In celebration of the couture fashion weeks, here are TWO wonderful videos that transports one through the couture experience. Dior is really synonymous with Couture since it's inception. From the moment it opened it's doors in 1946, Christian Dior (now simply Dior) has amazed the world with their craft and attention to detail. Couture, or really Haute Couture translates from French for "high sewing". The "haute" translates as "high". It is the creation of exclusively custom-fitted clothing. It is hand made from start to finish. It is not mass produced but more like the female equivalent of men's bespoke. It is of the finest quality and done with attention to detail. It is only done by the most experienced of craftsmen and craftswomen. It is very TIME CONSUMING and very, very expensive. A couture dress can be as cost as much as a house. It is like purchasing a Monet. The clientele that buy it are in the upper stratosphere of economic privilege. The haute couture garment is made taking into account the wearers measurements, body stance and figure flaws. The designs may be deceptively simple to look at but often very painstakingly produced. Budget is not of consideration in couture. Artistic impact is of the utmost importance. Many garments utilize precious jewels, including diamonds, in the embroidery for maximum impact and reflectivity.
The Haute in the Haute
From a legal standpoint, the words Haute Couture are defined by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris. This regulatory body determines which houses can be declared "haute couture". To be legally "haute", a designer must meet a few simple criteria.
Each design must be made-to-order for a private client and require more than one fitting.
The workroom must have a staff of 15 employees working full time in Paris
The workroom must also employ 20 technical staff working in at least one workroom
The designer must produce 50 original designs for the public in a collection twice a year.
Few fashion houses have the mean to be considered "haute", however to be considered couture is another story. Couture gets slung around a lot and is often mistake for a luxury ready-to-wear. The two are very different. A high end, ready-to-wear (or pret-a-porter) is often misinterpreted as haute couture and many will align the term with couture. The two are not the same. Most, but not all, couture houses have a ready-to-wear collection that is available to the affluent public. However, that trend is really changing particularly in the last year. Economists take note. Two houses, most recently Viktor and Rolf and Jean Paul Gaultier have dropped their lucrative ready-to-wear lines and to concentrate on couture. Other fashion houses like Versace have added couture lines to their ready to wear. Thus, there are uber rich shopping as the economic divide has widened.
The two videos posted are from Dior. The garments are from two distinctly different creators. The first is under the creative vision of the current director Raf Simons. When one looks at it, it appear as a simple top with a striped poof skirt. Don't be deceived. Watch this creation being made and you will see, it is not so simple.
The second video from Dior is under the creative leadership of John Galliano. A master is creative vision, he has re-entered the design world after a long absence. I can't express how much he was truly missed in his absence. The fashion world was a bit dull and bleak without something to look forward to each season. His new collection for Maison Martin Margiela Margiela was outstanding and showed off his creative talents.
I’m sure I’m going to put my foot in it here. So be it.
Sexual enhancement in fashion. Ok — that lead me to say one word — “PURPOSE”. What is the purpose to have sexual enhancement in a garment? Why is the person wearing the garment in the first place? It is NOT to look “nice”, “pretty” or that other heinous word “cute”. Kittens and puppies are “cute”. When one is on the prowl, it not with the intension of looking “cute”.
A wearer of sexually enticing clothing is wanting to look desirable, HOT, enticing and to a certain extent, entertaining.
The wearer does not want to look…. “boring“, “dull”… and heaven forbid, mechanical, or processed, over done… ahem, and dare I say …. Cheap, used, or uninspiring.
With that in mind, I ask… “Who is designing great sexy stuff?”
And I really run up a little dry. Let me tell you why. Perhaps it is age… I’m not exactly twenty so the same design themes that make a person look hot at twenty don’t work when you are closer to… oh, god… eeeeek… I can’t to say it… 50… gulp.
In the past, fashion has had some wonderful designers. Versace was amazing for men’s and women’s wear. He knew how to be provocative. Picking up one of his books like Men Without Ties and Do Not Disturb was like buying pornography at the time. It was very, very overt and sexual. His clothing begged comment. Some would say his men’s wear was too gaudy or too colorful. But it was FUN to wear and very sexy. Yes, you had to have a body to pull of a shirt that had 30 different color put into it.
(Just to give you a reference, a typical newspaper/magazine today is printed with 4 colors. A garment or textile may be printed with 8 to 10 a. But 30?) The shirts were museum quality because of the technical difficult to make them. It is the equivalent of wearing a Hermes silk scarf next to your skin. You FEEL desirable. Fur has that same tactile quality next to skin.
But quality aside, there was a tougue and cheek quality to his clothing. It was sexy but also kind of humorous. He took what can be a very intimidating process of wearing something sexually enticing and made it light. It was not fetish wear. Unlike the latex/ leather wear of of batman and catwoman (which tends to be more costume) his clothing was very decadently over-the-top luxury.
Please take note also, for some sexually enhancing clothing IS costume. The gay culture took this to a new level with the Village People each identifying with sexual icon. Gianni Versace however took sexually enticing clothing to a new level. Wearing Versace was like having a good glass of gin before going out, it took the edge off things and made the wearer at ease. Think Agnes in the film Auntie Mame. “Drink this and you will feel fine.” Wear Versace and you will be great! Sexually enticing clothing should put the wearer at ease not feel over exposed and nakedly vulnerable in public.
So what is “sexy”?
Think of it in this perspective. What is “sexy”? I once worked at a design house and took a poll of everyone in the office. Thank god I didn’t work at a company like IBM. I would have been fired in a NY minute. The most profound response I got was from my boss of all people. Sexy is a feeling. It comes from within. What a person wears is immaterial as it is what gets that person to unwind and discover that sexuality that lies within and makes a person glow, be confident and open up to anther person. Unfortunately for some, that may be drugs as this is a very intimidating process to dress with the intention of getting somewhere. In a word, it can be torn up jeans and a t-shirt (ok… ick on that one for me).
It can also be a sweatshirt (Jennifer Beals in Flashdance) or a Brioni Black Tie like in a James Bond film.
For some, it is more fetish-esque. Some people equate showing more skin as sexy.
I personally think a costume like what Cher wore to the Oscars is without a doubt sexy, but is also the attitude that she brought to the table with it. She came across with an attitude that said “oh…. Am I over dressed for this party?” Which of course makes the viewer burst out laughing. It is disarmingly funny and at the same time draws the viewer in and invites a conversation. What clothing does that now? What clothing designer can make clothing that is both sexually-enticing and funny at the same time? Damn… hell if I know.
And for men too, the problem comes in with many men not wanting to deem as working too hard for it. I ask you…“How many times have you seen a beautifully desirable woman with an arm charm hack with a five day scruff with shirt tails hanging out & jeans at her side? Men have to have confidence to wear sexually enticing clothing of substance. Most American men just don’t possess that je ne sais quoi to pull it off. Most do not want to be viewed or labeled as “gay”. So they don’t try. What rubbish.
Jean Paul Gaultier did some beautifully provocative work for Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour. Again, perhaps a bit like costume, but then again,…ya have to start the conversation some where… right?
I think perhaps society is bored with sex. It is so easily available at the drop of a hat in many flavors, shapes and sizes. Log on to the internet, and it is everywhere. Like the song goes from the musical Q,“the internet is for porn”. It is in most films and television. I tossed my TV years ago. It is very easy to find fetish wear clothing. And yeah, for some, torn-up jean and a tight t-shirt work. But what if one wants to take it up a notch? Good luck. Calvin Klein and Abercrobie make great underwear and give the promise of sex in their ads. But do they deliver in the clothing? No.
I think Rick Owens is the next great white hope. His work is very sexy and now. He plays with transparency and lengths/proportion that really evoke a freshness. He brings much to the table. Personally, I see his clothing and I think he designs with himself in mind. That’s not bad thing. There are worse roll-models and the man is Hot (with a capital H).
But he is not universal. Then again, neither is Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier. I wish I could find a really good men’s wear designer that would take sexually enhancing garments to that next level. I have yet to find a designer. Versace is dead. Or sexuality is dead? Beaten like a dead horse. Can someone enlighten me? Or am I jaded? OK… don’t answer that.
Valerie Mendes, Amy De La Haye. 20th Century Fashion. Thames & Hudson London/New York 2005
Gianni Versace Do not Disturb. Abbeville Press, NY 1996
Gianni Versace Men Without Ties. Abbeville Press, NY 1994
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Richard Martin Gianni Versace. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY 1998
Sue Jenkyn Jones Fashion Design, 2nd Ed. Watson-Guptill Publications, NY 2005
Movies are a wonderful escape from the everyday work life. A really good film transports a viewer away from the theater and into a world that can be charming or scary, plain or beautiful. The plot crafts a sense of wonder and anticipation with a conclusion that leave one satisfied. I prefer films with panoramic vistas and intense visual beauty. Moulin Rougeand Phantom of the Opera caught my attention. I was captivated and saw each of them multiple times just for the visual stimulation factor alone. One scene in Phantom had the main character singing in a most captivating gown with stars in her hair.
Years later, I happened upon the source for the costume designer’s inspiration. It was a painting of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, (a.k.a., Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of Hungary, or simply, Princess Sissi) as depicted by Franz Xaver Winterhalter in 1865. The costume designer had taken liberties with some aspect of the costume (as did the painter I am sure). Both painter and costumer were able to capture the essence of a feeling/mood that they wanted to convey visually through the clothing. Fashion designers work to do that as well.
Many designers scour the libraries, art galleries and museums to find sources for inspiration for their next collections. Historical dress is one area of that is an unending fountain of rich inspiration. This is particularly true in high end ready to wear and couture. These area of garment sales offer the opportunity to use custom beading, embroidery and unique and special fibers. Many of these supplies are too expensive for mass-market garments. The luxury market offers more opportunity to use these supplies but also they demand more creativity and artistic liscense so one does not seem to be wearing a costume. Here are some recent collections and how they leveraged a source garment to make it usable for today’s wearer.
The Maharaja’s of India come immediately to mind in the collection by Alexander McQueen. His Ready-to-wear collection for Fall 2008 was a mix of embroidey and beading fit for royalty. I was actually quite surprised at the price point on some of these garments. The dress red dress on the right was only $3500 at Saks. OK – while not exactly a bargain, it did not require the princely sums that one would think.
His pre-fall 2009 collection was no less over the top, but took inspiration from the Dickens area of the industrial revolution. It has fiercely tailored suits and jackets but also some fun vest paired with leggings.
The collection was not so much a collection inspired by Oliver Twist’s orphan boys but more inspired by the wealthier citizens of London. Broken apart, the pieces could be also mixed with jeans or other business wear to make a practical addition to a wardrobe.
Also part of his Fall 2009 collection was a homage to the everyday blacksmith. The garments used in blacksmithing go back hundreds of years. These garments could of easlity been around in the 1760’s all the way to the 1950… perhaps even today. Leather vests and aprons were a practical way to prevent getting burned, Today’s foundries utilize modern day flame and heat resistant textile discoveries.
Jean Paul Gaulter Fall 07 Couture and Haider Ackerman Fall 2009 must have gone to the same source library. Both seems to have discovered the collection of Coachmen uniforms at the V&A This one in particular is Russian and from the 1850’s. Both seemed to pick the garment apart either utilizing its incredible fringe detail or the chest/cuff embroidery.
Both collections seem to have a historical reference but fall way short of making the appear as part of costume. Any of these pieces would be a happy addition to a wardrobe but also because it is undated, be worn for years,
1725 opera singer costumers were a source of inspiration for Alexander McQueen in this RTW 2008 garment. The source garment was originally worn by a man but this reincarnation was more suitable for a woman. 300 years later, the garment still works minus the arias.
Haider Ackerman presented a fall 2009 collection that was punctuated by embroidery and draped leather. Originally from the workrooms of John Galliano, Ackerman has a unique design flair that comes from being a Frenchmen living in Columbia and other parts of the world. He takes a very draped approach to fashion but has been exposed to many sources of ethnic and historical dress. This collection takes inspiration from vintage and contemporary matador outfits.
One sad note about doing the research on this collection: it has always been on my bucket list to actually try my hand at bullfighting. I’ve been to Rondo, I like the suit and am actually on a wait-list for matador school… yes there really is such a thing. There actually happened to be a very good school in Salamanca – the pretty town just northwest of Madrid.
But after finding a rather large collection of images including a videos of matadors being trampled/pummeled or pierced by bulls during a match, I have decided to nix the idea of going to bullfighting school. One site in particular noted how one (ahem… 50 year old) amateur bullfighter was punctured and tossed around by a bull… It was so not pretty.
