Boost Your Fashion Performance
An haute couture virgin embarks on a fashion rite of passage
There are a few things left in the world that would encourage someone to put his iPhone, stop tweeting and log off her account up. I found one of them in my hotel room during Spring 2011 fashion week in New York City: an invitation from the house Chanel. I cracked open a thick envelope, heavy stock card is decorated with lion heads general, and reading the words of the most enjoyable known for women (or other fashion editor): “Chanel is pleased to invite Madame Sarah Casselman to find haute couture autumn / winter 2010/11 collection “My first response-excitement.!, followed by a wave of such emergency use. But the joy of winning.
Idea couture collections that exist in our modern world is a confusing headache for some people. After all, business is great is created in an era long gone, who is known for good manners, civilized way, the heroism and the right cocktail hour. I like to think of haute couture as an art similar to: In order to obtain valuable work, one must be part of a circle, a very small elite of very wealthy individuals with names like Getty and Guinness. After all, with houses such as Chanel chose not to disclose the price of their couture, it is clear that if you have to ask, you can not afford. For the rest of us are only human, we visited places we love in a museum or with the click of a mouse. But forget the profit margin, designers are producing couture collections Ateliers see them as an incubator of fashion, a place to experiment with new ideas, which, in turn, create strong brand awareness and (they hope) ready to increase sales.
These days, only about a thousand potential customers around the world haute couture made-to live life through design-order houses such as Valentino, Armani Prive, Christian Dior and Givenchy. Many of the blue-chip clients living in China, Russia and the Middle East, but in the case of the jet set of Chanel, mostly Americans and Europeans. Interestingly, the preview that I was invited to mark the first sign of haute couture collection will be presented to the editor for the promise of individual modes in the showroom. Typically, visible only on-track as Le Grand Palais in Paris.
The night before C-day, I curled up with my Vogue in October after a day full of shows ready-made and noticed that the actress Carey Mulligan wears Chanel haute couture at the cover and story inside. No doubt, a beautiful display of cover: The spray mesh resembles a shiny sequins and beautiful flowers look like a beautiful cake topping. But when it all sewn up and shot, not just the clothes? Twelve hours later and 12 floors on East 57th Street, the dyed sugar plum-site spring to life on the shelf in front of me. Me! The editor-slash-fashion-son-in-a-candy-store, desperately trying to remember the sound in the room. This is a Chanel couture, Cherie.
Approaching the first garment rack, I got a strange feeling of déjà vu. Not surprisingly, I think, given the fact that we live in a digital daze, obsessed with keeping up with tweeps and now can watch the runway show in real time through the magic of online streaming. (I’ve seen it three times online collections, a few months before I visited the showroom clean.) Twitpic or feed but do not capture the type of mode of life to sit-and-enjoy the party quite like a pair of eyes in the room. Part history lesson, the decadent costume party, the collection is amazing: intricate beaded dresses suitable for royalty, handcrafted buttons inlaid with precious gems from Desrues Maison, costume jewelry and accessories of 82 prestigious studio in northern Paris, boots covered in bronze skin looks like a chain, weasel-trimmed cuffs sublime; jacket magically smooth, decorative door knocker measuring lion’s-head accents (like me, Coco Chanel is a Leo), and embroidered panels resemble ancient tapestries. Holds 26 hangers-look, dress sprinkled with sea pearls inflated-I was surprised by his weight. Weighing about four pounds, it is the heavyweight champion of the collection. Once I was happy to spend hours analyzing and admiring all the details carefully, it is clear that the complicated hand work that really defines haute couture and a place in class at the ready commercial cousins.
Take, for example, see 60, two pieces of ready-made cover Carey Mulligan. There is a staggering 600,000 sequin embroidery on it, and an additional 100,000 in the proper shoes. The decorative porcelain-like flowers that Bolero’s made of patent leather is painted with strass, glass stone used to imitate precious stones. Remarkably, it is usually only given to a tailor to appear. Considering that some pieces of the collection is more complex requiring more than 500 hours of work, the electrical les petites, the studio tireless worker, who should be praised not only for Mr. Lagerfeld sketches bring to life, but to make this up-close-and experience- personally so mind-blowing.
Once the user returns to the streets (and the cloud nine), I decided to walk several blocks to cool my cheeks, flushed from the afternoon of sensory overload. I found myself addicted to smoking. I do not smoke, it’s just very good.
