Many question the relevance of Haute Couture and this week in Paris, three designers addressed this head on. For Viktor & Rolf it was an observation on new world order, AZ Factory applied its codes to more contemporary notions and Elie Saab showed how it can be a launchpad for a house’s more commercial activities.
Viktor & Rolf
“Finally someone bringing some fun to Haute Couture Week,” enthused Lisa Rinna after the Viktor & Rolf show on Wednesday afternoon in Paris.
Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren can always be trusted to liven up Haute Couture and this season was no exception. First of all the show featured (almost) only bathing suits and secondly many of the model cast came accessorized with life-size male mannequins clad in tuxedos.
For the record, the swimwear itself drew on the tropes of men’s evening attire, featuring overblown bow-ties in various permutations and exaggerated ruffles borrowed from formal dress shirts.
“Projecting our work of the past 30 years onto this small garment like ruffles, bows, flowers, layering, surrealism — obviously — we often incorporate ourselves into our work as a performance like literally being part of the show and this time it was more us as a sculpture,” the Dutch duo explained backstage. “It’s a projection, the idea, artistically, that the designer can merge with the work.”
As always, said work can be interpreted on many levels. With the “reinvented” Victoria’s Secret show incoming, one such level might be an observation on women reclaiming their bodies — a reversal of traditional gender stereotypes with men being the ones who are (literally) objectified. Messages including a giant “NO” and “DREAM ON” which animated the collection lent weight to that theory.
Sidenote: Elle.com recently published a story about the unlikely, yet rising trend for dry-clean only swimwear, so if one is to take one certainly from the collection, it’s undoubtedly that it shouldn’t come within an inch of a washing machine.
AZ Factory
Richemont Group brand AZ Factory founded by the late Alber Elbaz operates as a collective, collaborating with a different established designer every season known as an ‘amigo’. However, for Paris Haute Couture Week, it turns its attention to supporting emerging talent, inviting graduates to create couture collections to engage their own generation.
“It’s about creating a dialogue with the Haute Couture universe where you imagine a billionaire that belongs to a different life,” head amigo, Mauro Grimaldi told Forbes. “Gen-Z is really into having something unique and loves everything connected with limited edition and customization, he added. “Everything that is couture but applied to a different world.”
This year Grimaldi chose Lora Sonney who recently graduated from the Master Program at Geneva’s Head in 2021 and was a finalist at Hyeres 2022. “Working with this atelier is an amazing moment,” she said of her 10-piece collection which combined her own vision with the emblematic volumes of AZ Factory.
The looks, inspired by utility and the outdoors also have sustainability at their heart. For her bags, she developed a new fabric from recycled garden hose and also translated the pattern into vegetal prints applied to some of the garments by scanning the raw material.
Elie Saab X Aubade Paris
Elie Saab showed haute couture on Wednesday but back in April the house previewed a limited edition capsule with premium French lingerie brand Aubade Paris during an exclusive salon presentation in its Avenue Montaigne flagship. The 12-piece collection, featuring lingerie sets and bodies plus a negligee, silk pajama pants and a robe, releases this week concurrent to the couture show — smartly capitalizing on the surrounding hype as a launch pad to drive the retail side of the business.
According to Aubade creative director, Samar Vignals, the capsule also riffs off the trend for underwear as outerwear, as seen at on runways from MiuMiu to Gucci plus on celebrities like Kendall Jenner. “It gives a new perspective on lingerie,” she said, adding that it was the first time Maison Elie Saab had worked on lingerie and reflecting that it represents an an opportunity for high fashion brands to expand into new categories at lower price points.
It’s certainly preferable to a diffusion line that can devalue a brand’s main line — note the fate of Versus and D&G — as it allows brands to retain their brand equity while introducing more entry level price points.
Aubade has previously partnered with Paris fashion houses designers Viktor & Rolf, Lagerfeld and Iris van Herpen who showed her collection Monday.
The capsule is available in Aubade flagships including Harrods London and Le Bon Marché in Paris priced between $80 and $300.
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