Tumbling stocks, dwindling sales and recent job losses at the leading French fashion house Chanel are not an ideal backdrop for the Paris haute couture shows, which start today. Could the famously recession-proof luxury clothing institution, which has already survived a century of economic downfalls, including the Great Depression of the 1930s and two world wars, really be immune to the current global credit crisis?
Twenty names out of a total of 29 official haute couture members and correspondents, who have chosen to take part in this spring/summer 2009 calendar, certainly think so. Over the next four days, some of the world's most famous fashion brands - Christian Dior, Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Jean Paul Gaultier and Givenchy - will present haute couture collections featuring the most expensive, exquisite, elaborately crafted gowns, dresses and suits money can buy.
In keeping with the current low-key global vibe, son et lumière theatrics are strictly off le menu. Shows are downscaled and venues suitably sombre. The couture newcomer Stephane Rolland, 31, is a former costume designer who kicks off the spring/summer 2009 season today with his second-only collection since founding his couture house two years ago. He will show the required 35 day and evening outfits in the marbled art deco Palais de Tokyo, a contemporary museum situated in the Avenue du President Wilson, a street overlooking the Eiffel Tower which houses many prominent fashion houses. Also today is the Christian Dior show, which will be staged in a tent in the grounds of the Musée Rodin, the former home of the French artist Auguste Rodin.
Tomorrow, Chanel - which, rumour has it, has sent out fewer invites than in previous years - will show to a select audience in a pavilion close to its Rue Cambon headquarters. Later in the day, Givenchy takes over a 13th-century abbey close to St-Germain-des-Prés, which is often hired for less prestigious prêt-a-porter shows. The mood may be low-key but the clothes promise to be more breathtaking than ever. Although they will end up being bought by less than 3,000 customers worldwide (1,000 was the estimated number of regular couture clients in 2004), these awesome designs are the ultimate showcase for big brands such as Dior and Givenchy.
Designers use couture to channel their creative visions for the new season. Simplified, diluted, more affordable versions will be subsequently shown in prêt-a-porter collections, which are the real money-spinners. Or at least were. Today, sales signs still hang in the windows of fancy designer boutiques lining the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Talk in pavement cafes is of "la récession" and yet, if you fire a question to les Parisiennes about Chanel axeing 10 per cent of its workforce, they shrug it off with Gallic bravado.
Many remember the last fashion crisis 15 years ago, when haute couture was pronounced dead. Not through any financial trouble. Worse. Its clothes were deemed old-fashioned. And dull. Quel horreur! Danger was averted thanks largely to a rescue package drafted by the luxury French powerhouse LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy). Against the wishes of the French fashion establishment, the company took the brave decision to install John Galliano, a revolutionary thinker, as the chief designer of Givenchy (a year later in 1996 he joined Dior, where he remains).
Others followed LVMH's example, drip-feeding the 100-year-old, members-only bastion of French fashion a stream of cutting-edge young designers, most recently with the Italian designer Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy. The result made haute couture relevant to the modern fashion world and rescued several great (French) couture brands that had slipped off the fashion radar, which is great news for those revered men and ladies in white coats who work in the capital's ateliers, producing labour-intensive clothes that are, literally, a work of art.
Here, dresses can take over 1,000 hours to create using the most luxurious and revolutionary fabrics. Prices start from around £50,000 (Dh253,000) for a perfectly fitted suit and can reach - well, in haute couture, there is no top price. For the last few days and nights, the ateliers have been busy putting the finishing touches to featherweight bridal gowns and fitting them on the world's most beautiful models.
Other designers showing their collections this week include the French couturier Dominique Sirop as well as Zuhair Murad, Georges Chakra and Elie Saab, three Lebanese couturiers who continue to send shock waves through the industry because of their lavish, modern take on glamour. Stay tuned.
