Chanel Couture

Three looks from Chanel I'd love to wear. Isn't it great that all the girls are wearing flats? Happy feet yay!

(Images from style.com)

Couture Nam Nam

Yes! It's time for Haute Couture again and I adore Christian Dior. John Galliano is a little genius and mr Dior himself would be proud if he could see this beautiful collection.

Ladies, are you ready to show your garter belts in public? Haha.
(Images from style.com)

Not Without My Hat!

What if the Christian Dior haute couture shows didn't have the most amazing hats? Well I'm sure that it would be lovely to see all the garments and outfits but the hats are definitely eye candy.

The english millinery Stephen Jones is one of the most talented hat makers in the world and he has been designing hats for Christian Dior haute couture for many years. He started to study arts in 1975 and took a degree at St. Martin's in 1979. One year after in October, he opened his first Hat Salon in Endell St, Covent Garden and you'll still find him there in Covent Garden but on 36 Great Queen Street instead, The Stephen Jones Millinery shop.

Stephen hasn't just been designing hats for the house of Dior. John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Comme Des Garcons, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Lanvin, Balenciaga, Givenchy haute couture, Matthew Williamson, Burberry, Dries van Noten, Azzedine Alaïa, Roberto Cavalli, Jil Sander, Giles Deacon, Marc Jacobs...to name a few(!!).
In 1982 he appeared in Culture Club's golden oldie video "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" with Boy George who was wearing one of his designs. Jean-Paul Gaultier saw the video and invited Stephen so he could start to design hats. Boy George is one of Stephen's biggest clients just as Anna Piaggi, Dita von Teese, Gwen Stefani, Kylie Minouge and Mr Galliano him self.

From an interview with Stephen:

Do models accidentally take your hats from backstage?
Yes, sadly. Quite a few disappear from backstage and you think, How on earth did they sneak it out? But it's okay as long as they end up in a good home.

Do you ever see the hats out and about?
I'd rather see them walking around than sitting in a PR office somewhere. I do remember one model in particular who went off with a very expensive tiara, but she looked so fabulous in it that I forgave her. I know how much time it would take me to get it back and I think life's too short. People are very possessive about hats in the way they are about shoes.

(When I read about the "tiara", Naomi Campbell came up in my head! Could it be her? Probably!)

If you'd like to purchase an original, hand-made hat from "Model Millinery", the price usually starts from £500(!) but you could get smart, chic, elegant hats from the line "Miss Jones & Jones boy" with lower prices from £80/120. I know where I'm going next time I'm in London...

Don't miss; Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones
24 February – 10 May 2009 at V&A



(Images from style.com, flickr.com, hintmag.com)

The House Of Dior

One of all the greatest and well known fashion houses in the world is Christian Dior. You might have read about the "New Look", seen photos from a couture show, purchased a perfume or something else but I'm sure that everyone out there can relate to something when they hear Dior.

Christian, the second of five children, and his family lived in a seaside town called Granville on the Normandy coast for five years. Paris was waiting in 1910 for the family and when Christian's mind was set on arts and becoming an architect, his parents wanted him to get a more diplomatic career. Instead of studying arts, he took a degree in politics in Paris at the prestigious Ecole des Sciences Politiques.

In 1928 he finally got to work with art as his father gave him money so he could open an art gallery, Galerie Jacques Bonjean, with only one condition; the family name could not appear over the door. With paintings on the wall by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso the gallery had to close down three years later. To make a living, Christian started to sell fashion sketches to many haute couture houses and later on he had a job as an assistant to Robert Piquet, a couturier.

Hard times came to Paris when the World War II started and Dior himself had to work as an officer. Later on he was offered a job by another couturier, Lucien Lelong, and for the rest of the war he dressed the wives of Nazi officiers and the French collaborators.

The house of Dior started when Christian met Marcel Boussac and told him about his new theory that the public was ready for a new style after the War, a new look with a luxurious silhouette. With 85 employees the house of Dior moved into a grey and white mansion at 30 Avenue Montaigne. He had now his own fashion house, with Bousacc and Jacques Rouët as its administrator, and it was decorated in his favourite colours too.

It was all about the waspy waists, soft shoulders and full flowing skirt. The first Christian Dior couture show was in 1947 and it was a success. There were, of course, rivals in the couture business and the closest were Cristobál Balenciaga and Pierre Balmain but Dior was the biggest haute couture house throughout the 1950's.

With up to two hundred outfits each couture show, 2500 people filed in and out the salons, twice a year, to see the 2 hours long show. The mannequins (the models) were hired in in different sizes and shapes just to show everyone how the clothes would look on different types of women.

Dior also had very talented assistants. Italian-born tailor Pierre Cardin, the star assistant before he left in the late 1940's to start his own business, and Algerian born Yves Saint Laurent who joined the fashion house in 1955 the same year Dior launched a cosmetic range.

Christian Dior's death came by a heart attack in 1957 at a spa in Montecatini, Italy. Marcel Boussac sent his private plane to Italy so they could bring back his body to the funeral in Paris. There was no doubt that he was loved, when over 2000 people attended at the funeral.

Yves Saint Laurent took over the fashion house by the young age of 21 until he opened his own couture house. John Galliano is now the chief designer for Christian Dior since 1996 after Marc Bohan.

The haute couture show twice a year by Dior is still one of the highlights. The extremely luxurious fabrics and well made pieces are still here but o they beat the couture shows from the 1950's with 200 outfits? Impossible!














(Images from flickr.com, harpersbazaar.co.uk, designmuseum.org, britannica.com, style.com)

The Couturier Of Shoes - Roger Vivier

Haute Couture is so fascinating, there is so much history behind all the perfect gounts, shoes and the people who wore it. From now on I'll try to write about specific person behind the couture every week and this week I'll start with the shoe couturier.

Mr Roger Vivier began to collaborate with Christian Dior in 1953 and one year later he had introduced the 3 inches stiletto heel. Before he started to create shoes for many French couture designers he worked at a workshop in Paris. After studying sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts he spent his apprenticeship at his relatives shoefactory.

Designer Elsa Schiaparelli was the first one who saw his talent and he started to design shoes for her collection. 1937 the same year when Elsa saw his shoes he also started his first shop in Paris. Everything seemed to go very well for him and the success didn't end here.

The first prêt-à-porter designer label shoes came in 1955, "Christian Dior created by Roger Vivier". Another well known designer Vivier collaborated with was Yves Saint Laurent after Mr Dior's death in 1957.

Corals, seed pearls, feathers, crystals. Decorated extravagancy is the style you find in his amazing shoes. A shoe fitting could usually take up to two hours for example with one of his many clients, Marlene Dietrich.

His designs are still her although he died in 1998 and I'm sure they'll stay for decades. You don't really forget the couturier of shoes.


(Images from allthebestblog.com, vam.ac.uk, teamsugar.com)