Frock Shocks The Haute Couture shows mean the most beautiful clothes in the world - and the worst
By LAUREN GOLDSTEIN
Haute Couture is unique in the fashion world because there are no restraints. If
a designer wants to use ostrich feathers, he uses ostrich feathers. If he wants
delicate hand-cut squares on tall leather boots, so be it. These days, there are
few commercial pressures, too. No one expects these clothes to sell--if they
generate publicity the line is deemed a success even though nary a £50,000
embroidered T-shirt made it off the runway. With so much freedom, it's hard to
excuse the faux pas. But yet every season they're there: The ideas that didn't
quite make it. Or, even worse, a stunning lack of ideas.
Antics are fun, but the best of couture combines new ideas with clothes that are
wearable. See here examples from Gaultier, Versace, Valentino and Chanel.
The worst of couture recycles the past without an eye to the present (see YSL)
or tries too hard to be too many things at once (see Lacroix). If the world is
your oyster, why do this?
