Paris is celebrating haute couture · 2009-01-28 17:07
Paris is celebrating haute couture with its seasonal fashion shows.
The events celebrate the pinnacle of high fashion. The guidelines to enter the ranks of this elite club are steep and only 12 designers are seeing their fashion strut down the catwalks this season.
In the current tight economic climate clothing that can cost over $40,000 stands out as an oddity. The fashion event has been cut down to three days from four and includes 20 shows instead of the usual 23. Several designers are avoiding putting on shows as a cost cutting measure. There are less models at the shows this year too, TheCelebrityCafe.com informs.
The designs however, are as extravagant as ever. "If you react to the crisis, you can't produce high fashion," Italian designer Giorgio Armani says. "High fashion is like watching a beautiful film, it belongs to a different world."
According to Reuters, Armani Prive gave a nod to new markets with Chinese-inspired red tassels on purple and silver dresses and jackets. Up-turned cuffs and hems peaked skywards like the roofs of Chinese pagodas.
Dior designer John Galliano was just as happy to take a holiday from reality.
His pink and red silk gowns with tight bodices exploded into voluminous silk and floral-print skirts and would not have looked out of place at a garden party thrown by Marie Antoinette. A soundtrack of chansons by First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy rounded off the carefree mood.
• Eight babies born Monday breath on their own
• Gay and Lesbian Alliance names its nominees
|