Couture as invisible luxury

Paris, the command center of haute couture, opened this week with new names and even newer ideas on how dressing is defined in the 21st century.

Bouchra Jarrar (remember this name) showed that couture is invisible luxury. In Jarrar’s sharply tailored collection, dresses and separates that could be worn from day to night were directional yet discreet. A feminine-masculine story was told in quiet quality, with interesting cuts and combinations. Her collection was the loudest whisper of Paris Couture Week.

Couture pieces are made-to-order for one owner only; some 50 body measurements are taken, there are fittings and, should you add or lose some pounds, the custom-made garment will adjust to the contour of your body.

Other designers Alexis Mabille, Anne Valerie Hash, Giambattista Valli (his first ever couture show), and Dior’s new designer Bill Gayten showed a lot of daywear, suits and short formals. Couture is having a rebirth, an evolution that is doing away with frothy red-carpet dresses and focusing on pieces you may wear again and again.

Haute couture is made from finest wool, crepe, silk dupioni, chiffon and tulle, and made by hand, involving hundreds of man-hours, making every stitch, collar and buttonhole able to last a lifetime. The colors for autumn are revved up with pulsating blue, along with three-dimensional shades of green, golden rod, gray, honey-suckle pink, and black with white.

Here are hot-off-the-runway trends shaping up for this year’s fall wardrobe. There are only 800 people on this earth who can afford haute couture (a day suit can run up to 4,000 euros), but perhaps we may copy these amazing designs, as we live in a land where bespoke garments are still possible.