PARIS HAUTE COUTURE S/S 2021

Paris Haute Couture S/S 2021 is the perfect occasion for a fashion lover to escape our current reality. (Here is a link to my last look at Haute Couture.) The confines of our daily lives during this pandemic have left us all with a desire to escape. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be sitting in the first row of Paris Haute Couture fashion week, however neither is anyone else. Therefore, a strange democracy has fallen on what is usually a very exclusive event. Since the pandemic has taken hold, live audiences are but a memory. Notably putting all fashion journalists on a near equal footing. Of course, I don't have access to zoom interviews with the designers like Suzy Menkes might. However, I sit next to her in a virtual world, both discovering the world of Couture from the same link.

Paris Haute Couture Week comes twice a year and shows handcrafted creations from Europe's great fashion houses. Paris Haute Couture presents fashion as art, elevating everyday attire to mythical heights. More than ever, this season is needed to relieve us from the mundane world of no red carpets or galas. Hers we can escape to mounds of silk taffeta, the sparkle of crystals, leather with feathers, and sheer imagination. In these most difficult times, we fashion lovers need relief from a world of sweatpants. Therefore, join me in an overview of my favorite looks so far.

PARIS HAUTE COUTURE S/S 2021

MY FAVORITES

IRIS VAN HALPERN

If Paris Haute Couture is about the most exciting and innovative, then Dutch designer Iris van Halpern is its current ambassador. The pandemic didn't hold back Van Halpern, her handmade creations included technologically advanced fabrics and pieces created using 3 D printers. One of a kind creations fit to a specific customer is what Haute Couture is. However, in this case, she has gone a step further, using the latest technology to produce beautiful and imaginative fashion.

PARIS HAUTE COUTURE S/S 2021

SCHIAPARELLI

Elsa Schiaparelli was one of the great designers, incorporating fashion and art to render her iconoclastic designs. Moreover, she is known most for her collaborations with Surrealist artists, including Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí. The legendary house of Schiaparelli is a favorite of mine, the position of the designer at this house, are some big shoes to fill.

Dan Roseberry took over the house less than two years ago, last week he earned his position. Last Wednesday, Lady Gaga took to the stage at President Joe Biden's Inauguration to sing the national anthem and wowed the nation in head to toe Schiaparelli. Roseberry designed a black fitted jacket, a massive red silk ball skirt, and a golden dove brooch that added to Gaga's fashion icon status and cemented Roseberry firmly in American and fashion history.

The collection Roseberry presented for Schiaparelli at Paris Haute Couture S/S 2021 drew on the house's history. The Schiaparelli look book includes dresses with superhero status breastplates, a muscle-bound dress, and gold threads in garments referencing the house's Surrealist past. Shaking up the fashion scene is something the pent up energy of a lock-up has released. Schiaparelli is shaking up couture.

PARIS HAUTE COUTURE S/S 2021

CHRISTIAN DIOR

Maria Grazia Chiuri brought tarot cards to life in her collection for Dior. This gilded collection is a nod to the Italian Renaissance. We are looking at a couture show in 2021. Although, we might be engaged in a viewing of historical costumes. Of course, the modern edge is visible in all these garments.

This collection shows the skills that make Haute Couture so special. The rich fabrics of brocade and tapestry are all handmade. Hundreds of hours go into the creation of an Haute Couture garment. Therefore, I like to pay homage to those craftspeople and artisans whose talents create something of such beauty.

PARIS HAUTE COUTURE S/S 2021

CHANEL

The house of Chanel is synonymous with Haute Couture. This fashion house still follows the design principles of its founder Gabriel Coco Chanel. For this S/S 2021 collection Chanel's creative director Virginie Viard was inspired by a wedding and its guests, not a Paris wedding at the Ritz, but in a small French village.

The tweeds and boxy cuts, the lace, and embellished trims are all signatures of Chanel. In this collection, the silhouettes are simple — sweaters or sleeveless vests worn with high-waisted pants, skinny cardigan jackets, and liquid satin shirts with full romantic ballet skirts—but the beauty is the detail. Certainly, the details make these garments extraordinary, this is Couture and, no one produces details more superbly than the artisans at Chanel. This is a bright sunny spring collection, imbuing a sense of joy and rebirth. This collection ensures that spring follows winter, and hope and optimism follow a time of fear and pessimism. After all, what is more, optimistic than a wedding.

IN CONCLUSION 

Today is the last day of PARIS HAUTE COUTURE S/S 2021. I love covering the Haute Couture shows. Haute Couture is a fabulous source of inspiration for all who love fashion. Haute Couture is a very specific thing that only exists in Paris and is only available to the richest amongst us. However it is more than that, it is an example of the absolute best in fashion.

The skills that go into creating Haute Couture, are an example of the best craftsmanship in the world. Therefore, if you are a young designer , stylist or fashionista pay attention to Haute Couture.  This by no means , means that Haute Couture designers have better ideas or that their designs are superior. However the finishing , details and construction are the absolute best.

WHAT'S HOT

Todays what's hot is inspired by the Paris Haute Couture shows. While most of us will never own any Haute Couture we can have creative well made garments. Traditionally Haute Couture is about evening dresses and while we are presently not attending any evening events, now is the time to find those beautiful dresses for the future. I have worked with my partners at Net-a-porter find you the BEST DEALS on evening dresses. Usually I don't search for deals so enjoy and shop my choices.

CIAO FOR NOW J.ANDREW