Fall 2003 Couture shows! (pics)

Natalia, also in Chanel.

More Chanel. I want to go goth dancing in this.

More of the same from Galliano for Dior. Yawn. What a twit.

This one's called 'Ragga.' Galliano should go blow himself already.

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/51/53/100105351.jpg

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/83/52/100105283.jpg

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/40/56/100105640.jpg

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/52/56/100105652.jpg http://media.condenet.com/style/view/67/56/100105667.jpg
http://media.condenet.com/style/view/66/56/100105666.jpg

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/52/56/100105652.jpg http://media.condenet.com/style/view/67/56/100105667.jpg
http://media.condenet.com/style/view/66/56/100105666.jpg

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/86/56/100105686.jpg

This is just as silly and outrageous as Dior, but this has purpose and direction and history.

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/98/56/100105698.jpg

http://www.firstview.com/MENfall2003/DIOR/P022.html

(apologies that it's from Dior, but I think there's a different guy designing the men's line now)

And here's some Dirty Drone Rock Haute Couture just for Kate :

http://www.firstview.com/MENspring2003/CHRISTIAN_DIOR/P061.html
http://www.firstview.com/MENspring2003/JIL_SANDER/P056.html
http://www.firstview.com/MENfall2003/FENDI/P031.html

hehehe this is fun! :)

It's Hedi Slimane! Gotta love those goth boy getups.

I don't know if I understand it either, Kate, but I am fascinated by it -- the whole spectacle of it. It's like a circus, only with better colors and attractive clowns. The workmnship on some of the clothes is amazing too. My mom sews, so I know the effort that's involved in getting a hem just right, or in making a fabric drape in a certain way.

Hey, here's a thread-within-a-thread question for all you ladies and gents out there who are also fascinated by fashion :

If you could have any three haute couture outfits from this year's Spring or Fall collections, and any three ready-to-wear outfits from this year's spring or fall collections, which would they be? Be as crazy or a calm as you like in your preferences. Tell us why you chose what you chose too, if you want. Please include pics!

(If you need a source for runway pics, try Style.com for women's, and Firstview.com for men's)

Oh, boo; I was just going to point everyone to this website (Supermodels Are Lonelier Than You Think) but it's down for a while. I hope it comes back up later.

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/88/52/100105288.jpg
(Versace)

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/14/59/100105914.jpg
(Valentino)

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/11/58/100105811.jpg
(Ungaro)

Additional pick because 3 was too hard (I'm loving the Valentino collection)
http://media.condenet.com/style/view/39/59/100105939.jpg

http://firstview.com/WRTWspring2003/DIANE_VON_FURSTENBERG/00016.L.JPG

This is not one of my choices, I'm just illustrating bounce bounce ko girl / girly sports style.

Dianne von Furstenberg
http://firstview.com/WRTWspring2003/DIANE_VON_FURSTENBERG/00139.L.JPG

Prada
http://firstview.com/WRTWspring2003/PRADA/00079.L.JPG

D&G
http://firstview.com/WRTWspring2003/DOLCE_AND_GABBANA/00169.L.JPG

So far -

Couture:
http://www.firstview.com/WRTWspring2003/CHADO_RALPH_RUCCI/00078.L.JPG
http://media.condenet.com/style/view/62/98/100089862.jpg
http://media.condenet.com/style/view/36/58/100105836.jpg

I must admit, I did waffle an awful lot between the two Chados and various Chanels, especially that sharp Victorian coat from Chanel :

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/13/55/100105513.jpg

But I figured I'd get more use out of the Chados (assuming I can have that one in some other color besides white!)

Still working on ready-to-wear --

this is fun, and stripey!, but I'd need a much much much lower hem ---

http://www.firstview.com/WRTWspring2003/CACHAREL/00024.L.JPG

like this too, but, ahem, with a bit more "support" --

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/86/38/100093886.jpg

I also heard that Chanel's not French

The above-left lanyard is de rigeur downtown, apparently it goes with anything; the above-right is to lend some scope and history to this essential status accessory

Tracer, that's one of the saving graces of Haute Couture -- that even though HC fashions may be beyond silly, the creation of those silly costumes is keeping a whole segment of specialized master-craftsmen and master-craftswomen in business. The beadmakers and sewers, the pattern-drafters and alterations experts, the embroiderers and the color dyers, etc. These are keepers of a dying art : the art of hand-sewing and personal tailoring. The way that _all_ garments used to be made until about 1900 ...

Why is this so special? Why do we want to save it?

Here, have a look at this Chanel suit --
http://media.condenet.com/style/view/19/55/100105519.jpg

From this distance, you can tell it took a lot of time and effort to get the rounded hems to hang just right and to look balanced with each other, and to get the collar to stand up without sagging, and to get the fringes on the sleeves stable so that they wouldn't unravel more than they are designed to, and also to get the tight-fitting jacket adjusted so that it would perfectly frame the model's belly.

Now look closer :
http://media.condenet.com/style/view/94/55/100105594.jpg

See how what looked like a printed-on pattern from a distance is actually hundreds of hand-sewn beads and embroidery? And look at those seams! -- can you even tell where the seams are? If you can't, especially on a patterned fabric, that's the sign of a master-craftsperson's touch. Unlike most clothing, this fabric was cut and sewn in such a way that the fabric pattern would look uninterrupted all across the jacket. (In most non-couture clothing you'll see that the stripes and checks and plaids don't often match up near the collar and sleeves. That's because it's too expensive and too time-consuming for most clothing manufacturers to do that. Look through your own clothes and you'll see many examples of both matching and unmatching seams).

It's all these little things that distinguish Haute Couture from everyday clothes. And whether you like fashion or not, it's still pretty easy to admire the amount of expert workmanship involved in the making of it.

As for Chanel not being French -- well, Chanel herself died in the 80s, so she's not designing her line anymore. Since then, Karl Lagerfeld has been designing Chanel's clothing line. Very few fashion houses (especially the older ones) are run by the original designers anymore. You won't see Dior in Dior, Sander in Sander, Lanvin in Lanvin, Balenciaga in Balenciaga etc ... they've all since retired or died or moved on to different things, and asked other designers to take over their designing duties for them.

Karl Lagerfeld is from Germany, if I remember correctly. But he's been very faithful to Chanel's original vision and very "French" spirit, whereas other designers haven't always been so faithful. For instance, I wonder what Dior -- who specialized in prissy, girdled, proper, neo-Victorian clothing, would make of Gallanos, who is designing the Dior line now as a sort of disco/kabuki/circus hybrid! Teeny's provided us with some vivid examples of it above.

J Lu -- do you sew your own clothes? That's soo cool! I am in the process of learning how to do that, too. It is both harder and easier than I thought. And it's really making me appreciate what's involved in making even the simplest of styles.

I would wear this.

Here are my favorite Ruccis:
http://media.condenet.com/style/view/46/61/100106146.jpg http://media.condenet.com/style/view/39/61/100106139.jpg

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/24/60/100106024.jpg http://media.condenet.com/style/view/21/60/100106021.jpg

Okay and the logophilia of Louis Vuitton bags annoys me, but Marc Jacobs' clothes have really seduced me against my will:

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/57/20/100102057.jpg http://media.condenet.com/style/view/81/20/100102081.jpg

Yowza! I didn't see those -- are they from the Ready-To-wear line? Has the Chado RTW come up on Style.com now? I can't wait to see it!

As you can probably tell, Rucci is my hero. His stuff is like origami : all carefully cut and with crisp edges and joins. Dozens of tiny planes that cascade around the body. It's almost like he's building armor -- but very, very, very soft armor.

In fact, there's this one dress of his that I have jokingly referred to as his "butt-kicking dress". How could you _not_ feel omnipotent while stomping down the catwalk in this number, eh? :

http://www.firstview.com/WRTWspring2001/CHADO_RALPH_RUCCI/P119.html

I'm guessing "Gladiator" was an influence, since the outfit has a seperate armpiece (just like the ones archers use professionally) -- and since half the dress is based on a toga! The other half is more like a t-shirt. I bet it's very comfortable. But you'd have to watch out for those long hems -- they'd catch on everything.

:)

This link has Cathy Horyn talking about the couture collections:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/fashion/20030716_COUTURE/index.html

i have been lusting after marc jacobs fall collection (i think i'll always love twiggy and mod done well). namely
http://media.condenet.com/style/view/60/18/100091860.jpg and http://media.condenet.com/style/view/14/19/100091914.jpg

i'm really digging the tights on these gals. not only because the color and texture seems amazing, but it *might* be the one thing i could afford.

and anything vaguely amidala is ok by me...
http://www.firstview.com/Australia_shows/Fall2003/GWENDOLYNNE/P030.html

http://www.padawansguide.com/padme/white/promo5_padme.jpg

ok. have i clogged up the thread enough? and...hopefully that cheesy 80's coked-out asymetric ironic shit will die soon

I've never been a fan of Gaultier, but his latest collection is quite beautiful and possibly my favorite of anything he's ever done. Gaultier's draped-collared, asymmetrical coat was even a contender in my "top three" ...

http://media.condenet.com/style/view/13/60/100106013.jpg

But that ultra-classy Valentino dress (with the subtle stripes and patterns on the bodice and the long, long black skirt) eventually won out over it.

Ralph Rucci's Chado is not well-known probably because he -- unlike most designers -- doesn't overtly court celebrities and doesn't have ads on every street-corner and in every magazine. See, a large part of a couture house's "buzz" comes from the celebrities who name-drop it. The houses, in exchange for celebrity name-dropping, give certain celebrities entire wardrobes at deeply discounted rates -- providing that these celebrities promise to wear the clothes often, and to as many high-profile events as possible, and to name-drop the designer as much as possible. For instance, Gwenyth Paltrow has a deal with Calvin Klein, Madonna has a deal with D&G (+ others), Jodie Foster has one with Armani and Claire Danes had one with Miu Miu/Prada. If a rap song has a reference to a specific designer label in it, then you can bet that that rap artist got a kick-back from the designer -- or will get one soon as a "thank you" for the free advertising. And the same is true with sports stars, too. If Dave Beckham seems to wear a lot of Versace, that's because he's got a deal with them. In fact, some handsome soccer players, like Paolo Maldini, often have to _turn away_ designers coz there's just too many of them begging him for a deal. (Allegedly, Armani has been trying to get Maldini not only to wear his clothes -- which I think he already does -- to model for him on the catwalk for years!)

As best I know, Rucci hasn't got any high-profile starlets hawking his goods for him, but he has managed to build a reputation based mostly on the clothes. He's been honored by the French couture guild for this -- they've allowed him to show his line with the French couture houses, making him "certified" Haute Couture.(The term "Haute Couture" is like the term "champagne" -- originally it meant something very specific from a certain geographical area, but has now come to mean just about anything that's vaguely similar. So in the same way that champagne can be "certified" to have actually come from the Champagne region of France, fashion can be "certified" to insure that the buyer is actually getting top-quality construction and fabrics, and not just something with a fancy-looking tag that was thrown together in a sweat-shop down the street in an hour). Rucci is one of the only American designers to be so certified by the French fashion guild. So I suspect we'll be hearing more about him soon, as that special status will probably increase the "buzz" around him. Celebrities or no.

Patterned tights. Cor.

Not as useful as I had hoped. Do a search in froogle and see what you get!