Following today's news about Jean-Paul Gaultier leaving his ready-to-wear brand for what it is (or what it actually wasn't), to be able to fully concentrate on his Haute Couture collections and his perfumes, the debate about whether Haute Couture is still relevant today, and the destructive consequences on and of the fashion industry that expects designers to come up with at least four cheap and affordable collections per year, starts anew.
A decade ago I wrote an article about this: "Just how far will Haute Couture fall?"
The global women's clothing industry is expected to exceed $621 billion in 2014, marking a 12% increase in five years, making fashion the second biggest industry after the food industry world wide. And therefore putting marketeers into place where there should not.
A decade ago I wrote an article about this: "Just how far will Haute Couture fall?"
The global women's clothing industry is expected to exceed $621 billion in 2014, marking a 12% increase in five years, making fashion the second biggest industry after the food industry world wide. And therefore putting marketeers into place where there should not.
Multiple collections a year, copying, repeating, having marketeers tell designers how to design and what to design. The industry broke and will continue to break bright and creative minds like
Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. Designers who like me, went to prestigious international art schools hoping that they would live their dream in Paris one day, creating fairy tales and magic.
Shouldn't we all be a little bit less greedy maybe? And dare to dream a little bit more? Wouldn't the world look much lovelier if we chose quality over quantity. Beautiful complicated, dramatic, time consuming, made by hand dresses over cheap polyester high street dresses that can be thrown into the bin after one month?...
Because really, what would the world be without fairy tales and magic?
TATAFORNOW♥
P.S. To remind you of how wonderful Haute Couture actually is, see below the mesmerizing Couture shoot by Annie Leibovitz for the December
2003 VOGUE issue, starring the lovely Natalia Vodianova as Alice in Wonderland. If pictures like this could have been taken in 1865, I am sure, this was how Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) would have imagined the star of his novel to be dressed.
In Haute Couture that is...
