Couture is the illusion that holds reality

You know Couture is something French, only a few houses are granted the title, Elsa Schiaparelli was the last one to be accepted this year.

There is rigor in the selection, because couture requires the authenticity and the craftsmanship of les petites mains 

It's for a seleted clientele, the wealthiest and most demanding.
Couture is not for everybody although at time the use of the word is misunderstood for made-to-measure or some sort of tailored version of clothing.

No.

If fashion is supposed to make you dream, couture is pure dream, the illusion that lifts you from reality.

REPEAT AFTER ME: #luxuryisastateofmind

I use it to escape, I use it to wipe my eyes with beauty and I suggest you do that too.

Watching and immersing myself in art, any form that pleases me, Puccini, Le Claire de Lune, An American in Paris, Monet's Les Petites Danseuses make me happy beyond everything else.

This past week I woke up earlier than normal just because Schiaparelli and Chanel were showing before the cock sings in Miami and it helped my day.

[...] "Couture is", to say it with Angelo Flaccavento, one of the most respected fashion journalists in the world at the moment, "is too slow, too elitist and too private" since "We live in a time of instant gratification and endless self-broadcasting."

The ultimate of craftsmanships, flights of fancy, enjoy the best of the best, la creme de la creme, the collections of pieces I loved the most. 

dealing with the F word

Fashion’s July is the month that starts with the sparkles and then sends everyone to Slim Aaron-esque summer vacation.

I am not referring to the 4th of July, but couture and, being Couture, it happens in Paris.

Angelo Flaccavento wrote a punkish article on Business of Fashion on the status of Couture and how it’s been somehow occupied and populated by aliens, that is the ones that don’t belong to Couture, but tag-along. It’s a bit like the phenomenon of Art Basel Miami Beach: from being an art show, to one of the most lucrative and successful art shows world-wide, to: everybody hops on the caravan and everything is dressed up as an excuse to create a party around it. And you see things of Fellinian envy.

“Couture is couture - fashion to the nth degree and the last remaining remnant of the old world concept of fashion as a language and privilege of the elite.”

— "Identity Theft at Paris Couture" - Angelo Flaccavento, Business of Fashion

Couture gives “validation”, couture is couture, “fashion to the nth degree and the last remaining remnant of the old world concept of fashion as a language and privilege of the elite.”

It’s a moment of change in Fashion, gender blending and that awkward almost blurring vicinity between ready-to-wear and couture, which is what Flaccavento is sensing after his week in Paris. Couture is old-school, based on rules that are crystallized in the past, it's slow, it's unique, not replicable or Instagrammable in a #ootd

If fashion were a religion, couture would be its god, the tipping point of Mount Olympus, very much noble and aristocratic and less democratic, if the parallel would hold. 

Nevertheless, for a fashion hard-core extremist like me, confined in the steamiest and most un-glamorous corner I could ever be left at, I need beauty, I need Fashion with the big F, my “eye has to travel” like editrix extraordinaire Diana Vreeland said perfectly in her own special and creative language.

To make everyone up to speed, a couturier is a créateur de mode appointed by the French Chambre Syndicale de la haute couture and designated by France’s Ministry of Industry, a very specific denomination, it’s like the equivalence of a D.O.C. wine or being “Made in Italy” or being an OBE, it doesn’t happen overnight and when you are, you are. There are 8 Italian designers out of 98 and all I am going to do now is to share my absolutely favorites.

Some facts (you may know or not) in chronological order:

1.   Valentino’s duo, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli after many years at the helm of the house, split. Rumors were circulating for a while, since the March runway shows, but it was announced the same day the couture collection was shown. Piccioli remains the sole creative director, Maria Grazia is out. They brought the brand up to the limelight, hard workers, skilled, tenacious and capable to maintain the high standards of the Emperor himself, Mr. Valentino Garavani.

2.   Christian Dior, orphan for a few seasons of a creative director after Raf Simons left, tadaaaahhh, has a new creative director, the first woman in the history of the house, and guess who it is? Right: Maria Grazia Chiuri: all the best #girlsrock

3.   Fendi showed the collection in Rome, because first they are from Rome and second this year they are celebrating the 90 years of the atelier. Models and furs seemingly walked on the waters (aka, a see-through plexiglass runway) of the Fontana di Trevi, in a fairy tale reminiscing of Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” . Karl (Lagerfeld, as you will get used at how in fashion we call the masters by their first name) even tossed the three coins. It must have been magic, that’s all I can say.

On another note, you may have seen some images of Dolce & Gabbana who threw their version of couture Alta Moda, closing off an entire neighborhood of Napoli: they are not couturiers. 

Valentino Couture

I am never bored or ashamed at repeating over and over that I grew up where Giacomo Puccini was born, lived and composed. 

Could I be prouder of the fact that le arie of La Madama Butterfly and La Boheme as a child were as frequent in the house as a PBJ sandwich in an American household? 

And now, the Emperor’s heirs, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli followed their inspiration of letting the music and the stories of the operas (the most famous in the world) inspiring them. Result: an outstanding spring Couture staged under a backdrop of butterfles. Sublime execution of Couture. 

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