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Paris has just hosted the fashion season of Haute Couture spring-summer 2019. Beyond the absence of Karl Lagerfeld at the end of the show Chanel, the marathon that took place from 21 to 24 January was marked by the return of a historic house in the calendar, as well as the arrival of new technologies in a discipline more known by its artisanal dimension.
Highly regulated Haute Couture is currently represented by only 15 permanent members, including Chanel, Christian Dior, Givenchy and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Some foreign houses have the "corresponding member" label, such as the Italian Armani or the Lebanese Elie Saab, while a handful of "guest" members are waiting their turn to fully integrate this select group.
The Rabih Kayrouz house , for example, has just been granted the Haute Couture appellation classification by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and the Lebanese designer has presented for the first time as a permanent member. Like his colleagues, he wanted to benefit from the aura of the Couture, this exclusively Parisian discipline born in the nineteenth century and which, for some brands, is primarily a tool for image and communication.
Back from Balmain
It is not by chance that Balmain has decided to return to the Haute Couture calendar after 16 years of absence. With the rigor it should, the stylist Olivier Rousteing presented models that mixed certain historical codes of the brand created in 1945 with those imposed by this young artistic director star social networks. White and pastel shades coexisted with embroidery and thousands of Swarovski crystal beads. All in sometimes very short dresses - one of the hallmarks of Rousteing - accessorized by retro futuristic-looking sunglasses.
Watch the full #BALMAINCOUTURE show: https://t.co/r4H9nn85gB pic.twitter.com/2aclmctS8S
Balmain (@Balmain) January 25, 2019The house, which has been owned by Mayhoola since 2016, an investment fund held by the royal family of Qatar, understood that the Haute Couture was once again a showcase and sets the means to make a difference. Example with the mobile application launched by the brand, which allowed fans to attend the parade from their smartphone as if they were there, thanks to augmented reality.
The future of Haute Couture
Most of the houses have followed religiously the precepts of Haute Couture, which has built its reputation thanks to the craftsmanship of the embroiderers, plumassiers, passementiers and other trades almost endangered. But some creators, especially the young generation from around the world, asked themselves this year the question of the evolution of the discipline and wondered about the possibilities of experimentation that can bring new technologies. After all, Couture is also a laboratory for fashion.
The Dutchwoman Iris Van Herpen, for example, takes us into space. And even if the collection's inspiration comes from the mythological and astrological representations of the seventeenth century cartography, the designer, known for her interest in 3D printing, pushes the high-tech cursor even further, with water clouds, created in collaboration with the artist and former NASA engineer Kim Keever. The grand finale, marked by the laser installation of the artist Nick Verstand, completed the staging and resolutely turned towards the future - real or dreamed.
Between parade and performance
The young Austrian designer Flora Miranda, who has also worked with Iris van Herpen, preferred a presentation in a movie theater at the Grand Rex. Mixing shows and performance, she questioned the future of fashion, learning methods of the creative trades of this rapidly changing industry, as well as the limits of Haute Couture, where the artisanal dimension, in her eyes, seems to be gradually replaced by new technologies.
In her collection Deep Web, she deals with garment production by artificial intelligence. Based on the image of Amanda Lepore, transgender artist and muse of photographer David LaChapelle, the designer is inspired by a body in extreme quest of stereotypes of femininity. On the stage, hypertrophied forms alert us to the influence of machines and data, which compile our tastes, on future body images and our ideals of beauty.
Nevertheless, there are those who navigate between high-tech and crafts. This is the case of the Japanese Yuima Nakazato, who had fun to recreate a mode of assembly of clothes wireless or needle, cut with the laser, but mounted manually. Very ingenious, he leaves aside the artificial effects of his previous collections and prefers to address the question of the durability of what one wears, with a buttoning system that allows the pieces to evolve over the years. " The life of a garment becomes shorter and shorter ," he says. I would like, with this method, to try to make them more durable, "says the young designer, in a reflection on the cycles of fashion more and more presence in this industry, including in the Haute Couture.