For the super-rich, haute couture is a chance to show off, to splurge, to flex. For everyone else, it’s an opportunity to watch the video, get lost in another world, and ogle at the glitter of it all.
Haute Couture Week in Paris, where luxury fashions take center stage, savored by young and old alike, brought the city’s second annual series of designer collections right up close to the eyewateringly expensive, handcrafted and one-of-a-kind (like the material and inspiration) garments they showcase.
Couture fashion is of greater economic value than the regular clothing and accessories that most people own. It is exclusive beyond clothing alone.
Couture fashion is a chance to indulge, splurge, flex, and enshrine. Some couture collectors don’t even wear the garments that they purchase—they simply want to own a piece of fashion history. Meanwhile, couture is a chance for fashion houses to intimately connect with their top clients while showcasing their creative directors’ boldest visions and the skills of their design teams. A couture collection is also about strengthening a brand; it’s often the purest expression of a label’s values. A manifesto of sorts. And it’s a marketing opportunity: A splashy couture collection will boost a brand’s cultural cachet, making people want to buy into it.”
But there’s more to it than that. Fashion is entertainment and has become a part of pop culture because it’s fun, and also because we can learn something from the designers who create clothes not just for us but for other people, too. American designer Daniel Roseberry explained it well in the notes for his latest couture collection: “All of us who work in fashion know that much of the rest of the world thinks that what we do is silly.”
The remark is a dull one, and we all dispute its existence, but think about it, fashion is silly sometimes. It’s provocative, upending, challenging, and meaningful. It’s breathtaking. It’s beautiful.
Balenciaga: Celebrity casting with a bang
Designer Demna Gvasalia and Balenciaga stole headlines again by asking reality star Kim Kardashian to model in its show alongside Nicole Kidman, Naomi Campbell and Dua Lipa. Beneath the commotion was a collection filled with technological innovation—crinkled T-shirts bonded with aluminum that can be sculpted into a desired shape—and extravagance: a wedding gown made from 820 feet of tulle, 70,000 crystals, and 200,000 sequins.
The brand also collaborated with the Danish audio company Bang & Olufsen to release a limited edition speaker bag branded as an accessory. What kind of idiot buys Balenciaga couture eye shields? The same people are going to buy, as should be expected, Balenciaga couture ink-tinted eye shields.
Fendi: A high jewelry debut
Fendi’s high jewelry designs may be the solution if you’re looking for more integrated accessories. The innovative set was developed from the house’s artistic director of jewelry Delfina Delettrez Fendi (daughter of Silvia Fendi) using a lot of white and yellow diamonds.
Olivier Rousteing for Jean Paul Gaultier: Punks with bumps
Since fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier ceased production of his namesake label in 2020, the house has invited a different designer to create its couture collection each season. This time, Olivier Rousteing of Balmain presented a series of designs that paid homage to Gaultier’s archive. Conical bras, Breton stripes, and trompe l’oeil motifs were given Rousteing’s “Balmain army” treatment (exaggerated shoulders and metallic armor).
When mid-way through the show came the talking point that two bump-clad models with nose rings and layers of metal jewelry walked the runway together, it was clearly a reference to French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to legalise in vitro fertilisation in 2018 for lesbians and single women.
Schiaparelli: Flower power
In his latest collection for Schiaparelli, British designer Daniel Roseberry featured a rash of floral detailing. Whether hand-painted, leather-made, or constructed from stones and metal leaves, the flower motif was complex and striking in vivid blues and autumnal tones. It added an earthiness to the house’s signature metallic embellishments and — to return to Roseberry’s earlier musings — it was beautiful.