tailored form and in its dressmaking variant, is inevitably part of the
value of the couture.
The ultimate toile of a design idea is a precise construal of the line or cut right down to
the button placement or hemline that the designer is seeking. Once content the
designer instructs his workforce to construct the garment in the selected fabrics and
accessories. There is only a single highly skilled and experienced seamstress or tailor
who understands the ideology of the garment and is allowed to work on the garment.
All the cutting and finishing is done in one room and the workroom manageress is
responsible for everything produced in that room. Clients who place orders must
understand that it may take up to four months to construct a dress.
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The accessories for each garment which hats, trimmings, buttons, belts, costume
jewellery, shoes and innovative pieces are delicately crafted by external consultants who
make these accessories either by detailed contracts or inspiration to set off the fabrics
and fashion ideas designed by the house itself. It is the handwork that defines haute
couture just as much as the three fittings required to create a garment for each client,
and one of the secrets behind couture’s longevity are the "fournisseurs," the artisans who
work in outside workshops that provide the couture industry with intricate
embroideries, exotic feathers, custom shoes, gloves, and even millinery. Outstanding
craftsmanship, a new inspiration and internationally renowned names with the strength
of repute and unmatched heritage all control the worth to match. Small wonder then
that the clients who are capable of affording couture are content to pay for exclusivity
and the confidentiality afforded by the system.
As soon as a client decides to order a Haute Couture garment she needs to first make
an appointment with the design house prior to any visit to Paris. Model garments from
collections are occasionally out of the country being presented in other parts of the
world such as Milan or New York. In cases of non-availability, some couture houses
offer a video of the collection to serious clients.
Once the appointment is fixed, the purchaser is handled by a vendeuse, a chief
saleswoman responsible for customers, their orders and control of their fittings.
The vendeuse is also eligible for commission on the garments of her own specific group
of clients.
When the purchaser is received at the salon she is assisted through all stages of fitting
and sudden complications. A complication could for instance be another client from the
same city who wants the exactly similar design and colour garment for a well publicised
function. The vendeuse then smoothes out such tribulations with the knowledge that it
could be potentially disastrous for two women to pay vast sums for an exclusive haute
couture item only to see the same ‘exclusive’ garment on another person.
Every ensemble ordered is created for the requirements of each individual client. After
choosing the model she wants, a customer is measured and has to be prepared for 3
fittings, sometimes more.
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Each dress has its own name and a particular inventory carefully inscribed on a card. A
seamstress must ask for the specific thread to sew it together, as well as the hooks,
eyes, and buttons to fasten it, (it was only in recent years that zippers were allowed in
haute couture).
After a fitting and adjustments noted the garment is laid mis à plat. This process refers
to laying the garment flat on the table, taking it apart, making adjustments and
assembling it again for the next fitting.
The vendeuse holds deliberations between stockroom, embroiderers, furriers1 and
client. Her concluding inspection of a garment and her expectation of the highest
standards ensures it's approved as couture and suitable to release to a client. Finally the
garment fits like a second skin emphasizing the purchaser's plus points and hiding figure
flaws.
1
A furrier is someone who deals in or dresses, designs, or repairs, furs.
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History of Haute Couture
“There are times when you must take a position. Individuals always feel venerable and want to hide. But
that is never the way. You can’t be frightened and run away. Our everyday life is the fruit of politics and
the only way to make it work is by getting together and fighting."
Jean Paul Gaultier
Until the year 1850, the industry of Haute Couture did not exist as we recognise and
eulogise it today. Prior to this period, the majority of all garments were hand stitched by
the people who wore them. Clothes were not an art form or an indicator of your
identity but merely a commodity item, and their superiority reliant upon the expertise
of the person who created them.
The typical woman fashioned her attire in accordance with what was acceptable for her
climate, her country, and her community standing, and as a consequence the majority of
people from the same region dressed almost identically. Alienated from external
influence, fashion did not really exist with styles and trends remaining stolid and
unchanging from generations. One of the major causes of this immobility was as trade
routes connecting cities more often than not consisted of appalling roads lined with
thieves, people did not travel much and just made do with what fabrics were obtainable
by them locally. As a result of this drudgery of sameness of clothing, the main
differentiator and indicator of status and wealth was Jewellery.
Also, only the minority of the exceedingly rich were able to afford the services of
designers/dressmakers. By the 16th century, the most resourceful dressmakers had
devised an efficient, cost-effective method of presenting their designs through the
creation of miniature samples of their work and putting them on dolls which were half
to one third the size of humans. In spite of their diminutive size, there was no effort
spared on attention to detail and these dolls displayed bit of ruffle and lace.
Patrons could examine these miniature mannequins and choose the style they preferred
which were then custom-made to the client's exact dimensions.
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Left, Madeleine Vionnet draping muslin on a quarter-scale mannequin. Right, a 1930 gown by Vionnet molds to
the body and fall sin liquid foldsdue to its cut on the bias (photograph by Hoyningen-Huen).
As a consequence of the ease of transporting these mannequins, they rapidly found their
way into neighbouring nations and transformed into the most efficient and accepted
ways of the diffusion of fashion. In fact, the nobility has always been conspicuous
consumers of fashion and Queen Elizabeth I is rumoured to have had more than 1,000
gowns, many of them received as gifts. In addition, the ostentatious Louis XIV of France,
began to garner attention for France and established Paris as the capital of fashion by the
end of the 17th century. The authority of the French in European fashion may perhaps
be dated from the 18th century, when the art, architecture, music, and fashions of the
French court at Versailles were imitated across Europe.
Stylish women also ordered fashion dolls dressed in the latest Parisian fashion to serve
as models. As increasing modes of transportation increased the ease of travel to Europe,
it became the norm for wealthy women to travel to Paris, for the sole purpose of
Fashion and French fitters and seamstresses started becoming accepted as the most
skilled in Europe.
Subsequent to centuries of sumptuous fashions, there were primarily two turning points
occurring concomitantly that became the progenitor of the industry. Firstly, the
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invention of the continuous stitch sewing machine, by Isaac Singer, and secondly, the
instantaneous recognition of a dressmaker named Charles Frederick Worth.
He is renowned as the father of Haute Couture and the first modern couturier. He
founded the first haute couture house, House of Worth, in the middle years of the 19th
century.
Worth gained pre-eminence in the French industry of Haute Couture in spite of being a
relative outsider – He was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. Prior to settling in
Paris in 1846, Worth displayed his sleight of hand in draping and cutting at several
renowned drapery shops in London. Thanks to the influence of Beau Brummell, English
clothing makers were known for their superb tailoring of men's clothing and Worth
absorbed this. When he began to design clothing for women, one thing that he insisted
upon and was known for was perfect fit. In addition to gaining a thorough knowledge of
fabrics and the business of supplying dressmakers during this time, he also visited the
National Gallery and other collections to study historic portraits. Elements of the
sitters' dresses in these paintings would later provide inspiration for Worth's own
designs, for both fashionable ensembles and masquerade costumes. Worth's study of the
clothing of past eras influenced his ideas of fashion design and often borrowed period
details.
On moving to Paris, he was hired by Gagelin and Opigez, the prestigious Parisian
drapers. It was here that the foundation of his career was cemented and he began by
designing dresses for his wife (one of the firm's models, Marie Vernet.) which caught the
attention of the customers of the establishment.
In spite of Worth urging his partners to also make inroads into dress making, they were
hesitant to do so because dress-making was not considered a career of class in that era.
Unswayed, Worth decided to find another partner (Swedish Otto Bobergh) who agreed
to finance the business and the establishment of Worth and Bobergh was born in 1858.
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Quickly, Worth’s impeccable work began to garner attention and found patrons such as
the French Empress Eugénie and a host of other wealthy, titled, fashionable women of
the day. Worth's ascent as a designer corresponded with the establishment of the
Second Empire in France. The restoration of a royal house in 1852, with Napoleon III
(1808–1873) as the new emperor, once again made Paris an imperial capital as well as
the setting for numerous state occasions. Napoleon III put into practice a magnificent
vision for both Paris and France, kicking off changes and modernization that regenerated
the French economy and transformed Paris into a showpiece of Europe. Unmatched
levels of desire for luxury began to proliferate through France cascading down from the
court of the Emperor himself which had not been seen since the French Revolution
(1789–99). When Napoleon III married Empress Eugénie (1826–1920), her choices
coloured the palette of the nation and her continued patronage guaranteed Worth's
success as an admired dressmaker from the 1860s onward.
Above left, a portrait of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleoon III modeling a Haute Couture gown made by the
father of Couture, Charles Frederick Worth (on right).
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In the case of the fashionable and rich women of that era, an entire wardrobe would
comprise of morning, afternoon, and evening dresses and lavish "undress" items such as
tea gowns and nightgowns, which were worn merely in the seclusion of one's residence.
Worth also was an expert at creating sumptuous gowns for singular occasions, as well
as weddings and flamboyant masquerade balls, a preferred form of entertainment in
both the United States and Europe at the time. Worth's exclusive list of clients
comprised of stars of the theater and concert stage such as Sarah Bernhardt, Lillie
Langtry, Nellie Melba, and Jenny Lind.
Setting out against the tide, Worth did not ask the customer what design she wanted (
as had been the established norm of dressmaking). Instead, he began to display ‘model’
dressed to his prospective buyers four times a year and as a result is credited with
inventing the fashion show. Consequently, his clients then chose a model, which would
then be sewn in fabrics of their choice and tailored to their figure.
Worth completely turned the establishment of dressmaking on its head and was the first
of the couturiers, elevating the industry to an art form. While the designer still created
one-of-a-kind pieces for his most important clients, he is especially known for preparing
the variety of designs that were shown on live models at the House of Worth. Clients
made their selections and had garments tailor-made in Worth's workshop.
From his early days, he was a revolutionary innovator and the majority of his work was
involved with pushing the definitions of the socially accepted female fashionable shape,
removing ‘unnecessary’ embellishments advocating the usage of sumptuous fabrics in
simple but flattering outlines, the incorporation of elements of historic dress and his
attention to fit. Worth pioneered several innovations in the art of dressmaking. He
developed a system of interchangeable pattern pieces where a sleeve from one gown
would fit the bodice of another one, which would fit the skirt of a third. He also used
the sewing machine for all but the hand embroidery, beading and finishing. He also
combined individual tailoring with a standardisation more characteristic of the ready-towear clothing industry, which was also developing during this period.
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He and his sons also founded the 'Chambre de la Couture Parisienne' (French Haute
Couture Association) in 1868, which came up with the specific criteria a fashion
designer needs to fulfill in order to be allowed to call himself a 'Couturier'.
From then on, the couture movement began to gather steam and following in Worth's
footsteps were designers such as Callot Soeurs, Patou, Poiret, Vionnet, Fortuny, Lanvin,
Chanel, Mainbocher, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga and Dior.
In 1906, Paul Poiret established the first fashion house and became the first couturier to
launch a perfume, "Rosina". Then, came Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, who in 1913 opened a
boutique in Deauville, France; revolutionized and democratised women's fashion with
tailored suits, chain-belted jerseys and quilted handbags thus setting the stage to
becoming the most copied fashion designer in history.
The World War I prompted women to work in factories and offices which made it
more imperative for women to wear pants and military cut influenced clothes. As a
major boost to the couture movement, in the early 1920’s Madeleine Vionnet created
flowing, feminine clothes which included the chiffon handkerchief dress, the cowl neck
and the halter top following which Elsa Schiaparelli opened her Paris boutique,
pioneered the use of zippers, shoulder pads, unusual buttons and the began the usage of
hitherto unacceptable colors including "shocking pink".
After the World War II forced many Paris couture houses to close, Christian Dior
reestablished Paris as the fashion epicenter in 1947 by reviving haute couture and
replacing wartime austerity with the glamour of the "New Look" with a tight waist, stiff
petticoats and billowing skirts.
In the 1960s a clan of young designers who had trained under established maestros such
as Christian Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga left these renowned couture houses and
branched out on their own. Leading this movement were designers such as Yves Saint
Laurent, Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges, and Emanuel Ungaro.
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Today, Haute Couture no longer remains the same. Many years ago, it was said that
haute couture would die after the retirement of Yves Saint Laurent. Instead it thrived
with the embellishments of John Galliano at Dior and Alexander McQueen, then at
Givenchy. Couture, akin to other industries went through cycles, and an innumerable
variety of ups and downs that inexorably brought changes to the existing scheme.
While some houses have closed, others are dedicated to join the couture ranks. The
most recent couture collections shown in Paris witnessed the debut of two new
couture houses on the official calendar, Anne Valerie Hash (who in the past presented
her ready-to-wear collection during couture week) and Stéphane Roland, who after
years of successfully designing for Jean Louis Scherrer decided to set up his own house,
attracting both an established and newer clientele. Giorgio Armani is also a more recent
inductee. Having made his money in the ready-to-wear revolution of the 1970s, the
Italian designer introduced Giorgio Armani Privé at the Paris shows as one of 10 guest
fashion houses on the couture schedule, which includes Ralph Rucci and Elie Saab..
There are currently ten designers qualified to show their made-to-measure collections
in Paris in the haute couture show series, and countless other designer who show
outside the schedule.
Names like Adeline Andre, Frank Sorbier, Carven and Dominique Sirop don't mean
much outside Europe and to those in the know, but they all have budding customer lists
for their scrupulously constructed garments. Additionally, discovering new couture
ateliers that are not as renowned has also become a competitive sport amongst some
couture customers. There is a race to be the one to discover new talent. These include
the couturiers Maurizio Galante, Richard René and Stéphane Mahéas amongst others.
But there is also the daunting task of cultivating the old guard of clients. The majority of
designers will not set up their own couture house pending their acquisition of a certain
tenure in apprenticeship at an extant couture institution. Even then they face the
overwhelming challenge of matching up to the Chambre Syndicale’s rigorous criteria for
admittance into this restricted assemblage. Young couturiers must find home for their
27
atelier in Paris, and in addition employ the specified number of seamstresses in two
ateliers (one for dress making, the other for tailoring). Also, the requisite number of
model garments need to be displayed and cost of labour and raw material needs to be
considered.
In the realm of haute couture, designers in their mid-30’s and early 40’s are more often
than not thought of as young, considering the decades of familiarity to achieve the
echelon of procedural understanding and savoir faire mandatory for a proficient
couturier.
Nonetheless, the name of haute couture has been misused by a large number of ready-towear brands and high street labels ever since the eighties. As a consequence, its essence
has become somewhat confused with that of prêt-à-porter. Most of the haute couture
houses create prêt-à-porter collections as well, which are relatively much lower priced
and as a result produce a higher return on investment. The truth of the matter remains,
most of the haute couture presented at fashion shows is not bought. In fact couture is
created simply to increase the name of the house and create an aura of exclusivity and
creative brilliance around it. The lack of sales has coerced several couture establishments
to completely let go of their heritage and focus more on becoming more profitable by
embracing prêt-à-porter. For all these fashion houses, haute couture is not the primary
source of income, more often than not running up a bill which exceeds its revenue, but
becomes a means to an end, which is of being the tool to add to the prestige and
aspirational value of the house which directly impacts the sale of their ready-to-wear
clothing and related luxury products such as shoes and perfumes, and licensing ventures
that is more profitable for the company. Many of these establishments, for instance
Italian designer Antonio Capucci, some of whom have their ateliers in Italy, are not
viewed as haute couture any more.
Nevertheless the potential of Haute Couture eventually lies with the artisans who labor
in workshops doing the highly structured handiwork that converts a designer's sketches
into actuality. Even though it is not identified how many artisans still labor in France's
haute couture industry, what is certain is that their numbers are declining. Particularly
lessened are the ranks of the "fournisseurs," the artisans who work in external
28
workshops like Lesage, which concentrates in the expertise of embroidery and Lemarié,
the “plumassier,” which supplies the couture industry with feathers and ornamental
flowers.
In order to cement the assurance of the future of at least some artisans, the house of
Chanel has bought six of the oldest workshops that no longer have successors to
function. As a consequence, the centralization of all this know-how in Paris permits
designers to function in ways beyond compare anywhere else.
Predicting the demise of haute couture, the press only seems to cover a handful of the
couture shows each season (most notably those of the big fashion houses), however
there are at least 30 names on the off calendar list of presenters, as well as a growing
number of invited and newly inducted members. At the presentations of July 2007 the
haute couture season expanded from three days to four days, with a total of 43 shows.
At the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture’s board meeting in October 2007
several designers were given “invited member” status including: Adam Jones, Boudicca,
Cathy Pill, Christophe Josse, Eymeric François, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Gérald Watelet,
Gustavo Lins, Lefranc.Ferrant, Marc Le Bihan, Nicolas Le Cauchois, On Aura Tout Vu,
Richard René and Udo Edling.
29
Review of Literature
"Le luxe, c'est créer un rêve qui perdure."
Jean-Louis Dumas-Hermès
Ask a question that must be asked at the very beginning.
What is Fashion?
Could it be just yet another way of dictating some idiosyncratic style from the
proverbial tower or merely the ubiquitous style of a specific group at a particular time,
the style, which is considered apposite or pleasing?
Breaking it down to its bare bones, Fashion is the alteration in the code of visual
conventions by which we read meanings of whatever sort and variety into the clothes,
we and our contemporaries wear.
Fashion may also be considered to be intimately associated with modernity, restlessness,
openness to new experience, and fascination with the new, to ‘keep abreast of the
times’.
“Fashion, in some way or the other symbolizes social class.” Fashion may be considered
as one of the means by which social groups communicate their identity, to other social
groups. Adherence to fashion trends can thus form an index of social affluence and an
indicator of social mobility. “Someone who wants to move up the social scale will use
the latest fashions to reinforce and project an image of time as change and progress.
The social climber would like to see his position change and uses fashion, which changes
rapidly in time, to express this. Fashion is one of the ways in which social order is
experienced and communicated.”1
1
http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/f/fashion.html
30
Before we commence, it is imperative to have an understanding of what Fashion means
– Does it signify unabashed self-indulgence steeped in the aristocratic traditions of the
Maharajas or is it a more modern, utilitarian expectation of a rung of genuine benefits
cocooned in an economic value system?
The universe of implications attached to fashion per se, clothes, cosmetics, hairstyles
and jewelry, right down to the very shape and bearing of the body itself, is highly
distinguished in terms of taste, social identity, and persons’ access to the symbolic wares
of a society.
Clothing styles and fashions need not necessarily mean the same things to all
constituents of a society at the same time. The word "fashion" itself may signify many
dissimilar things to many dissimilar people, and as with all forms of art, there is more
than enough room for all interpretations. While the triggers constituting a style, an
appearance, or a specific fashion trend can in a material sense be thought of as the same
for everyone, what is signified is strikingly different for different publics, audiences, and
social consortiums.
Fashion is a language of signs, symbols and iconography that non-verbally communicate
meanings about individuals and groups. Fashion in all its forms is the best form of
iconography we have to express individual identity. It enables us to make ourselves
understood enabling comprehension by the viewer.
“Fashion tells you a lot about a particular culture or time. Even just a change in hemlines
can tell you a story. British women’s skirts rose to just below the knee for the first time
during World War II thanks to rationing. It became acceptable for women to show
some leg but little did the women of the fifties know that this shortening of the dress
would, 10 years later, help give birth to the mini skirt. The mini really does signify the
spirit of the baby boomers who came of age in the late sixties, and how their attitude
towards sexuality was changing. More recently, post 9/11; the popularity of the colors
red, white and blue had a lot to do with the general sympathy for New Yorkers.” 2
31
Fashion doesn’t just happen; it is triggered by people, by events, by social and
technological change. Most importantly, “fashion isn’t just what fashion designers put on
the catwalks and what a handful of privileged elite or celebrities wear. Fashion is what
we wear, a constant process of selection, adoption and change made by many, the
fashion magazines in their highlighting of certain looks or styles, retail buyers who stock
the stores, the sales assistants who wear it, and the consumers who pick and choose
from fashion.” 3
Fashion can also be seen as cyclical progression of modification, which occurs at specific
intervals, depending upon the mood of the general public at large, their reception and
rejection of a particular fashion statement at a given point in time.
If we examine the society of today, it may be observed that the cycle of fashion has been
considerably shortened to a large extent. The extent of this phenomenon could be
attributed to many factors namely the capitalization of the apparel industry, quickened
flow of information via the electronic media, loosening of class boundaries etc.
Due to the absence of any significant differences between what takes place during the
final stages of a fashion cycle, when the trend has already become part of the familiar
visual phraseology and what occurs during the commencement of the cycle, when the
new style is ‘Quelle horreur!’, or at best is amusing, the implication for fashion gets lost.
If patrons were not persistently occupied with the process of searching for new
products or services to gratify their rising needs (and once having consumed them,
giving birth to a set of fresh and diverse needs to emerge), the fashion process could not
function. Hence the most important criterion for the fashion industry becomes the fact
that it is time-based i.e. seasonal process, (most importantly the Printemps/été and the
Automne/Hiver) in which new trends are pioneered in the marketplace and are
espoused by enough consumers to warrant the description of ‘fashion’ in its proper
context in the first place, only to wane eventually in terms of popularity, thus rendering
them ‘Passé’.
2&3
http://web.mid-day.com/columns/sujata_assomull/2004/january/73701.htm
32
A Fashion that has been accepted widely enough remains no longer fashionable. But this
vicious cycle is what is most intrinsic to the survival of the fashion industry.
The crucial link between the fashion industry and the consumer is retailing. “No matter
how much the designer is applauded at the end of the show and no matter how much
the fashion editor “loved it”, ultimate success in the fashion business is achieved at
retailing level by consumer acceptance of fashion measured in purchases.”4
“Society, at large is as much a part of the fashion industry as the famous designers who
are sometimes credited too much with being the innovators of fashion. The irony is
that, while elite designer fashions have tried to keep their distance from high street
fashions, their very success depends on the popularization of styles in non- elite
groups.”5
Hence, have we even come close to answering that ever-elusive question?
www.encylclopedia4u.com identifies it thus- "A fashion consists of a current (constantly
changing) trend, favoured for frivolous rather than logical or intellectual reasons. What a
person chooses to wear can reflect their personality or likes. When people who have
cultural status start to wear new or different clothes a fashion trend may start; people
who like or respect them may start to wear clothes of a similar style. Fashion, by
definition, changes constantly. The change may proceed more rapidly than in most other
fields of human activity. The entire notion of fashion depends on subjectivity, so does
the question of who possesses fashion sense".
It may be said that a society can be broken up into cultural, political, and economic
sectors. Fashion, while typically regarded as a monotonous measure of wealth and
supposed cultural superiority, may actually be able to unite these three sections.
4,5
Fashion Files: Designers- From Haute couture to merchandising by Maria Constantino.
33
On a straightforward level, clothing is a societal trend whose success is decided by its
rate of purchase by consumers. It is related to economics. Moreover, while definitions
of “culture” change from individual to individual, most will agree that fashion, a notion
faintly abstract and serving as a measure of society, traditionally falls under the cultural
sector. Finally, fashion unites the previous two groups to that of the political realm by, at
times, incorporating the themes behind contemporary political movements into the
clothing worn by citizens on the street.
There are many questions regarding the agenda of Class, Gender, and Identity in
Clothing that crop up as a direct result of this - Why do people dress the way they do?
How does clothing contribute to a person's identity as a man or woman, as a whitecollar professional or blue-collar worker, as a preppie, yuppie, or nerd? How is it that
dress no longer denotes social class so much as lifestyle, whatever that is? Is haute
couture defunct?
“Why may women wear pants and everything else men do, yet men may not wear skirts
and everything else women do?” 6
But what about the majority of the population? The movement towards bridging these
cultural and political realms, through the power of economic consumer purchase, is one
that is recognized by high-label designers and the chain-store owners alike.
Nevertheless, for real change to occur, the impact of a movement or event should be
acknowledged by the general population of the society.
How can this happen? The change must be gradual, as is any sort of effective cultural
resistance. The introduction of the military style of clothing, in this Victorian-style way,
with heavy costume jewelry and lighter fabric colors, has been slowly diffusing
throughout the fashion industry. When the notion of the war in Iraq first became wellunderstood and openly discussed by citizens, the hackneyed olive greens and browns
began to infiltrate the fashion culture.
6
Fashion and its social agendas, Diana Crane
34
Now, after a few years, the real motives behind the military look are coming into play:
All are involved, even young female fashionistas seemingly unassociated with the politics
of the war. The look is prevalent in society, and if informed, everyone can understand
how this bridge between politics and fashion paints a picture of a unified social view.
Debatably, the most consequent constituent of bringing the designers vision to the eyes
of the press and as a result to the consumer base would be the Runway show.
A fashion show is the presentation of goods on a living, moving form to tell a fashion
story. It traces the inspiration of the show, right from the mind of the designer right to
the end product. It is the solitary promotional activity that presents the merchandise on
a moving form and therefore, gives a true presentation of the goods as they look when
worn. It tells the viewer what to wear and when to wear it, and it demonstrates the
right manner in which to carry it. In some cases it also goes beyond the closely shackled
bounds of ‘wearability’ and gives us that one elusive glimpse into the designer’s world.
“The fashion show embellishes the dream that the viewer can look as attractive as the
models and have as much personality. It animates the apparel. Nothing can bring apparel
to life like a fashion show.” 7
A fashion show is the depiction of the entire creative process of the evolution of the
collection and attempts to construct an authoritative visual statement about fashion,
making it one of the most exciting and dramatic forms of publicity and promotion.
Its primary purpose is to take the idea and make it a reality. The audience at these
fashion shows are from all the marketing levels from people working in the industry
(designers-manufacturers-retailers and most importantly buyers) to specially handpicked, invited opinion leaders, barring the oddball celebrity or two.
“Seventy-five to a hundred years ago, retail buyers would go to major fashion cities
twice a year to see the latest lines and place their orders. In the United States, that
meant that buyers from places like Neiman Marcus (Dallas), Marshall Fields (Chicago),
Wannamakers (Philadelphia), and the May Company (Denver) would go to New York to
35
see and buy. As mass production techniques improved and Hollywood began to have a
major impact on clothing consumption in the 1920's and 30's, the fashion industry
responded by developing trade shows at set times during the year to bring as many
buyers and sellers together in one place at one time. Major designers held fashion
shows during these trade show weeks, but for many years, they were limited to private
haute couture clients and select retail buyers.” 8
Before the commercialization of fashion, when haute couture had established itself, the
employment of models and the introduction of the catwalk or runway show detached
the traditional relationship between ‘dressmaker’ and client and restored it with a
system that gave mounting independence in matters of taste, style and fashion to the
designer- couturiers.
When Prêt-à-porter reared its head, the once closely guarded and reverently staged
ceremonial processions of haute couture showings gave way to the new guard which
transformed the show into a piece of dramatic brilliance and elevated it to more than
just a show of moving mannequins.
“The haute couture presentations no longer exist to dress women in the latest fashions
but instead keep alive the traditions of luxury and virtuosity in design by showing
masterpieces of workmanship that often pay no heed to practical or commercial
obligations. This concept of couture first began in France but ironically; it was an
Englishman, who was to become the founder of modern couture. Charles Worth was
the first successful designer and the first to put his signature on his clothes, both,
literally on the label and by the creation of clothes that were directly attributable in
style to him.” 8
7
Retail Fashion- Promotion and Advertising by Mary Frances Drake, Janice Harrison Spoone and Herbert
8
http://www.fashionjobreview.com/Fashion_Week.html
36
Armed with their ever-burgeoning power, designers could now truly take on the mantle
of trend-dictators. But along with this came an understanding of the fact that at the end
of the day no matter how creatively brilliant the conception or execution of the dress
might be, the understanding of the changing roles and needs of their clients should
remain at the core of their inspiration.
Hence, increasingly, couturiers began to respond to a clientele that included women
from all over the world who have different canons of beauty, different social practices
and different tastes.
It may be true that haute couture is a shadow of its former self, but young designers like
Anne Valerie Hash still aspire to join the exclusive club in spite of the fact that it has
fewer than 2,000 regular buyers, as high-fashion garments now move quickly into massmarket sales channels.
“Most fashion houses still in the couture business must subsidize it with their morelucrative prt-a-porter, or ready-to-wear collections. Many legendary houses such as
Balenciaga and Yves St. Laurent have gotten out of couture altogether. Yet the prestige
of couture continues to attract designers like Hash, who also has her own prt-a-porter
line. After graduating from the elite Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture
Parisienne, she worked at a half-dozen houses, polishing her skills as a seamstress,
pattern-builder, and alterations specialist. "The problem with fashion today is finding
young designers who have the technique to really build these types of clothing," Hash
says.” 9
This business also fuels many facets of sexuality and androgyny that fashion exhibits.
Let us take for example how the neutral style, in fact, takes its cues from Korean pop
culture -- far bigger in China than its Western equivalent.
8
Fashion Files: Designers- From Haute couture to merchandising by Maria Costantino
9
Knocking on Haute Couture's Door. By: Flanagan, Cassidy, Business Week Online, 7/9/2007
37
This movement had its breakout moment during China's version of American Idol, a
female-only show called Super Girl, watched by hundreds of millions of viewers. It was a
clear sign that audiences are tired of traditional Chinese pop stars: beauties with long
hair and a sugary sweet demeanour. The winner, boyish Li Yuchun, and the similarlooking runner-up, drew millions of text-message votes. Meanwhile, on a male-only TV
singing competition called My Hero, the boys looked feminine and emotional, with one
contestant being described as Li's "kid sister."10
Even greater in magnitude than the question of Androgyny is the underlying theme of
sexuality in Fashion. The watershed moment for fashion's emergence from the closet
was the outbreak of AIDS and a rash of AIDS-related deaths in the Eighties. While
enrobed in tragedy, the disease brought awareness of gay culture to the masses. The
AIDS epidemic not only claimed many great talents, it also spooked the industry and
stereotyped fashion designers as high-risk investments, prone to sexual promiscuity and
drug abuse. The rights issue will likely continue to fade in and out as a political tool. And
while it may be a media sport to speculate on whether certain celebrities are gay, it
seems almost unthinkable that such fascination could still extend to fashion. In that
enclave, the opposite game is more likely to play out, where even hard-core
conservatives expect their fashion designers to be gay.
“In 1971, when WWD asked late designer Bill Blass if he had preferences in sex-boys or
girls-he replied tersely: "What kind of a question is that in this day and age? What is that
supposed to mean, 'boys or girls'? Because I'm 49 years old, am I suspect? I was once
engaged to marry," he said, "but I can't remember her name." 11
10
Girls will be boys... By: Conway-Smith, Erin, Maclean's, 2/19/2007
11
When Fashion came out of the closet. By: Ilari, Alessandra, Murphy, Robert, Karimzadeh
38
The international Prêt-à-porter designer shows still remain exclusive to all but the
elite and only about a thousand people are invited to occupy around 600 seats. But this
closely guarded exclusivity is ironically what fuels the media interest. As a result the
latest looks can now be seen by all on television (notably, FTV from Paris) and in the
pages of magazines and newspapers (‘Vogue’ and ‘Numero’ for instance).
But this is only half the tale told and is a dated version of what the world fashion
scenario looks like. Gone are the days when fashion was tyrannically elitist and was used
as a means of subjugation. The advent of technology in the 1930’s wreaked havoc with
its hitherto unheard of means of mass-production and transportation, hence the
‘common’ public could purchase cheap copies of the closely guarded merchandise of the
design houses from vendors on the pavement. For instance, monogrammed Louis
Vuitton bags sell at the Porte de Clignancourt in Paris for 15 Euros each.
Then Media began to play its part and gave the consumer a mind of its own and a place
to express it loud and clear. No longer could couturiers decree the trend of the ‘saison’
as was the norm until the 1960’s at least. The buzzwords doing the rounds were
Comfort, Individuality and Personal style which in turn gave rise to a People’s style
movement where empowered youth began to take fashion head-on and coined ‘Street
fashion’. No one cared any more and London began to become the epicenter of this
revolution in the 70’s.
The 80’s saw a proliferation of branded and mass market designers as a direct
consequence of the power that Media wielded. As a result the reins began to slip and
the power to dictate began to ebb out of Paris, creating 4 major fashion capitals in the
world with clearly defined and demarcated fortes.
“While Paris is often thought of as the fashion capital of the world, but infact there are
five main cities supplying designs and new ideas to the international market. Paris is
historically seen as the fashion capital and has the edge on many other cities as its
fashion industry is taken very seriously by government and citizens alike.
Milan is the other fashion capital of Europe, and Italians have always taken fashion very
seriously. There are probably fewer well known designers, like Giorgio Armani, Gianni
Versace etc. but Italy is a country whose people and retail set up, with many more
39
independent stores, is a successful environment for young designers.
On the other hand, London is no longer the focal point of fashion that it once was,
though it still produces many international and influential designers. Also, the UK
clothing industry is still significant and exports are actually growing in contrast to
international sales.
In America, the major fashion center is New York. To a considerable extent, American
fashions are confined to the home market, although all the big names are known and
bought internationally, like Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren etc. Tokyo is the center of
Japanese clothing market, and has a reputation for a distinct style and for almost a lack
of color. There has been considerable growth in recent years at the top end of the
Japanese clothing market by designers.
The Middle East is now considered the sixth fashion Terminus of the world, not because
any designs come from here, but because it is where the submerged 11% of the fashion
industry goes.” 11a
From haute couture to haberdashery, "deviant" dress to Dior, it is essential to trace the
social and cultural history of fashion and its complex relationship to modernity. Fashion
as a personification has many vociferous opponents, from the "dress reform" movement
to certain strands of feminism, delighting in the power to mark out identity or subvert
it. exploring the grunge look inspired by bands like Nirvana, the "boho chic"12 of the mid
90’s, retro-dressing, and the meanings of dress.
There is also a new generation of couturiers (and their dismissal by the old guard,
referring particularly to Yves Saint Laurent) who make considerably different statements
through the inspirations they choose to carry through, their garments and the very
choice of construction/execution they condone.
11a
12
Fashion Files: Designers- From Haute couture to merchandising by Maria Constantino
Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity, Elizabeth Wilson
40
"If women can afford to buy haute couture, then why not?" Galliano is drinking a beer in
the showroom of his own company, John Galliano, near the Bastille. His short-cropped
hair is dyed blue and he is wearing pajama pants. "The future of haute couture is very
exciting," he says. "I've never sensed such a buzz. I mean, two years ago it was a bit
dusty around here, wasn't it?" He blows into the air and adds, "Someone's given it a
complete dusting." He is philosophical about Yves Saint Laurent's dismissal of his work:
"This man has given so much to the industry. I think he's a genius. But haute couture has
changed, and I'm here for the couture of the year 2000."
13
But along with this comes the seamier and more supercilious side of the background of
couture leading itself to more political inferences. Former haute couture hawker
Francoise Saunier, 76, was given a one- year suspended sentence in Versailles last week
for keeping Anne-Pierette Drossard in an unheated shack in the bottom of her garden
for 30 years. Drossard lived as an unpaid servant, sewing away on Madame Saunier's
pricey frocks in exchange for one meal a day - a bag of scraps hung on a nail outside the
door - and access to the garden hose for water.
"I tried to help that woman," the benevolent slave owner told the press. "All that
trouble I went to, all those years, and what have I got out of it? Bother and worry, that's
all, bother and worry. It has left me disgusted with humanity." 14
But at the heart of the root of all the maladies hounding couture lies the
commercialization of Couture and it’s watering down of political and creative
statements to be made more palatable for consumption. How is couture to sustain its
beautiful, frail self when very few can afford these otherworldly clothes? The clients who
pay retail--from Kuwaiti brides-to-be to fashion-conscious socialites--don't give the
brands much exposure. And these creations are made to be seen. Which is why stars-and, even more crucially, their stylists--are ever more welcome at the Paris shows. “A
stunning dress on a gorgeous body at a telegenic gala can do wonders for the fortunes
of star, event and especially designer.”15
13
`Through different eyes.' By: Denbigh, Dorie, Time South Pacific (Australia/New Zealand edition)
41
Revolution and Politics have always been a source of inspiration for Fashion and more
importantly, Haute Couture.
Take the sans-culottes of the 1790s to the bellbottoms of the sixties, the roundhead
coiffures of the English Revolution to the shaggy locks and peasant garb of counterculture Third Worldism, it certainly seems that men and women have articulated the
spirit of historical transformation in the dialect of fashion.
On the contrary, fashion itself seems to frequently symbolize its changes as
revolutionary breakthroughs, liberations, experiments in the transgressive, scandalous
forms of life that will show no mercy for what the frozen hand of times bygone might
seem to signify.
Going hand in hand with these trade offs between fashion and politics is a profound
abhorrence of fashion, a revolutionary, almost buck-the-trend need for an insurgency
that will tear away the pretense, the uniforms, and images to reveal the exposed
remains of the bona fide avant-garde, the unclothed setting of the idyllic social order to
come.
Take for example, the editorial in the New Yorker by maestro Herb Ritts, which
comprises of a black and white photograph that is an undeviating satire of a depressionera documentary.
“An undernourished looking family is posed in front of a boarded-up shack wearing
ragged, dirty clothes,. The caption, however, informs us that these are models, and that
“Hard times on the hardpan” is actually about fashion: “big brother’s boiled sweater
with holes” is by Junya Watanabe; Pa’s filthy undershirt is “by Dolce & Gabbana.” (The
New Yorker Sept. 9, 2002, p. 128-29). The “you” addressed by these photographs is the
cosmopolitan reader of The New Yorker, browsing the fashions, getting the joke,
understanding the codes that make photography–even the most serious documentary
photography–completely vulnerable to the autonomous play of photographic signs, and
the frivolity of the untethered signifier.” 16
42
The final question to ask then is: What are we left with when all the peculiarities
between art, fashion, and politics have been systematically diluted? The universal
response needs to be: postmodernism, a provision by which the divergence between art
and mass culture, art and fashion, has been effaced, and the likelihood of insurrection,
along with its ostentatious tale of liberation, has been left simply, impossible.
14
Chain Reaction, St. Petersburg Times, Russia, 02.02.2001
15
Paris When It Poufs. By: Betts, Kate, Time Canada, 2/2/2004
16
Revolution and your Wardrobe, W.T Mitchell
43
Research Methodology
The Research Objectives
To explore the political expressions of religion, sexuality and exclusion portrayed in
Fashion by focussing on the case of Haute Couture by examining the manner in which
the industry chooses to conduct its legalities, inspirations and muses of the designers
and the complicated if somewhat archaic business model.
Types of Research
Research can be divided into two broad types: qualitative and quantitative.
Simply put, quantitative research requires that the variables under consideration be
measured. This form of research is concerned with how often a variable is present and
generally uses numbers to communicate this amount. It allows greater precision in
reporting results. A variable is a phenomenon or event that can be measured and
manipulated and is used in the development of constructs (Wimmer & Dominick, 1983).
Alternatively, “Qualitative research describes or analyses a phenomenon without
specifically measuring variables. No statistical analysis is involved in qualitative research,
although the data might be expressed numerically” (Wimmer & Dominick,1983:19).
“Qualitative research can be described as any social science research that produces
results that are not obtained by statistical procedures or other methods of
quantification. Some of the data may be quantified, but the analysis is qualitative. It can
refer to research about people's lives, their stories, and behaviour, and it can also be
used to examine organizations, relationships, and social movements. Research done in
this way produces descriptive data such as people's own spoken or written words or
observable behaviour.” (Bouma & Atkinson, 1997:206).
44
A Comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Thus, various distinctions appear between qualitative and quantitative research. In
qualitative research, the relationship between the researcher and the subject is more
intimate than in quantitative research. Research strategy is also unstructured in
qualitative research whereas a quantitative research would involve a structured strategy.
The nature of data used in qualitative research is rich and deep, while it is hard and
reliable in quantitative research. Thus saying that quantitative research is systematized,
analytic, measured, and broad might summarize the differences.Qualitative research is
more insightful, subjective, and deep (Bouma & Atkinson, 1997).
Therefore some subjects are best investigated using quantitative methods while in
others qualitative approaches yield better results. In some cases, both methods can be
used. Qualitative research is appropriate when the researcher is attempting to
understand the nature of a person's experiences; for example, when the subject has
embraced a new religion, or undergone some other experience (Bouma & Atkinson,
1997).
In qualitative research, analysis is the process by which data is used to identify themes,
construct hypotheses, and support these themes and hypotheses. Unlike in quantitative
research, in qualitative research the researcher does not seek to prove a hypothesis;
instead, the aim is to show that the hypothesis is plausible. Although it seems logical for
data analysis to come at the end of the research, it is really an ongoing process starting
from the time that fieldwork begins. Ideas are constructed, modified, and rejected
throughout the investigation. However, it is at the end of the fieldwork phase that the
researcher concentrates most on analyzing the findings (Bouma & Atkinson, 1997).
Qualitative research offers a deeper and more subjective approach to social science
research than quantitative approach. Although many of the rules are similar, for
example, that careful preparation and wide reading are needed before approaching
subjects, there are substantial differences. Thus, in qualitative research, hypotheses are
45
usually developed as the investigation develops and not before the investigation.(Bouma
& Atkinson, 1997).
Based on some advantages and disadvantages, the researcher has decided on the
qualitative research method. The subject that has been chosen requires a pliable,
profound and subjective study. The researcher wishes to inspect the subject of the
politics of Haute Couture with inventive autonomy of vision and portrayal of thoughts.
Among the qualitative research methods, the case study method was selected, as it
would enable the researcher to process an overview of the political and social scenario
and public thought and reaction.
Both primary and secondary data was used in the course of the research. The primary
data used is the images of the garments and their construction.
Secondary data includes the books, research material, historical sources of data,
magazines, journals and other material.
Data collection
The study involves secondary research. The sources of data are the Vogue archives of
past collections, articles from various journals and books, and other newspaper articles
and previous critiques relating to the business of Haute Couture, its clients and muses in
particular, within the established context. The data has been sourced from internet
sources, from the KEIC and other libraries.
An attempt has been made to categorise all the political expressions under the broad
heads of issues relating to
- Religion
- Sexuality and
- Exclusion
46
Characteristics of Qualitative Research
“The essence of this approach is to view events through the perspective of the
people who are being studied. What do they think? How do they view the world?”
(Bouma & Atkinson, 1997:207).
“Adopting this approach requires the researcher to empathize (not necessarily
sympathize) with the people being studied. So, for example, a researcher
investigating a group of drug users must be able to see the world through their eyes
without necessarily justifying the drug trade. Similarly, someone investigating old
people should have an appreciation of the difficulties faced by the elderly” (Bouma
& Atkinson, 1997:207).
“Another characteristic of much qualitative research is that there is a longitudinal
element-people are studied over a period of time (this need not be the defining
characteristic). So a researcher investigating the introduction of mixed ability
teaching in a school might begin before the change took place and then follow
events during and after the change. Put another way, there is an emphasis on
process, of how things change. In addition, qualitative researchers typically provide
detailed descriptions of the settings they investigate. They ask questions such as
'What is it like?' and 'What's going on?” (Bouma & Atkinson, 1997:207).
“A further characteristic is that qualitative research is relatively unstructured. The
research strategy is, to a large extent, open, so that in some cases the investigator
may not have decided in advance precisely what is to be investigated. The argument
for this is that an open approach allows the researcher to investigate unexpected
topics, which may only become apparent after an investigation has begun. This
means that qualitative researchers often reject the formulation of theories until
after they have started their investigation. Instead of formulating hypotheses before
an investigation as in quantitative research, investigation and testing of theories may
go on together” (Bouma & Atkinson, 1997:207).
47
This is not a strict rule and is purely the prerogative of the researcher. The process
of theory and research (practice) usually goes together. There might not be a
concrete theoretical proposition that the researcher might go with, (to test in the
field) but then there is, certainly, the element of the researcher's own subjective
reality around himself/herself. This cannot be discounted completely.
Misconceptions about Qualitative Methods
There are a couple of misconceptions about qualitative research. “The first thing is
that qualitative studies are opposed to statistics, mathematics, counting—indeed
everything that might be called quantitative…But numbers are not the real issue, at
least in the minds of the present writers…No one can survive very long in scholarly
research without such tools, and simple arguments about quantifying versus
nonquantifying distort and even obscure the real intellectual problems” (Stempel &
Westley, 1989: 357).
“The second problem is…more subtle; it is the assumption that qualitative studies
is simply another name for historical research…Qualitative studies start from the
assumption that any adequate theory of communication will be historical in a dual
sense: it will be grounded in the knowledge of what communication has been and
how it has become what it is, and its theoretical propositions will be designed to
account for this historical and comparative variation and not its presumed universal
or contemporary form” (Stempel, Westley, 1989: 357).
The Case Study Method
Yin (1994) defines a case study as an empirical enquiry that uses multiple sources of
evidence to investigate a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, in
which the boundaries between the phenomenon and its context are not clearly evident.
48
Which brings us to the characteristics of a case study, they are as follows:
1. Particularistic: This means that the case study focuses on a particular situation, event
program or phenomenon making it a good method for studying practical real-life
situations.
2. Descriptive: The final result of a case study is a detailed description of the topic under
study.
3. Heuristic: A case study helps people to understand what’s being studied. New
interpretations, new perspectives, new meaning and fresh insights are all goals of a case
study.
4. Inductive: Most case studies depend on inductive reasoning. Principles and
generalizations emerge from an examination of the data. Many case studies attempt to
discover new relationships rather that verify existing hypothesis.
The case study method is one of the research techniques that are commonly
referred to as qualitative research. A case study uses as many data sources as
possible to investigate systematically an individual, group, organization, or event.
They are conducted when a researcher desires to understand or explain a
phenomenon. Apart from mainstream social science, the case study method is
frequently used in various disciplines like medicine, anthropology, clinical
psychology, management science, and history (Wimmer & Dominick, 1983).
“On a more formal level, Yin defines a case study as an empirical inquiry that uses
multiple sources of evidence to investigate a contemporary phenomenon within its
real-life context in which the boundaries between the phenomenon and its context
are not clearly evident. This definition highlights how a case study differs from other
research strategies. For example, an experiment separates phenomenon from reallife context. The laboratory environment controls the context. The survey
technique tries to define the phenomenon under study narrowly enough to limit
the number of variables to be examined. Case study research includes both single
and multiple cases. Comparative case study research, frequently used in political
49
science, is an example of the multiple case study technique” (cited in Wimmer &
Dominick, 1983:156).
“The case study method is not synonymous with participant observation (where a
researcher enters a group and takes part in its activities). In the first place, as Yin
correctly points out, participant observation does not always result in case studies.
Second, case studies may not necessarily include direct observations as a source of
evidence. In fact, it is perfectly feasible for a researcher to do an exemplary case
study by using just the telephone and the library. In short, the case study method
may not be recommended in all research situations. It does represent, however,
another valuable addition to the researcher's stock of available tools.” (Wimmer &
Dominick, 1983:156).
Why Haute Couture as a Case?
Fashion may be termed many things, probably the greatest and most palpable
identifier of social class, belonging and in some cases, dissent. Hence, it is only
natural that clothing makes strong statements about the designer and the consumer
who chooses to flaunt it.
As a consequence, Haute Couture becomes the perfect showcase of all that is
rarefied about the fashion industry considering that the primary purpose of its
existence is not profit making or returns on investment but the sumptuous,
unshackled spectacle of what Fashion should really be.
Consumption is not a criterion nor is Wearability a virtue hence elevating Haute
Couture to the purest form of art – That exists just because it does.
Therefore, the plethora of statements that Couture splashes onto the canvas of
personal identity remains the most pristine and hence it becomes the most
appropriate case to be perused to understand the political expressions of Fashion.
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Advantages of Case Study Method
“The case study method is most valuable when the researcher wants to obtain a
wealth of information about the research topic. Case studies provide tremendous
detail. Many times researchers want such detail when they don't know exactly what
they are looking for. The case study is particularly advantageous to the researcher
who is trying to find clues and ideas for further research. This is not to suggest,
however, that case studies be used only at the exploratory stage of research. The
method can also be used to gather descriptive and explanatory data. The case study
technique can suggest why something has occurred. For example, in many cities in
the mid-1980s, cable companies asked to be released from certain promises made
when negotiating for a franchise. To learn why this occurred, a multiple case study
approach examining several cities could have been used. Other research
techniques, such as the survey, might not be able to get at all the possible reasons
behind this phenomenon. Ideally, case studies should be used in combination with
theory to achieve maximum understanding” (Wimmer & Dominick, 1983:156).
“The case study method also affords the researcher the ability to deal with a wide
spectrum of evidence. Documents, historical artifacts, systematic interviews, direct
observations, and even traditional surveys can all be incorporated into a case study.
In fact, the more data sources that can be brought to bear in a case, the more likely
it is that the study will be valid” (Wimmer & Dominick, 1983:156,157).
Disadvantages of Case Study Method
“There are three main criticisms. The first has to do with a general lack of scientific
rigor in many case studies. Yin points out that too many times, the case study
investigator has been sloppy, and has allowed equivocal evidence or biased views to
influence the findings and conclusions. It is easy to do a sloppy case study; rigorous
case studies require a good deal of time and effort (Wimmer & Dominick,
1983:157).
51
“The second criticism is that the case study is not easily open to generalization. If the
main goal of the researcher is to make statistically based normative statements
about the frequency of occurrence of a phenomenon in a defined population, some
other method may be more appropriate. This is not to say that the results of all
case studies are idiosyncratic and unique. In fact, if generalizing theoretic
propositions is the main goal, the case study method is perfectly suited to the task”
(Wimmer & Dominick, 1983:157).
“Finally, like participant observation, case studies are likely to be time-consuming
and may occasionally produce massive quantities of data that are hard to
summarize. Consequently, fellow researchers are forced to wait years for the
results of the research, which too often are poorly presented. Some authors,
however, are experimenting with non-traditional methods of reporting to
overcome this last criticism” (Wimmer & Dominick, 1983:157).
However, inspite of all the limitations, the case study method offers immense
possibilities especially because of its flexibility. It allows the possibility to get deep
into a specific subject. The subjective element does creep into the study but then in
the case study method, one generalizes on the cases rather than on the
representative population. Having specified the methodology, the unfolding chapters
refer to the case in question.
52
The Politics of Religion
Haute Couture may be viewed to be one of France’s greatest guardians of the
distillation of everything truly French. The aura of exclusivity and prestige that
surrounds Haute Couture makes it the perfect mirror to display to the world all that
may be quintessentially associated with the nation.
But in spite of being one of France’s most highly regarded front faces, the political
statements that couturiers choose to are not always in tandem with the political
scenario or the general point of view at that point of time.
L'affaire du voile Islamique
France has been looked upon by its minorities as an imperialist nation, who are of the
opinion that its system has been founded on the building blocks of the subjugation and
mistreatment of the people of the world and France's proletariat. The refutation of
rights for immigrant workers and their intense ‘exploitation’ has been an ostensible
feature of French society.
In fact, Nicolas Sarkozy, when he was the presidential
candidate for the ruling Gaullist UMP, announced his intention, that upon election, he
would set up a new ministry of immigration and national identity to further reinforce
immigration restrictions wherein he wished to create a social and ideological base
whereby any action by workers to defend their rights and living standards would be
counted as unpatriotic and even subversive.
Immigrant workers, who are largely from the Arabic-speaking countries of North Africa,
have played an imperative role in the French labor market ever since the Second World
War despite which, until 30 years ago, these workers did not have the right to bring
their families to France. Fuelled by the ideologies of Aristocracy, the French ruling class
has long encouraged chauvinism toward other nations and almost racist attitudes
towards foreigners in concealed and perceptible forms. Small wonder, then that is
thought of as one of the most xenophobic nations in the world.
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Furthermore, it is a culture in which immigrant workers and especially Arabs are at the
bottom of a highly structured social pyramid. France has by far the highest percentage of
immigrants in Europe, with 7.5 percent of the country's population identified as Muslims.
The majority are from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and other former French colonies in
Arab-speaking North Africa. Others come from France's former black African colonies
and Turkey.
Neither France nor its neighbors have done much to fit into place their Muslim
minorities, permitting an extremist militant version of Islam to achieve support among
the most dissatisfied and younger members of the society.
Islamic youth are now much readier to state their Islamic distinctiveness than their
parents and also more liable to be carried away by mostly foreign-trained Imams
advocating the austere Islamic customs of Saudi Arabia and other Islamic nations which
are far from the actualities of existence in Europe. Similar to other countries, France is
experiencing the results of globalisation. Even though the effects of globalisation are far
more distressing in third world countries, in European countries and specifically in
France, the chasm between the classes is widening. Immigrant ghettos are analogous to
mounting paucity and bigotry.
Regardless, the policy makers in France remain obstinate that Muslims must play by the
state's republican rules, taking no notice of Islam's blend of religion, state and society. As
a direct consequence, Muslims in France have difficulty recognizing the principles of
"liberty, equality and fraternity" when the ideals are undoubtedly not functional for
them.
In December 2003, the French President at the time, Jacques Chirac decreed that a law
should ostensibly not allow any discernable sign of religious affiliation, in the spirit of
laïcité (secularity). The secularity law, also known as "the veil law”, was put in effect by
the French parliament in March 2004. It prohibits the usage of any "ostensible" religious
articles, including the Islamic veil, the Jewish kippa, and large Christian crosses. The law
permits discreet signs of faith, such as small crosses, Stars of David, and hands of Fatima.
54
The scandal concerning the Islamic veil exploded in October 1989, when three female
students were suspended for not agreeing to remove their scarves in class at Gabriel
Havez Middle School in Creil, France. Following this, in January 1990, three girls were
suspended from Pasteur Middle School in Noyon, a banlieue north of Paris. Parents of
one of the girls previously suspended from Gabriel Havez filed a defamation suit against
its principal. Escalating the matter even further, teachers at a middle school in Nantua
held a general strike in protest against the scarf in school.
Left, Muslim women in Marseilles protest the
law banning headscarves in school.
In an attempt to ameliorate the situation and bring some clarity forth, in September
1994, a new memorandum, the "François Bayrou memo" was issued, clearly defining the
distinction between "discreet" religious symbols which would be allowed in institutions
of education, and "ostentatious" religious symbols (including the Islamic veil), which
were to be prohibited in public establishments.
More than a hundred female students have been suspended or expelled from middle and
high schools for wearing the veil in class in the decade from 1994 onwards. To make
matters worse, in almost a majority of these cases, their protests were annulled by the
French courts.
55
There is a school of thought that analyses this and proclaims that this runs deeper than
is discernible. The reason for the ban may probably be attributed to the fact that veiled
Muslim women would be evocative of militant anticlericals of religious Christians
, probably in light of the memory of the guerres scolaires, the veiled nuns, who were
chased out of public French schools in the 19th century.
Hence, the less than positive connotations of the veil apropos the Catholic Church in
France, the role it played with the royal system against the peasantry, and its desire to
dictate the politics and morals that France should abide by.
Couture’s stand
The French Fashion Industry and more specifically, the art form of Haute Couture have
always a diametrically opposite political point of view. Whether this should be attributed
to the fact that this is because of the will of the industry to survive or its elevation to an
art form and hence, a careless nonchalance towards everything turbulent is a question
that is difficult to answer. Nonetheless, the truth of the matter still remains that
Couture has always embraced religious differences, and in particular the culture of Islam
whether in terms of client relationships or the establishment of designer’s muses.
The Clients
“Veiling their faces behind their programs, as liquid black eyes followed each model
down the runway.” Was the description of a row of Saudi Princesses seated at a Saint
Laurent couture show by Suzy Menkes, senior fashion editor at the International Herald
Tribune.
The caucasian clients of couture always remain its most visible, for instance the English
heiress Daphne Guinness, the New York socialite Anne Bass as well as Becca Cason
Tharsh, the Houston hostess and fundraiser. The reason one knows of them, in a tightly
knit group famous for its discretion, is that they are one the very few clients to have
56
allowed the media to photograph them as well as to speak openly about their love of
couture.
But as an intriguing expose of sorts, in March 2007, the BBC produced a documentary
called the “The Secret World of Haute Couture,” in which there was an endeavor to
gain access to this exclusive circle of clients in order to decipher what makes haute
couture so special. Not surprisingly some of the clients who agreed to be interviewed
are mentioned above, while many remained tightlipped, including several designers who
refused to talk about their clients, sighting an unspoken rule of confidentiality.
Despite this, the documentary provides us with a rare glimpse into a world that is
seldom seen by the general public. What came to light was that although the fashion
press regularly reports on couture’s American clientele and the stars who attend the
shows, it is rare that one reads of its regular customers from the Middle East, who
constitute a large portion of its buyers.
By the late 1960's and early 70’s the couture houses were receiving a welcome infusion
of new customers from the Middle East and - more important - new money. Though the
couture houses during this period kept such matters as costs and expenses to
themselves, plentiful stories of abundant spending began to circulate in the press.
But by the end of the Eighties the Middle Eastern clients had become part of the
couture establishment, subsequently passing their taste for haute couture along.
But this sizable Middle Eastern clientele also shed light on how vulnerable the industry
was to any political and economic upheavals which could affect the region. This was no
more apparent than at the start of 1990’s, when war broke out in the Gulf after 15
years of civil war in Lebanon. The Gulf War was a catastrophe for the top end of the
industry, hitting it almost as hard as the 1929 depression. According to Francois Lesage,
the 77-year-old head of Paris' top embroidery house, "Haute couture was asleep. It was
totally oriented around the Arab princesses. The more petrol prices went up, the more
57
the princesses bought dresses," The princesses were by far the biggest buyers of haute
couture during this period and there were hundreds of them patronizing the craft.
Examining Dior's client lists alone may tell a story. Saudi Arabia alone provides 32
percent of Dior's clients; 18 percent come from the United States, and only 10 percent
or fewer from other countries. The houses of Chanel and Dior both say that it is the
Arab clients who are ordering the more extravagant designs that require yards of
expensive fabric and embroidery, thus making it the most expensive to construct.
For many of the Middle Eastern customers, in particular those from Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait and Qatar, these special events generally take the form of lavish weddings held
in gilded palace halls or the ballrooms of five star hotels. Attended by women only, such
events produce the highest concentration of elaborate ball gowns and jewellery.
Then there are the first lady’s, queens and royal consorts who rely upon the couture as
a means of projecting a confident and sophisticated image in their increasingly public
lives. For the Paris couture houses the importance of attracting Arab clients lies not just
in their numbers but in how much they spend. Large Arab weddings are often
extravagant formal events, where women are required to attend in sumptuous ball
gowns. Clients will not only order an elaborately embroidered bridal gown, (which can
often run up to $150,000), but will also include a number of outfits for the wedding
party. For instance, Nada Kirdar, one of couture’s most prominent Arab clients and the
wife of Iraqi born Investcorp founder Nemir Kirdar, commissioned Christian Lacroix to
design the dresses for the wedding party of her daughter Rena Sindi on July 6, 1991 in
London.
Soaring oil prices have also stroked Middle East interest, reviving a client base that had
slumped in the early 1990s. The oil rally has seen some of those princesses return.
By now it’s apparent that primary factor driving Couture sales is vast new wealth,
especially in emerging markets like India and Eastern Europe.
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The Houses
Yet despite the existence of a sizable Middle Eastern clientele, looking around the
audience attending the Haute Couture shows today, it would be difficult to find a single
Arab client amongst the crowds of celebrities and journalists who generate an incredible
amount of publicity for the couture houses. The main reason for this could be attributed
to the inherent culture itself which shies away from the public gaze as much as possible.
But in a reciprocatory gesture of gratitude for the patronage of the Middle East, the
houses of Haute Couture make concessions on their end, which would be unthinkable
of in the case of any other client.
Armani Privé has taken to flying its seamstresses to clients for in-person fittings, where a
five-dress-per-season order is considered the minimum to qualify for such elite
customer service.
The Couture of today also allows clients from the Gulf to adapt garments to their
specific lifestyles, often lengthening skirt or covering arms to adhere to Islamic customs
of modesty while still maintaining a sense of style.
As closely guarded as the bastion of Haute Couture and despite the growing number of
clients at several of the couture houses, it is widely believed that the couture label with
the most customers is neither Chanel, Valentino, or Dior for that matter, but the
lesser-known Lebanese designer Elie Saab, whose front row is usually packed with
glamorous Saudi princesses.
In fact, Queen Rania of Jordan has herself admitted that even though that from the
European designers she tends to favor Dominique Sirop, Givenchy and Jean Paul
Gaultier. But her favorite is the Lebanese Couturier Elie Saab, not only because he
designed her coronation gown, but also because it gives her the opportunity to promote
the work of a Middle Eastern designer on an International stage.
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There is a group of couturiers from the Orient who are knocking heavily at the well
guarded doors of France’s governing body of haute couture. No other country in recent
years has been able to insert itself into the Paris couture scene quite as well as Lebanon
and Beirut in particular, which not only has a long history of dressmaking, but can also
boast several prominent fashion houses that stayed open even during its 15 years of
bitter civil war.
From left, Clockwise, Elie Saab draws on inspirations from the
Dawn in Beirut’s sky in his 2006 Haute Couture Collection;
Farida Khelfa who was Azzedine Alaïa’s muse;
Elie Saab draws on the Muslim Veil as inspiration.and Queen Rania
of Jordan who is one of couture’s greatest proponents
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Many of these designers began by presenting their collections during Rome’s couture
week and gradually edged their way onto the Paris Couture schedule.
Elie Saab, whose notoriety grew after dressing Halle Barry for the Oscars, is the most
well known of this group of Lebanese couturiers. But there are also many others,
including George Chakra, Zuhair Murad and George Hobeika. Although the later two
are not as yet invited members on the Chambre Syndicale’s official calendar, they
present their collections with the same pomp as the big houses, and exhibit the same
level of craftsmanship and attention to detail that couture is known for.
Despite this, they are frequently called out by fashion critics for concentrating too
heavily on eveningwear that is often ornately embroidered and brightly hued. Even if
fashions pendulum were to swing towards a more austere aesthetic, one could assume
that the Lebanese couturiers would not stray too heavily from this already established
formula. The main reason for this is that most have built up their businesses catering to
a Middle Eastern clientele, and their endless cycle of weddings, where such frocks are de
rigueur. But what these couturiers cannot be faulted for is their ability to listen to their
clients and give them what they want. This is apparent by the number of customers they
attract each season, not only from the Middle East, but also Europe, Asia, South
America and the United States. Although most of the Parisian couture houses have been
experiencing an increase in sales, it is an unspoken fact within couture’s inner circle that
the house attracting the largest number of customers is neither French nor Italian, but
that of Elie Saab.
Given this buoyancy, young designers like Saab are able to now break free from the
already established norms of what Couture stands for and the plaid and Hound’s-tooth
standards set by Coco Chanel. Whereas earlier it would be de rigeur for a couturier of
foreign origin to conform to French tastes of design aesthetic, now the very same
designers are making political statements of their own by evoking imageries from their
own homelands.
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Never before has Saab’s heritage been as significant. During the summer of 2006’s
conflict with Israel, his Beirut-based atelier struggled to deliver couture gowns for
weddings and gala receptions but the very next spring, he took his haute couture
inspiration from the colours of dawn in Beirut, and gave everything a dewy shimmer.
Elie Saab started this collection just like so many others, inspired by the seventies, disco,
and the French pop star sisters Dalida and Sylvie Vartan. Then, all of a sudden as a
sudden sign of insubordination, full of national pride and determined to make a
statement about hope and peace, Saab showed all fifty-five exits in his spring collection
in gold, as an homage to the sun that shines over Beirut.
The Muses
Farida Khelfa is an intriguing anomaly within the fashion world. When one considers the
significant growing pains Europe is experiencing in integrating its large immigrant
populations, as well as the current heated debate concerning a lack of racial diversity on
the fashion runways, it’s a wonder someone like Khelfa can even exist in the industry.
Especially within the upper echelons of French fashion, an enclave that is notoriously
hard to crack. Add to this the spate of riots in its immigrant suburbs and the recent
inauguration of a controversial Museum of Immigration, (at which the French president
was conspicuously absent), and it becomes abundantly clear that France has some ways
to go in acknowledging its diverse population. But Farida Khelfa has defied those odds,
maintaining the stature of a respected style icon in a notoriously fickle business for over
20 years. Her story serves as a reminder that immigrants and their children can be
important contributors to a nation’s culture and patrimony, enhancing and enriching it
with their own experiences.
The irony isn’t lost on anyone when one considers that Khelfa, the daughter of Algerian
immigrants, is routinely help up as an example of French elegance and savoir-faire. She
started her career when the first issue of the supplementary magazine of the French
Newspaper ‘Le Monde’ carried an editorial to celebrate the phenomenon of French-
62
North African culture from the Paris suburbs. It was called Le Style Beur (Beur being a
slang term for Arab) and Farida was placed on the cover, causing an immediate
sensation.
Shortly afterwards Farida was introduced to the diminutive Tunisian fashion designer
Azzedine Alaïa, who fell in love with her, and hired her on the spot as a model and muse
at his atelier. With her height and curves she resembled one of the designer’s sketches
and was the perfect canvas for his slender body conscious creations. Thus Khelfa
became the first woman of Algerian decent to have a successful modeling career,
walking the catwalks for other designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier. It was with the latter
that she went on to establish a long standing professional relationship, becoming an
integral part of his creative team, and eventually being appointed as directrice of his
Couture studio, thus becoming a stunning example of an icon of Islam within the
echelons of French Haute Couture.
In addition, one of the greatest masters of Haute Couture, Jean Paul Gaultier has a
history of casting ethnically diverse and older models in his shows. Khelfa met him in the
early 80’s and she went on to become his muse as well as model in his runway shows.
Gaultier is often inspired by minorities and those living on the fringes of society.
Whether it be an element of gay sub-culture, immigrants or a group of Hassidic Jews on
the street, Gaultier always seems to be drawn to the "other," which may explain his
attraction to Khelfa.
For all the beauty and fantasy found in his collections, Gaultier is intensely aware of
what’s happening around him socially, culturally, and even politically. In 1997 he decided
to dedicate his Autumn/Winter 1997-98 collection to black culture as homage to Nina
Simone and Miriam Makeba. The collection would be shown entirely on black models.
As it so happened, that same year the French government was passing a law to limit
immigration, so what had begun as an artistic decision by Gaultier had, by show time,
become a political statement.
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The Politics of Sexuality
“I am the pink sheep of the family”
Alexander McQueen
What is astonishing is not the number of homosexual men that exist in the world of
fashion today, but the unabashed usage of symbolism and the references that are drawn
upon in mainstream fashion.
Especially in the case of Haute Couture, probably the highest echelon of fashion and
luxury, couturiers do not hesitate to use and reference inspiration from their own lives
and orientations, thereby leaving no room for the banal or commercial to creep in.
Masters such as Jean Paul Gaultier have always turned to themselves for inspiration and
have drawn heavily from popular homosexual subcultures.
His clothes have both
influenced fashions in the clubs and on the streets and have also appropriated ideas from
those sources. Since his early shows Gaultier has drawn upon street styles and club
culture for his haute couture creations.
A frequenter of gay clubs in London, he typically incorporates elements of gay style into
his collections. His 1996 Pin Up Boys collection, for example, drew upon the sailor as a
gay icon and presented figure-hugging pink and blue Tom of Finland style outfits.
In addition to producing groundbreaking and outrageous clothes for his highly theatrical
fashion shows, presented by unconventional models (transvestites, old and fat women,
tattooed and pierced youngsters), in his designs, Gaultier toys with notions of
masculinity and the appropriate forms of dress for men to wear. In 1985 he created his
first skirt for men. While it did not create a major impact, it had some effect, as
fashionable young gay men were seen in the clubs of London and Paris wearing skirts.
For his Autumn/Winter 1988 collection Gaultier again attempted to dismantle clichés of
masculine styling by once more creating a skirt for men; and in 1993, responding to the
popularity of kilts amongst gay men on the streets of London and New York, his Vikings
collection included his reinvention of the skirt for men in the form of the kilt.
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Also, his collection of couture for printemps-ete 2007 features the archetypal image of
‘Prince Charming’ but shown all on the bodies of women. For the final role reversal,
Gaultier even cast a maharaja as the "bride"—but surprisingly, he actually turned out to
be a man.
Gaultier's playfulness and irreverence for the conventions of the fashion world are also
seen in his advertising, much of which toys with gay culture and homoeroticism, and in
his packaging of his perfumes.
Gianni Versace, another exalted name in industry has been known to express better
than any other designer the sexuality of our times in his clothing. He is referred to as
the first post-Freudian designer because he evinced sexuality without Victorianism or
guilt, extolling the streetwalker and the unabashed erotica of women and womenswear.
Though some fashion critics have labelled him to be extravagantly vulgar, Versace was
never anything but a designer of the people and for the people, invoking the twin
ideologies of lust and beauty in the same breath.
His menswear was genuinely revolutionary, insisting on men as sex objects. He became
the standard-bearer of gay men's fashion because he eschewed decorum and designed
for desire. In 1992 Versace unveiled an array of leather bondage dresses, which
accentuated sexuality. As expected, this created a furore.
The boxy shirts of traditional menswear were replaced by body-caressing blouse
materials and draping; decolletage and the credo of his book Men Without Ties were in
praise of the male body as an erotic field. He was one of the most important Italian
designers of the 1980's and 90's, famous for his strong colour sense and clean lines. He
like to wrap the female form, often with bias-cut clothes and fluid silks. Many of his ideas
were audacious, but all were carried out to a high level of technical achievement.
Versace viewed his clothes as powerful statements which were executed with unfailing
confidence. Almost always the body was swathed or the garment wrapped in some
manner invoking strong images of sexual fetishes such as BDSM and role play.
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Holly Brubach, the fashion critic at The New Yorker, said the Versace bondage designs
prompted some outrage when introduced in Milan in Spring 1991. "It was quite split,"
she said. "There were people who loved it, who thought it was brilliant, the greatest
thing he had ever done. And others of us, mostly women, could barely evaluate the
design aspect of it because we were so offended. I have to say that I hated it. Versace's
designs, more than anyone else's, suggest specific sexual practices. They strike me as
needing equipment.”
She also continued to state, "Versace riles women who think this is exploitative and
appeals to women who think of his dominatrix look as a great Amazonian statement. It
could go either way. Either the Versace woman is wielding the whip, or she's the one
who's harnessed and being ridden around the room wearing a collar and a leash."
Drawing on references of the ancient Rome and the emperor Caligula who forced the
wives of the Roman aristocracy to sell their bodies to the public, Versace persuaded
wealthy and beautiful women to pay large sums of money to pretend to be prostitutes.
It is argued that this was a statement of arrogant elitism and chilling callousness where
people where affected to believe that the pathetic figure of the streetwalker, the most
victimized, desperate, humiliated order of prostitute, was glamorous and sexy. It also
might be argued that Versace who felt the need to glamorise prostitution or rape or
heroin addiction was dangerously insulated from the real world and that these dark
currents are amusing only to the extent that they are distant abstractions. Nonetheless,
it remained one of the strongest statements in Haute Couture till date by epitomising
some of the faults of the industry which promoted whore chic, pedophile chic, and
junkie chic alike.
On the other hand, there are other designers, whose depictions of the restrained
sexuality of women cross into the extreme. John Galliano is one such couturier who has
always been known to make strong statements about the sexuality of women.
For his collection for Spring 2005 the theme was royalty where Galliano was inspired by
the 19th-century beauty Empress Elisabeth of Austria, but the images of female sexuality
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and subjugation that Galliano chose to put up as a spectacle was something quite
different and in some critic’s words, a gay man's parody of female sexuality. Down the
runway marched a succession of mannequins who couldn't, in their skin-tight frocks,
walk down the steps of the catwalk, who could hardly stay upright in their six-inch
stilettos, whose faces were unrecognisable under their geisha-white make-up highlighting
amongst many things, how women have become slaves to their own forms. Indeed, the
women who were paid to model them had to be lifted off the stage by bouncers
because it was impossible to wear these skin-tight gowns and actually move.
As sheer theatre went, there was nothing to beat a show like this which was pure
fantasy and spectacle.
From left, Clockwise, Models at the Galliano Spring 2005
helped by bouncers onto the stage as they are unable to walk in his depiction of overly tight, high heeled sexuality;
The 11 inch shoes at the show reminiscent of Chinese foot binding pratices; model Sasha bends gender by
imitating Galliano in a photoshoot and Elizabeth Hurley in Versace’s bondage inspired ‘Safety-Pin’ dress
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But even though the workmanship of the clothes was peerless, the embroidery
breathtaking, the hand painted birds on the crinolines beautiful, there was no getting
away from it: they represented something sinister about the way women appear at the
apex of the fashion world.
Gaultier causes shock by using unconventional models for his shows, like older men and
full-figured women, pierced and heavily tattooed models, and by playing with traditional
gender roles.
Many would argue, does this stem from the fact that almost without exception, the
most brilliant designers are, and always have been, male and homosexual?
Is there a warped sensibility that couture chooses to display season after season? But it
does help to explain the gap between the designers' view of what women should look
like and what women for whom the clothes are notionally designed actually look like.
Homosexual designers may have the sense of style, spectacle and extravagance that
makes for brilliant fashion theatre, but, taken to extremes, these same attributes can
look like fashion misogyny. Galliano’s shows with models sporting crowns all askew over
wildly frizzed-up hair and nipped-in 15 inch waists, gives contemporary women a very
curious idea of how they are viewed.
This question leads one to another, in fact. Is the industry of couture slowly collapsing
on itself because of the profusion of one single vision - That of a collective motley crew
of homosexual men? What political statement is the industry making on itself when it
tends to be so exclusive in its orientation?
Male gay designers are in fact going out of their way to flaunt their sexualities on their
sleeves, using it as either a means of making statements or the pressing desire to be
perceived as homosexual and hence, more creatively brilliant. Take for example, one of
the most provocative designers of our times, Thierry Mugler who has spent a large
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portion of his life fitting into the ideal stereotype of the homosexual man in today’s
world who is self-obsessed and needs to conform to the overly muscled, gym-bunny
image that is all the rage.
From left, Clockwise; Top Row Gaultier mixes it up with provocative androgyny in his couture; Gaultier references
Homosexual erotica ‘Tom of Finland’; Thierry Mugler’s creations, Unconventional models on the Galutier Runway; a
Gianni Versace iconic late 1980s fetish bondage bodysuit with ‘crisscross’ leather straps with jeweled buckles.
Though trained as a ballet dancer, 59 year old Thierry Mugler who had been
incommunicado since he closed his couture house transformed himself into a
monstrous, malformed figure known as Manfred Mugler, as quoted by the publication,
Page Six. This many of his close friends admit is very unlike him, a maestro who defined
80’s style with wider-than-wide shoulders and over-the-top collars, and Manfred Mugler
is a hulking figure more closely resembling beast than man.
Gaultier has utilized his distinctive appearance, especially his bleached blond hair and
blue and white striped matelot T-shirt, as a fashion statement in its own right.
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The difference between the attitudes toward the gay male dominance of the fashion
industry, a peculiar and widely acknowledged circumstance, illustrates a growing tension
between those who feel they are discriminated against and those who feel somewhat
favored by a perception, largely unexamined, that men are better designers than
women, and gay men are the best designers of all.
Tara Subkoff, of the designer label ‘Imitation of Christ’ goes so far as to accuse the high
priestess of Fashion, the editor of Vogue – Anna Wintour herself of supporting only
"young, gay men."
Many female designers perceive that their male counterparts have won more industry
honors and are featured more prominently in magazines. Agreed, there is no way to
accurately measure the success rate of designers based on sex or sexual orientation, or,
somewhat speciously, to examine if men are more talented at design than women, but
circumstantial evidence makes some designers wonder about the disparities. Of the
couturiers most embraced by clients and celebrated in the fashion press, the roll call is
almost exclusively male: Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano
and Alexander McQueen. Whereas Bill Blass, Valentino and Oscar de la Renta founded
their empires on the strength of a non threatening, nonsexual charisma, these
couturiers aggressively promoted their sexually charged designs and as a consequence,
their statements on sexuality.
Fashion, unlike finance or politics, has always included some women at the top. But their
visibility has not increased incrementally over the decades like other professions. In the
1920s and 1930s, there were many female designers -- Alix Gres, Elsa Schiaparelli and
Chanel -- but after World War II, the big names were male -- Bill Blass, Yves Saint
Laurent and Pierre Cardin. Likewise, the impression that gay men are more likely to
succeed in fashion today, is a reflection of contemporary attitudes and stereotypes.
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The Politics of Exclusion
"The way by which our laws attempt to regulate idle and vain expenses in meat and clothes,
seems to be quite contrary to the end designed... For to enact that none but princes shall
eat turbot, shall wear velvet or gold lace, and interdict these things to the people, what is it
but to bring them into a greater esteem, and to set every one more agog to eat and wear them?"
Montaigne
A community can be split up into cultural, political, and economic sectors. Fashion is
usually seen as a means of signifying wealth and supposed cultural superiority and is no
where more apparent than the industry of Haute Couture. Choosing to wear Haute
Couture is one story – The mere task of getting access to it is another. It’s not just
about the muscle of money, it is a language that that communicates many important
messages about ourselves. When a socialite wears couture it means she's really serious
about fashion--and she has pockets deep enough to indulge her passion.
Although there are many kinds of class distinction, one of the most curious forms of
subjugation is the restriction of a citizen's right to purchase goods, even if the citizen has
the currency to pay for them. Obviously, the most ostensible statement that Haute
Couture chooses to make is about class and the stratification of society through class
distinction in more ways than one.
Haute couture produces very sophisticated and expensive dresses for a distinguished
target market of high income and social visibility and couture relies on restricted and
well-recognized channels of diffusion, and it aims to enhance the social distinction of its
consumers
Even if we choose to ignore the most palpable of these ways, which is of course the
simple cost of procuring the garment itself there are a myriad other means by which the
establishment begins to exercise its powers of exclusion, slowly but surely shutting out
anyone it feels out of condition to join its ranks.
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When fashion became available to ordinary people after the French Revolution, people’s
first instincts were to imitate the styles of the aristocracy, to give the impression of
belonging to the “higher class.”
Once the sole province of people who were wealthy enough to pay for fine fabrics,
tailors, and dressmakers, fashion has always been a “status” indicator, take for example,
the businessman’s suit and tie marks him as being of a certain economic class:
white-col.lar \’hwi-t-’ka:l-*r, ‘wi-t-\ aj : of, relating to, or constituting the class of
salaried employees whose duties call for well-groomed appearance.
blue-col.lar \’blu:-’ka:l-*r\ aj : of, relating to, or constituting the wage earning class.
History has more than abundant instances of class stratification based on clothing and
fashion and Haute Couture is simply this era’s version of the sumptuary laws1.
Take for instance, the Edwardians who were socially stratified into those who wore
tailor made clothing down to those who wore other people's cast offs. The poor simply
looked poor, because their clothing betrayed them. Today there are no such laws
prohibiting people of supposedly lower financial status from wearing garments of
superior quality, but the industry of Haute Couture bypasses this by creating a
complicated web of exclusion around itself.
1
According to Wikipedia.org, there are many cases throughout history, there have been elaborate
systems of sumptuary laws regulating who could wear what. In 1629 and 1633, Louis XIII of France issued
edicts regulating "Superfluity of Dress" that prohibited anyone but princes and the nobility from wearing
gold embroidery or caps, shirts, collars and cuffs embroidered with metallic threads or lace[25], and puffs,
slashes, and bunches of ribbon were severely restricted. As with other such laws, these were widely
disregarded and laxly enforced.
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The Clients
It may be assumed that those with of ‘high status’ will wear the clothes they think
others expect them to wear so as to avoid the experience of role conflict by wearing
the erroneous clothing. It is from the clothes a person wears that we get our first
impression of personality.
Thorstein Veblen in his ‘The Theory Of The Leisure Class’ in 1899 maintained that
Dressing for status as an outward expression of wealth is indeed functional, by the
very fact that such clothes prevent the wearer from engaging in manual labour. Also
because of their restrictive design they need the assistance of others to dress the
wearer and keep clothes in pristine condition.
Veblen devoted a whole chapter of his book to ' Dress As An expression Of The
Pecuniary Culture'.
'...our apparel is always in evidence and affords an indication of our pecuniary standing to
all observers at first glance...dress, therefore, in order to serve its purpose effectively should
not only be expensive, but it should also make plain to all observers that the wearer is not
engaged in any kind of productive labour...'
Take the prohibitive cost alone, dependent relative on the Haute Couture design
house and the item of clothing, the outlay of a couture item runs from about £10,000
to £40,000 and regularly further than that figure.
As a direct consequence, a couture house, say Chanel will have about 150 regular
clients who buy couture and a house like Dior will make about 20 couture bridal
gowns a year.
Very few couture model sales are made in a year and these rarely total more than
about 1500 sales for each house. This is not surprising when you learn that only about
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3000 women or so worldwide can actually afford to buy clothes at the highest level,
and fewer than 1000 buy regularly.
Hence, the couture social circle is not an effortless one to access and is almost like a
private club. One needs to mentored very carefully by a respected patron of Haute
Couture who has standing within the circle and is in know with the vendeuses and
directrices of the ateliers so as to be introduced to the right people and get invitations to
the salons and the shows.
Most of the wearers/collectors of haute couture believe that they are indeed investing in
clothes which are pieces of art. They appreciate the design process, the craftsmanship,
and the underlying architecture behind a fine piece of clothing.. But of course the
primary motivation behind the whole process is the knowledge that wearing such
clothing marks them as a special breed/class of women.
There are the first lady’s, queens and royal consorts who rely upon the couture as a
means of projecting a confident and sophisticated image in their increasingly public lives.
Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missnad, wife of the Emir of Qatar, for instance, regularly
calls upon the Houses of Dior, Scherrer, Gaultier, and Chanel to outfit her for foreign
visits and the state functions she attends as part of her role as a roving ambassador for
the Emirate.
The Houses
The clients might be a clutch of glittering chandeliers spoken of only in hushed tones in
royal antechambers lending to the whole propaganda of class stratification but the
heritage and aura enveloping the industry itself is a tremendous force circumventing
aspiring couturiers and hence, cementing the exclusion of fresh talent.
Take the complicated legalities alone - In France, the legal nomenclature of haute couture
is protected by law and is defined by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris
based in Paris, France. Their rules state that only "those companies mentioned on the
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list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are
entitled to avail themselves" of the label haute couture. In order to be allowed to classify
itself as a Haute Couture house a design institution must abide by stringent rules and
laws.
As a consequence, a majority of designers are unable to set up their own couture house
until they have acquired a number of years of apprenticeship at an existing couture
establishment even if they are up to the task of meeting the Chambre Syndicale’s stringent
criteria for admittance into this exclusive group. Aspiring couturiers must find property
for their house in Paris, as well as employ a certain number of seamstresses in two
ateliers (one for dress making, the other for tailoring). There is also the question of
presenting a certain number of outfits twice a year and the cost involved.
Small wonder then that within haute couture, designers in their mid-30’s and early 40’s
are often considered young, as it takes years of experience to gain the level of technical
knowledge and savoir faire required of an accomplished couturier. There are currently
ten designers qualified to show their made-to-measure collections in Paris in the haute
couture show series, and innumerable other designers who show outside the schedule.
But by far these aspirant couturiers are not given any form of launch pad to start their
career or gain media mileage based on the scant coverage given to them in fashion
publications and online, where the Big 5 (Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, Lacroix, and Gaultier)
receive the most coverage, thus leaving people with the impression that the couture has
dwindled.
The Credo
When looked at from the more critical point of view, haute couture is nothing but a
term, a society. When it first started in the late 19th century more than about art or
fashion, it was about business. With haute couture, fashion seasons began to establish
themselves and fashion started to become more of a powerful corporation world. But
now the industry has again changed, it has new values and ideals.
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Haute couture is more than simply making a renaissance and is reinventing itself. In the
last years we have seen haute couture becoming more about art and show than the
careful artisanal work that, by tradition, goes to making haute couture pieces.
It's interesting to see what actual couture clients ordered in the beginning and wore
than it is to look at runway numbers worn only by models. One noticeable fact is that
rich women, unlike beautiful models, are not all tall and thin. Displays of historical
costume have always revealed the way fashion-plate chic used to be adapted by clever
dressmakers for the beefy or dumpy or flat-chested, but we are now used to thinking
that fashionable bodies are molded to fit the mode, with the help of individualized
exercise, liposuction, and implants. Some of the garments fitted onto padded
mannequins showed that their wearers were of physical as well as financial substance,
and these masterpieces are striking mainly as imaginative triumphs of individual fit and
suitability.
The power of Haute Couture was all about making a woman look beautiful regardless of
where she stood in the generally accepted norm of what should be considered beautiful.
But this remains no more. The spectacles that John Galliano chooses to put up (with
15” waistlines) can only fuel the blinkered vision of beauty that society today has grown
accustomed to. In fact, Haute Couture pushes this envelope even further by eulogizing
the perfect ‘model’ body and excludes ‘normal’ women by putting a physical financial
cost to it. Many of the regular clients often try to maintain a thin frame in order to fit
into the couture samples and acquire the garments at a reduced rate. But if a larger
customer falls in love with a dress she will have the garment created for her from
scratch. This often requires more fabric and costly embellishment than for a slimmer
client, and so the price of a new garment will often climb. The late New York socialite
Nan Kempner, one of couture’s most famous collectors, was known to maintain her
reed thin body in order to fit into couture samples, and thus purchase her outfits at
significantly reduced prices.
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Conclusion
In the end, haute couture may be fashion at its most frolicsome and excessive, but to
many of its loyal clients it is also a aide memoire that fashion, beyond the bottom line, the
commercialism and the plebeian, is still capable of conjuring up fantasy and mesmerizing
others with its beauty and innovation. That something so indulgent, luxurious and
decadent should exist without the all-pervading, ubiquitous need for ‘profit’ is
remarkable. Wrenching the business out of it, elevates couture to an art form that
exists for no reason whatsoever, save that of Beauty. Starting with such a rudimentary
canvas makes this the perfect backdrop for a statement to be made, whether political or
not.
Apart from simply being clothing of the most unimaginable beauty and intricacy, Haute
couture chooses to brush away all pretensions of being an Industry and instead chooses
to focus on making strong political statements that the wearer espouses. That the
audience for couture should remain derisorily inadequate (in comparison with its stepsister, prêt-a-porter, at least) speaks more of the propagation of an individual statement
rather than the subjugation of it. The power of a single couture garment (that lies in say,
a museum) that wasn’t sold (or couldn’t be) is no lesser than that of a Comme des
Garçons shirt that adorns the backs of a thousand women who are stomping the asphalt
on the streets of Manhattan. This might be too idealistic/escapist a view, but one that
the researcher is inclined to believe in nonetheless.
Not always the epitome of evenhandedness, Couture does sometimes stray into
extremes of expression – excluding everything and everyone who cannot fit in or afford
to. Gaultier’s androgynous ideologies and homosexually erotic references could easily
offend and Versace’s bondage inspired muses might be interpreted to be derogatory.
Ins pite of France and her president’s stand on religious freedom, Couturiers revel in
the ethnic diversity of their clients and muses alike. On the other hand, the craft is
fading away gradually because of its own strong views on exclusion of clients and
aspiring designers.
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But what cannot be denied is that whether one approves or not, these are still strong
stances to take and hence, impressive statements to give consideration to.
.
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