The couture season returned last week, bringing with it the usual grandeur of runway shows. There were still some designers who opted for digital presentations, but the number of in-person events increased.
It was reported that France saw more physical shows during the initially planned four-day Paris Couture Week than it had in the last 18 months. A cause for celebration indeed, as the industry declares an impending return to normalcy in the country.
More than that however, it also witnessed several firsts. Balenciaga made an astounding return, after having exited couture back in 1967. The recent show was widely anticipated by everyone, from designers to the media.
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“It was my minute of silence to the heritage of Cristobal Balenciaga but also a moment of silence to just shut up for a minute,” artistic director Demna Gvasalia told Vogue in an interview.
“The pandemic made me take that minute of silence – or few months of silence – and really understand what I like in this ‘metier’, as Cristobal used to call it. And I realised it’s not about fashion – actually, I love clothes. I’ve been talking about clothes, clothes, clothes rather than fashion.”
This is his first couture collection for the label, and the first time the brand has debuted a new couture line since late founder Cristobel last did 53 years ago.
“A lot of people don’t even know that Balenciaga is a 100-plus-year-old couture brand,” Gvasalia pointed out to Women’s Wear Daily.
Dramatic showing
Another exciting moment is the addition of Pyer Moss to the lineup. The label’s designer, Kerby Jean-Raymond, is the first Black American to be invited to participate in couture season.
The runway show (pictured on the cover) was certainly dramatic – literally. On the afternoon that it was supposed to happen, a hurricane lashed New York. It forced the event to be cancelled and rescheduled two days later.
FHCM (Federation De La Haute Couture Et De La Mode) issued a statement in response. Couture week was supposed to have run from July 5 to 8. It was then extended for another two days.
Audiences were seen waiting patiently for three hours in the rain before being finally told that the Pyer Moss show was not going to happen. On July 10, they returned to a packed house, with only standing room left over.
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As for the designs themselves, they were beautifully rich. Jean-Raymond paid tribute to his community. His three-dimensional clothes were seen as “sculptures”, each representing a well-known innovation by a Black person.
For instance, there was a look made from hundreds of tightly wrapped hair rollers. It celebrated beauty mogul CJ Walker, who is known for being the first female self-made millionaire in the US.
Others include items like a jar of peanut butter, an old mobile phone, gas masks and a three-light traffic light. But there were still a number of very wearable designs that look glamorous, trendy and chic.
The coming together of fashion geniuses
While Jean Paul Gaultier technically retired from couture last year (after having done the same with ready-to-wear five years prior), it certainly did not stop his label from releasing new designs.
His fashion house merely moved on to a guest designer model, which now sees different couture collaborations each season. This season it was a partnership with Sacai’s Chitose Abe.
Abe, who is the creative director for Sacai, told W that she “wanted the collection to be a hybrid of Jean Paul’s iconic codes interpreted in the Sacai way, but also reimagined for 2021”.
“I knew from the beginning that I wanted to refer to Jean Paul’s archives even before I saw the actual archives physically. But seeing them in person really allowed me to understand the techniques and details of couture.”
This is also Abe’s first turn at designing couture. Prior to founding Sacai, she worked at Comme Des Garcons as a pattern cutter under Rei Kawakubo – and later as a member of Junya Watanabe’s design team.
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Her 31 couture designs were notably avant-garde. Incorporated through the collection are garments marked with tattoo prints from one of Los Angeles most sought after tattooists, Dr Woo.
Abe injected signature Sacai elements into Jean Paul Gaultier’s aesthetic. It was supposedly due for release last year, but the pandemic threw those plans into disarray. Her vision did not waver though.
“I had a focused idea of the house codes that I wanted to explore in this collection and those ideas never changed over time,” she said. “But the additional time allowed me to further fine-tune the collection with Jean Paul’s atelier.”
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