HAUTE COUTURE FASHION WEEK: SPRING 2022 FASHION

A Fashion Week is a fashion industry event, which has a duration for one week. In a Fashion Week, fashion designers, brands or “houses” display their latest collections in runway fashion shows to buyers and media. These events influence fashion trends. Haute Couture Fashion Week is a prominent fashion week held in Paris. It is held twice a year in Paris. It offers glimpse into the fashion world with latest trends and what’s going on in the fashion world. The outfits shown are extraordinary and have a visual escapism. The best quality of Haute Couture is the extravagance that the clothes have.

Couture is the French word for dressmaking and Haute means high. To qualify as an official Haute Couture house, members must design clothes for clients, with more than one fitting, using an atelier (workshop) that has at least 15 fulltime staff. Haute Couture has an important status. It is like an epicenter of fashion. The craft is a permanent gateway between tradition for fashion excellence and know-how. There is a lot of innovation in it. Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is made by hand from start to finish.

A couturier is an establishment or person involved in the clothing industry who makes original clothes in order for private clients. A couturier makes what is known as Haute Couture.

Haute couture fashion is like an antidote to all of the stresses and uncertainty the world is offering. It is beauty indeed. Haute couture offers a sense of escapism, fantasy, and beauty. Each season, the biggest designers come up with handmade creations from start to finish on the runway. Embroidery, beadwork, hand-sewn sequins are all there. It was a dazzling season. It marked the most in-person shows since the covid started. Daniel Roseberry was the first to return to the runway with a lot of showstopping and visually-appealing creations. Roseberry is one of the most exciting couturiers today. There was a lot of glitz and glam.

Haute Couture lies at the heart of fashion’s ecosystem. Due its extraordinary nature, it has a special place in the fashion scene. Haute Couture is a celebration of excellence. It sits at the pinnacle of excellence. It is basically ensuring that age-old skills and generational knowledge are not only kept alive, but continue to evolve and remain relevant in the contemporary context.

The origins of Haute Couture are attributed to Charles Fredrick Worth. He founded the first Haute Couture House at number 7, rue de la Paix in Paris. In 1891, Jeanne Paquin became one of the first female couturiers. In 1918, Spanish designer Balenciaga opened his atelier in San Sebastian in Spain. In 1927, Elsa Schiaparelli opened her atelier encouraged by Poiret. She combined fashion with surrealism. She is known for her sharp modernism in women’s clothing. French aristocrat Hubert de Givenchy opened his couture house in 1952. In 1968, Balenciaga retired, shuttering his couture house. In 1983, Karl Lagerfeld joined Chanel, and made his debut to the haute couture. In 1996, John Galliano was appointed as creative director of Christian Dior.

Let’s see what Schiaparelli, Dior, Chanel, and more are sending down the runway in Paris for Spring 2022.

Fendi

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Fendi set the stage of the Palais Brongniart with all things Roman. Upon coming in the venue, guests were greeted with a light display of the brand’s Roman headquarters floating in the air. Once models took to the runway, Kim Jones showed embroidered capes, boned mini dresses, and beaded gowns. All this was inspired by Roman temporality, ancient and future.

Kim Jones had set a galactic sci-fi stage. It was looking apt. There was thrill, fun, and extravagance. Jones said, “At this time, couture is quite a strange thing with what’s going on in the world”. Space, astrology, and heaven have been themes in the couture and men’s collections.

Valentino

Image source: fashionista.com

Valentine titled its Spring 2022 collection as “Anatomy of Couture”. The collection featured a variety of body shapes and sizes, as well as ages. Curve and older models were seen on the runways. This is a major and relevant fashion statement. It showed different sides of haute couture- modernity, relevancy, and joyfulness included. There were new silhouettes seen.

Franck Sorbier

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Instead of a performance-based show with dancers and live musicians, the small French Haute Couture brand Franck Sorbier held a digital show complete with an editorial video and lookbook. They displayed diaphanous silk organza gowns in every shade of the rainbow. The entire collection was displayed in that sumptuous fabric, with sculpted flowers, ruffles, and feather trim.

Jean Paul Gaultier

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Jean Paul Gaultier’s signature corsetry augments and alters the female form. It literally imprints its bones on your skin. The brand featured corset gowns where the fabric boils over into ruched trains, the pink chiffon just like a Valentine heart.

Viktor & Rolf

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“Fear can be overpowering”, says the Viktor & Rolf show statement. They took up Dracula as an inspiration. The runway was vibing hard on vintage Hollywood vampires.

Alexander Vauthier

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Shimmering sequins, floaty feather trims, and beaded embellishments: these characterized Alexandre Vauthier’s Haute Couture 2022. Alexander Vauthier made a return to the runway after back-to-back seasons of digital shows. The glitter and glamour was all present.

Chanel

Image source: fashionista.com

Chanel was characterized by a joyful mix of flounces, fringe, macramé, bright lace, tweeds, and colorful buttons. “It’s like a conversation that crosses time”, Viard said. There were dresses entirely covered in graphic flowers. It is a summer collection. It is very fresh. There are a lot of embroideries. Chanel was inspired by the ‘20s a little- the feathers, the fringe.

Simplicity, elegance, and comfort: this is what Chanel is known for. They stick to black and white themes. Some were inspired by nautical themes. Some were characterized by stripes. Femininity was there.

Christian Dior

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The objective was to “honor human relationships with handmade objects, expressing a desire to abolish the boundaries between art and craft once and for all”. A double breasted coat, capes, and cream and gray suiting were there. It was a collection tactile, simple and wonderfully human.

Schiaparelli

Image source: Schiaparelli.com

Schiaparelli used only black, white, and gold. There was parity and volume. It was impactful and fanciful.

Alaia

Image source: alaia.com

Azzedine Alaia is known for his gorgeous body sculpting pieces that break the concept of seasons or trends. In his second collection for the French house, Pieter Mulier was characterizing the same here. In the Haute Couture Fashion Week, Mulier presented something more unusual: a mostly ready-to-wear collection with a handful of couture pieces sprinkled in like Easter eggs.

Giambattista Valli

Image source: Giambattistavalli.com

Giambattista Valli came up with a video presentation titled “Valli Experience”. In the video, he merged his Spring 2022 couture collection with Pre-fall 2022 ready to wear. There were some unexpected looks like the denim. Overall, there were multi-layered tulle gowns, hues of blush, peach, and scarlet.

Aelis

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It was founded by Sofia Crociani in 2017. Aelis is one of the youngest brands invited to the Haute Couture Fashion Week. The brand shows futuristic and feminine designs. The vision of the future is full of creative sensitivity.

Charles de Vilmorin

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This brand was launched in 2020. For the Spring 2022 Collection, he took up the inspiration from “sewing during the pandemic”. The concept was about telling stories.

Julie de Libran

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Julie de Libran has been around the fashion world for a long time. In 2019, she launched her own couture line and has specialized in sleek day dresses and formalwear. Her dresses have a sustainability bent.

Imane Ayissi

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Imane Ayissi has been around the fashion world since the 1990s. In January 2020, he made history as the first designer from sub-Saharan Africa to enter the haute couture calendar. For the Spring 2022 Collection, his inspirations were the mixtures in the African traditions.

Celia Kritharioti

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Celia Kritharioti creates floaty gowns inspired by her Greek heritage. Her couture house has a long history. But she is a relatively new name to the couture scene as her first show in Paris took place in 2017. Her aim and wish is to make women look the most beautiful they can.

Yuima Nakazato

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Yuima Nakazato was founded in 2009. He made his debut to the Haute Couture Week in 2017. He is one of the most innovative emerging designers to watch in the Haute Couture week. His ideas are new and exciting.

Yanina Couture

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Yulia Yanina is the founder of Yanina Couture. She says, “Our aesthetic is about the love of wearing couture”. She is known for her extravagant, over-the-top gowns. She is also known for pigmented shades of the rainbow and beautiful surface embellishments, like crystals and sequins.

By Bhawna