If I had a penny for every time someone has commented “This isn’t couture!” whenever I’ve posted a haute couture show on Instagram, I’d be a very rich woman. Perhaps even rich enough to go sniffing around a haute couture salon, asking a vendeuse to start the hallowed process of procuring a one-off, made-only-pour-moi look from, say, Dior or Chanel. What is and isn’t couture has become something of a cynical debate among online armchair fashion critics, rearing its head every time the haute couture shows come around. It prompts further questioning: Who is haute couture really for? The general audience from afar that demands dramatic ball gowns, intricate embroidery, and unadulterated lavishness? Or the client, who actually has upward of $100,000 to spend on an ensemble? And what, then, is haute couture’s larger resonance and relevance when it can be afforded only by a fortunate few?
cynical debate
What is and isn’t couture has become something of a cynical debate
celebrity sightings paris fashion week haute couture spring summer 2024 day one
As a publicity exercise, haute couture is a rarified opportunity to really flex some brand muscle during a week when there are fewer shows compared to the ready-to-wear schedules in March and September. Thanks to the viral moments Daniel Roseberry has steered Schiaparelli toward, the once moribund house is very much alive now, and kicked off this month’s Haute Couture Week in Paris with a rumination on pre-internet tech. Schiaparelli is never short on star power, but even Zendaya and her swishy satin horsetail train were eclipsed by model Maggie Maurer carrying a robot baby encrusted with old computer chips, CDs, and antiquated cell phones. Turns out Roseberry has been contemplating our inevitable AI-fueled near-future and how machine learning might yield the extreme sculptural pieces the designer has become known for.
Fashion
a model in a white dress holding a robot baby
COURTESY OF SCHIAPARELLI
Schiaparelli’s robot baby
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Fashion is both kind and punishing to working moms
I saw it and thought of the industry’s weird relationship with motherhood. Fashion is both kind and punishing to working moms—it might be an industry full of women, but after the child is here, we’re also expected to get back on the fashion cycle and look fabulous instantly. Guess a robot baby will have to suffice for those who can’t or choose not to child-rear. In the broader conversation about artificial intelligence versus humanity, haute couture holds perhaps the biggest trump card: For now, the handiwork of those petites mains can’t be automated.
a person in a dress
COURTESY OF SCHIAPARELLI
A look from the Schiaparelli couture show
a person wearing a dress
COURTESY OF SCHIAPARELLI
A look from the Schiaparelli couture show
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At Dior, haute couture is client-centric. The house’s show this week was teeming with loyal fans. That’s likely down to Maria Grazia Chiuri’s championing of a decidedly pragmatic approach toward couture—solid clothes that will actually be worn day to day—which perhaps invites naysaying hot takes online.
a model walks the runway in a red moire suit
DANIELE OBERRAUCH
A red moiré suit at Dior
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This season, Chiuri was fixated by the storied fabric moiré: silk embedded with a wavelike pattern, once considered a mark of royalty and nobility, and now more commonly seen in stuffy interiors. She was looking at Monsieur Dior’s 1952 La Cigale dress, which subsequently became a style democratized through department-store Dior lines. The designer sent this austere-looking fabric down the runway in shades of blue, champagne, and burgundy alongside trench coat iterations that fit the daywear bill.
