LUXE TREND 27
COUTURE SS 2017, GLAMOUR / AVANT GARDE.
The most memorable moment at the latest Haute Couture shows was the last exit at Maison Margiela. A billowing black taffeta gown appeared to have been virtually plucked from Cristobal Balenciaga’s imagination. In a season when every couturier amply borrowed from the 1950s for inspiration, it was that gown that perfectly captured the couture zeitgeist.
The continuous clarity of Galliano’s vision shone brightly again this season. For the collection, Galliano collaborated with fabric artist Benjamin Shine to create trompe l’oeil portraits made of tulle. Pat McGrath created extraordinary make-up looks by using a 3D pen to enhance the models’ features and even attaching them to tulle veils. Galliano regularly demonstrates how a post-modernist genius interprets fashion while expanding the dialogue between art and fashion. For Galliano in 2017, Haute Couture is more than trophy dressing.
Galliano’s work at Margiela straddles an interesting axis between what is considered glamorous and what is avant-garde. Even if his work can be viewed as a cerebral exercise on fiction-as-fashion, there is an inherent element of glamour in every Galliano collection, while staying very close to Margiela’s design roots. In Haute Couture glamour is the essential element missing from many current collections. Designers have begun to struggle creatively by trying to bring a weighty intellectual quality to the style of the fashion houses they direct. The most recent offender of that practice is Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior
At Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld showed a truly stunning collection. The Chanel collection also borrowed themes from the golden age of couture. KL knows how to use the vast creative resources available to him to create collections that consistently push the techniques of couture. The collection displayed a magical complexity of construction underneath a layer of apparent ”simplicity." Very few designers are able to create work of such multidimensional variety and technique.
Each couture exit utilized a large number of innovations/enhancements to create sculptural effects that require the skills of a highly-trained haute couture atelier. The crystal embroideries were used with incredible visual eloquence, never overwhelming the style of the pieces. The classic Chanel suits were sculpturally reinvented this season with padded hips and broad shoulders, in addition to some clever fabric folds that accentuated the volume of the jackets. Coupled with broad leather belts, the sharp silhouettes of the season ensured the lasting influence of Chanel as a fashion leader.
Mixing glamour and the avant-garde like a Boss, Lagerfeld made these infinite couture details his tool for unparalleled expression. Unlike any other modern designer, Karl Lagerfeld is a fashion linguist who continuously grows the fashion language of Chanel.
We can only speculate as to how an artist like Dali would express the current state of the avant-garde. Would he still paint a lobster on a Schiaparelli silk satin dress as he did in 1937? How does a surrealist manifesto such as that lobster be representative of our own current vision of the world? Bertrand Guyon decided to use that lobster at Schiaparelli again this season. Like the legendary circus designs from the house, Guyon often references the past in his collections. However, while Schiaparelli was famous for working with some of the most modern artists of her time, it is less clear as to why the house insists of re-issuing them. The tulle faces at Margiela were possibly today’s equivalent of that lobster. Guyon delivered a collection with plenty of interesting ideas for Schiaparelli, but without the panache of some previous collections.
Valentino’s Pier Paolo Pizzioli seems liberated from having to design by committee. This Haute Couture collection was rather lacking in originality but it was strong in cohesion. The architectural pleated column dresses were standouts. It was this stronger silhouette that will hopefully prevail at Valentino; Pizzioli’s past collections that were heavy on romanticism often became rather saccharine. This collection showed a lot more of the current fashion trends, like the use of white and a turn away from many accessories.
Dolce and Gabbana Alta Moda was staged at the Opera in Milan. Fond of combining high spectacle with every Alta Moda collection, D&G display opulence and technique at a level not possible at Pret-a-Porter. There were flowers and lace and enough super-precious fabrics to fill a museum. This was a collection that would have been a favorite for a famous Italian fashion muse, Anna Piaggi. Ms. Piaggi, a legendary fashion editor, was a master at mixing elements and accessories. For D&G, the avant-garde of couture is the ability to combine clothes at a high level of eclecticism. Even though it did not move the style canon forward, the Alta Moda collection allows the D&G name to move steadily along a path of high luxury and anchors the other lines.
Despite the abundance of luxury in these collections, fashion is moving toward a more low profile authenticity. The future of luxury fashion and glamour depends on expressing the avant-garde — some say anti-establishment — sentiment of our era. Luxury brands that have invested in expressing that purpose through their products are the ones poised to succeed.