"Haute couture is portable art"

Indeed, between fashion and art, there is only one step: clothes are designed like works of art, with the same meticulousness, the same sketches and preparatory studies.

Guernica, for example, required more than 45 preparatory studies: it is also true for a Haute Couture garment. For example, the sequined organza dress, presented by Dior at the 2018 Spring/Summer Haute Couture Fashion Week, required the work of 8 people for a production of over 800 hours (You can discover it right here: https://www.vogue.fr/mode/news-mode/diaporama/le-savoir-faire-de-la-robe-organza-dior-haute-couture-printemps-ete-2018-paillettes/48644). It’s a real jewel that would deserve its place in a museum.

This attention to detail and meticulousness, this long working time to produce a single piece, but above all this aspect of "handmade", a very precious craft that we must protect at all costs are so many reasons why Haute Couture is an art in its own right.

But if we are writing this article today, it is to draw a completely different parallel between these two disciplines which are one and the same: many couturiers have, in fact, paid tribute to art through Haute Couture. It is art on art, an ode to the creativity and know-how of both painters and creative artists, but also of the small hands of the workshops. Focus on Haute Couture paying tribute to art, a vision as original as it is spectacular.

We all know the famous coloured tiles of Piet Mondrian, one of the founding fathers of Cubism. Yves Saint Laurent, for his Haute Couture Autumn-Winter 1965 collection, paid tribute to the famous Dutch artist by reinterpreting this iconic checkerboard in small, short, and straight dresses. Modern, avant-garde and a true symbol of the 1960s, Mondrian Dresses are one of the designer's best-known pieces. They are currently on display at the YSL Paris Museum until 19 January 2020: hurry if you want to admire them! (https://museeyslparis.com)

John Galliano's Christian Dior also features a magnificent translation of art on a Haute Couture piece. He then paid tribute to Hokusai in his 2007 Spring/Summer Haute Couture collection. This famous Great Wave, reinterpreted on a sumptuous white coat, reflects Mr. Dior's fascination with Japan: its simplicity and refinement corresponds, according to him, perfectly to the values of the house (although he has never visited the country).

Finally, this parallel between art and fashion is also found in the friendship of Dali and Schiaparelli: they created together, for the 1938 Autumn-Winter Haute Couture fashion show, the shoe hat and the lobster dress. These two iconic pieces have left their mark on people's minds and shaken up the codes of fashion. Indeed, in painting as in sewing, these two friends prove that imagination is at the heart of creation and that it must be allowed to express itself.

Clothing indeed saddles the relationship between these works of art: on the one hand, by taking up the codes of an iconic piece, and on the other hand, by making it even more spectacular thanks to a unique know-how. For us, there is nothing more beautiful than this exceptional alliance.

- Man

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