Masters of Haute Couture
Wow! What an incredible PFW we just experienced! I have spent the past week waiting for any and all coverage of Couture week, and I am here to give you an in-depth rundown.
If I can describe this week in one word it would be triumphant. There are roughly four categories of risk that the designers were very conscious of: skepticism, embarrassment, redundancy, and collapse. Let’s go house by house.
Pierpaolo Piccioli was at the highest risk of skepticism, as he arrived at Balenciaga with a genuinely tricky inheritance. Denma left Balenciaga's fanbase behind in shock and with a lot of hoodies, tip-toeing between streetwear hangover and couture aspiration. But now, Balenciaga is back. Piccioli has literally breathed life back into Cristóbal Balenciaga's history, using almost all silk gazar, classic silhouettes, color, craftsmanship, and strategic cycling of elements. The palette oscillates between electric, Valentino-esq, brights into stretches of pure black to reset the audience's eyes mid-show. Some of my favorite looks framed the models with halo-like necklines and gravity-defying volume. He even reworked the classic City Bag into a new glittery must-have that EVERYONE is obsessing over. The cherry on top was that God himself approved of the designs, sending the most glorious light over 10 Avenue George V’s gardens.
Courtesy of Vogue
Duran Lantink for Jean Paul Gaultier has mastered the tromp l’oeil. Although he prides himself in provocation, without technique this risk resorting to a stunt of embarrassment that fashion critics are reluctant to excuse. Lantink centered his collection around the idea of a body engineered to dominate a room using elements such as 3D scanning and industrial flocking, layered over old school cut-and-sow. He titled the collection “Tech Couture,” converting his marinière stripe and cone bra-filled atelier into a laboratory of technique driven by body builder corsets, upcycling, and an androgynous body. From waisted trucker jackets out of recycled 1997 denim to dresses spiked with cones from Gautier’s 2008 “Cages” collection, it was abundantly clear that Lentink did his homework on the archives. The fusion of old couture techniques like corsets and boned panniers, with materials like 3D prints and industrial form created something that felt unmistakably JPG yet completely innovative. Zero room for embarrassment.
Courtesy of Vogue Adria
Jonathan Anderson for Dior faced a major risk of redundancy. His first couture collection back in January was an incredibly hard act to follow. And this season he had the extra complication of designing Taylor Swift’s actual wedding dress, no one else on the calendar was dealing with.
Yet Anderson has simply become better and better every time. This collection was complex yet got to the heart of simply well-done couture. Debuted in the Rodin Museum gardens and inspired partially by the sculptures of Lynda Benglis, his work took on the form of molten-metal forms. The fabric was twisted, pleated, and moulded until it stopped looking like fabric entirely. He closed, as tradition demands, with a feathered, pearl-toned column wedding dress. If I had watched Schiaparelli first, would I have viewed this collection the same? Considering the blinders that Roseberry puts on me as my go-to palette cleanser, definitely not. However, I loved every new and spectacular minute.
Courtesy of Dazed and WWD
Regarding the risk of collapse, I wanted to defend Armani Privé after the house’s recovery after the death of Giorgio, but I was just so underwhelmed. So instead, I will highlight the resurgence of Malhotra. He had earned his spot on the official PFW calendar and lost his mother soon after, which could have easily derailed the collection. Critics were worried about the oversentimentality of the pieces or the risk of leaving it too raw to be a collection at all. Titled “Maa,” he turned the bond of a mother and her children into formal structure, from Cocoon to Abundance. We saw balloon pieces that represented early life and extremely broad-shouldered gowns that held the weight of a mother’s responsibilities. His Indian-inspired rose and blush color palette completed the feeling of closeness and warmth.
Courtesy of WWD
My favorite collection was hands-down Schiaparelli. I am just going to leave these photos here as evidence of proper couture.
Courtesy of @HauteCoutureWeek
Four risk factors were on the table this week and all were conquered triumphantly by showstopping couture. What I enjoyed most was the depth of storytelling this week, as every collection felt especially emotional. This is the magic of couture that made me fall in love as a little girl, and has inspired me ever since. Back for more next week!
Xoxo,
Annie
