Paris Haute Couture Week: Grazia’s Access All Areas

Wondering where the fash pack has been hiding? Just a hop, skip and a Eurostar away, in Paris. Yes yes, the ‘city of love’ might be the hub for honeymooners, but really it’s the luxe ensembles from Paris Haute Couture Week we’ve got our eyes firmly fixed on.

A-list supermodels (Naomi Campbell, we’re looking at you), fashion editors (including Grazia’s Fashion Director, Rebecca Lowthorpe) and, er, Bradley Cooper all flocked to the French capital to get a little piece of the Couture action.

Last season may have been all about the Princess look, but this time around the vision appears to ignite a 21st century fairytale...

Pink bridal wear at Elie Saab and Chanel. Structured, metallic dresses at Atelier Versace. Colour blocking trouser and corset combos at Schiaparelli. 1960s-inspired pink lurex gowns at Ulyana Sergeenko. Heck, Vetements buzzy debut was held in an actual department store! Couture has never been more playful, or commercial, in its 148-year history.

Rebecca Lowthorpe takes you on the world's most exclusive guided tour...

Paris Couture is like no other fashion week: there is no good or bad, almost everything you see is amazing, the crème de la crème (whether it tempts you or not is another matter). It is tiny, with just 27 designers listed on the of cial Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, showing over a ve-day period every July and January. There is no mass culling of trends – last week’s clouds of tulle, feathers,capes and exaggerated shoulders were everywhere – but, no, the high street isn’t waiting, scissors at the ready, to knock any of it off: mass manufacturing couldn’t possibly reimagine such awe-inspiring craftsmanship. Couture is an island for the super-rich: the most elite, velvet-roped, insider-insider of fashion parades showing made-to-measure clothes for the privileged few – make that 400 clients worldwide – requiring multiple ttings during which up to 150 measurements will be taken. It is a world where money is never mentioned (too vulgar, my dear – the sum is written on a card and handed to the client) but it is said to begin at £10,000 for a day dress and end, well, there is no end because the sky is the limit – though it’s safe to say that a gown would set you back hundreds of thousands. These clients, impeccably clad and wrinkle-free (their ability to smile without producing a single facial crease is mesmerising) are the equivalent of art collectors-cum-benefactors, judiciously buying a piece or two every season. Sure, it’s a global audience, but it’s a European product, made by a multinational collection of creative talent.

It’s a celebration of European endeavour – oh-so-exclusive on the one hand, but globally inclusive when you consider how many nationalities collaborate to produce it. So, in light of Brexit/ Brecession/Bremorse/Bremain, it couldn’t have been more uplifting to be in Paris and see the very best that fashion has to offer.

Karl’s new ‘reality’

Karl Lagerfeld, the world’s cleverest designer at capturing the mood of the moment, turned the spotlight on to the very heart of Chanel, the hitherto unseen 200-strong workforce who craft the clothes. The Rue Cambon ateliers were transplanted inside the Grand Palais for all to see: the petites mains working away at their pattern-cutting tables, scissoring up cloth, tting prototypes on models, mannequins, sewing machines, tape measures, all brought home the essence of couture as art form more than any airport, supermarket or iceberg shipped in from Norway – his previous sets – ever could. ‘It’s really interesting,’ said Lagerfeld, ‘because nobody gets to see that, not the clients, not the journalists. The workers never get to see the dresses, how they look when they are on the models.’ The craftsmanship was staggering, from the classic tweed suits, embedded with ever more dazzling embroideries, to the exaggerated feather-exploding shoulders, the voluminous dresses and the gowns sprinkled with rubies and emeralds. Fittingly, he took his bow with the atelier chiefs – another rst – causing some to speculate that this could be the octogenarian’s couture swansong.

A sneak peak from the Chanel Couture set...

The Bride wore pink...

The case for ‘couture- reality’ was also made at Christian Dior. A tiny show, held at the label’s headquarters instead of some grand Paris monument with, said the programme notes, an ode to the ateliers through a collection that was classic Dior. Interim designers, Lucie Meier and Serge Ruf eux, who took over after Raf Simons’ dramatic departure (it was fashion’s worst kept secret that Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri would be the new designer at Dior), stopped trying to ‘do a Raf’ and went to the heart of the label’s namesake, knowing this would be their last outing as creative heads. The pair presented an exquisite collection in black and white that focused on the Bar jacket, a sculpted number that harks back to the famous 1947 Dior New Look. The point is, it was oh-so-wearable – and you can’t get more real than that.

And then there’s Giorgio Armani.

No one could ever accuse him of needing a reality check; his collections are pinpointed squarely at his customers. Case in point: Cate Blanchett, sitting front row, eyeing up the divine black velvet column dress with crystal rope ties.

As for the Valentino designers’ last collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli stripped it all back with a powerfully simple vision of red, white and black that paid homage to Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of his death.

It was very Anne Boleyn taking on the Vatican – all regal, papal, Elizabethan, yet somehow perfect for today.

Period TV drama vibes at Valentino...

Couture’s Glam Squad

There are two types of couture: those collections that are utterly in-the-fashion-moment – and those that aren’t. The latter, no less impressive, create an undiluted image of mind-blowing uber-glamour, as rich as it is magni cent. Cue Elie Saab and the couture mini-mes – yes, the ultimate couture accessory – a daughter wearing matching nery inspired by the New York skyline at night: picture dresses embroidered with a zillion illuminated skyscraper windows. And then there’s Ralph & Russo, where the crescendo of gowns, from pink froth to peach cling, culminated in a bridal gown so utterly OTT as to be fabulous (see brides below).

The cutest Couture catwalk pairing goes to...

Versace Goes ‘Versatin’

Point in fact: there is nothing Donatella and her atelier can’t do with satin. This collection could’ve been titled ‘Versatin’, since it draped, twisted, coiled and pleated in waves all over every body – and oh, the bodies. No surprise that Donatella talked about ‘revealing a woman’s power, and her allure’. The surprise was that it was as beautiful as it was sexy: see Bella Hadid in body-hugging blood red or Karen Elson in that drapey-twisty cool pink coat.

As for other fabric stories – you’ve got to hand it to Giambattista Valli and his tulle. This is a man who knows his topiary skills are second to none when

it comes to creating crowd-pleasing cloud-gowns that look fabulous on Instagram’s slow-mo video setting. And props to Viktor & Rolf, who recycled fabric scraps from their past collections with fabulous results – who knew woven rag rugs could look so great

as sleeves on military coats, worn with jewelled jeans and sliced-up sweatshirts?

WOWZA...

From Bella Hadid’s starring role everywhere to the highly anticipated Chanel show - here’s the best dresses (and suits) straight from the catwalk…

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