HAUTE COUTURE Has Carla Bruni's spirit saved couture?

Tag : print fabrics


Although this was theoretically a winter collection, the colorswere poetic and summery, as black and white, like those Pennimages, gave way to aquatints of eau de nil, lilac and lime.

For once, the star-studded front row, from the actress Liv Tyler tothe singer Janet Jackson, were talking not about the extraordinaryspectacle but the divine clothes. And Bernard Arnault, who hassupported Galliano through success and excess, must have been aspleased that Dior has come back to a rarefied reality as that thehouse has beat out its rivals in dressing Bruni Sarkozy.

"Of course we are proud and honored to dress the first lady ofFrance," said Arnault. "But it is her choice - and she chose us."

Paris is elsewhere remembering Saint Laurent. At Roger Vivier , where the couture shoes have become an ever-more-complexdistillation of craftsmanship into foot architecture embellishedwith flowers and feathers, the designer Bruno Frisoni created hisown YSL commemoration: black shoes with a flat bow on the front anda re-creation of the wheat sheaves that were symbolically put onthe late couturier's coffin.

Meanwhile, Didier Ludot, the antique couture collector, has filledthe windows of his Palais Royal store with vintage Saint Laurent,displaying how modern and yet how faithful to his own spirit thedesigner was with a fringed tan suede outfit from 1968 and asimilar safari jacket in 1979.

The subtext of these homages is that couture is dying as itsoriginal curators retire or pass away. But in a sweet renaissanceof the spirit of couture, Alexis Mabille opened the season with a collection that caught a fresh andyouthful spirit from butterfly bows in the hair to the knotsembracing the heels of satin shoes. After working with Galliano atDior and now creating jewelry with Stefano Pilati at Saint Laurent,Mabille has based his fledgling business on fantasy bow ties.

In his show, the "fantastic college" of his dreams was peopled withmen in showy clothes but women who captured the intangible essenceof Parisian chic. That was woven into the cotton piqué workedinto a silk dress, in a braided military vest worn over a freshsmock and in the wispy lightness of a white tulle collar framingthe neckline of a long sheath dress.

If fashion is a constant renewal from one generation to another,couture has found in Mabille a designer passionate to give couturethe kiss of life.

Suzy Menkes is the fashion editor at the International HeraldTribune.