Haute Couture Seems Impervious to Luxury Slowdown
PARIS — Never mind the general slowdown in luxury, the early dates, the nightmare traffic, and other disruptions in the run-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics: The rarest, most expensive fashions in the world seem impervious.
“Globally, the haute couture is doing well,” Sidney Toledano, chairman of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, said on the eve of Paris Couture Week, scheduled for June 24 to 27. “The same goes for haute joaillerie, haute maroquinerie [the French terms for high jewelry and high leather goods] — even beauty… People like to invest in very high-quality products.”
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The veteran luxury executive — an adviser to LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault, best known for his long tenure as CEO of Christian Dior Couture and his years heading LVMH Fashion Group — sounded sanguine about the rarified pursuit as he touted a strong lineup of couture shows in the French capital.
Nearly 30 houses are to unveil their fall 2024 designs, while Valentino, Fendi and a few other designers are skipping the season for a variety of reasons. (Valentino is transitioning to a new creative director, Alessandro Michele, while Fendi is “rescheduling its shows.”)
In fact, Toledano cited capacity constraints, not demand, as the biggest challenge for couture houses, which must recruit and train more specialized seamstresses and tailors in order to shorten the time to fulfill a glut of orders from clients in Europe, America, Asia and beyond.
What’s more, he touted haute couture as a powerful differentiator for the handful of European brands with history and legitimacy in the category.
“In terms of image, it’s the best way for a fashion house to demonstrate excellence, and really high quality,” Toledano said in an interview.
New Players Emerge
Recent years have seen several new couture players arrive, including Balenciaga and Thom Browne, who entered the couture fray last year. Both of those brands, plus Maison Margiela, stage only one couture show per year, though of the three, only Margiela is allowed to use the haute couture appellation that’s governed by strict rules.
In order to earn the haute couture appellation, handled by the French Ministry of Industry, brands must be based in Paris, employ a set number of people and present a minimum number of looks each season, among other criteria.
However, Toledano revealed that the Chambre Syndicale has been studying ways to update the requirements in a changing world, noting he’s in favor of allowing a reduced frequency, so long as stringent guidelines around how haute couture is made are applied and monitored by experts and audits.
New parameters could be revealed before the end of the year.
Toledano allowed that there remains a small number of brands that could return to Paris Couture Week, headlined by Givenchy, which is owned by LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
“They have the atelier; they have the archives; they have the image, and they have clients ready for that. They just need a designer,” he said, alluding to the fact that a successor has yet to be named to Matthew M. Williams, who wound up a three-year tenure at the end of 2023, during which he did not design couture collections.
Toledano argued that designers need a specific capacity to be able to succeed at haute couture, another potential limitation to its expansion.
It is understood that Lanvin, also awaiting the appointment of a creative director, is mulling an eventual return to haute couture. (Claude Montana famously designed Lanvin couture for five seasons between 1990 and 1992.)
Saint Laurent, given the archive and legacy of founder Yves Saint Laurent, is seen as another house with potential to re-enter the fray in the future. It dabbled in couture under its previous creative director Hedi Slimane. WWD reported in January 2023 that Saint Laurent has leased the building at 30 bis Rue Spontini in Paris that sheltered Yves Saint Laurent’s original haute couture house from 1962 to 1974.
In the meantime, there are plenty who have thrown their hats into the couture arena, including Charles de Vilmorin and Robert Wun.
‘A Window to Escape Reality’
For Miren Arzalluz, director of the Palais Galliera fashion museum, couture will endure because its definition has broadened, spanning from the experimental and conceptual to occasionwear and wardrobe-driven bespoke offerings for elevated daily dressing.
“It is still very valid today to say couture remains a laboratory of ideas, of craftsmanship and also sometimes a window to escape reality,” she said. “I think it fulfills different functions and that doesn’t seem to be at risk at all. It will continue existing and it seems that the investment of having couture [for brands] is worth it.”
A change in the rules could bring a boom. “I think it’s reasonable to consider there might be more smaller players doing, for example, one collection per year — if the system allows it,” she said.
Pascal Morand, executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, agreed this diversity has created an aspiration among younger generations.
“There are more and more young designers who are interested in this direction and who understand there is a different economic model [with couture],” he said. “We see there is a diversity of models, too.”
At the pinnacle of unique crafts, know-how and personalization, haute couture “is less sensitive to purchasing power [fluctuations] than in other industries, or in other segments depending on wholesale,” he said.
Morand expressed confidence in the mid- and long-term prospects for couture, and was likewise confident about the fall 2024 season starting Monday, as Paris accelerates its preparation for the 2024 Games.
He said the French couture federation had taken every step possible to ensure a smooth couture week, running a week earlier than other years. There were early consultations with stakeholders such as the French Olympic Committee, the police prefecture and the City of Paris to understand restrictions and security concerns, and to put in place best-practice guidelines, greater space between show slots, mutualized venues and even a hotline for brands.
In his opinion, there was no pattern or concern to be found in a handful of names, big or small, sitting out the June couture week.
“In each case, the choice to not show stemmed from the house’s circumstances,” he said. “None of them invoked the Olympic Games as a reason not to show.”
Case in point: Dutch designer Ronald van der Kemp, who has been a correspondent couture member since 2018 and will be showing his next couture lineup in New York in September.
“It’s a combination of factors that made me decide to skip the season, after discussing with the federation,” he told WWD.
Increased costs and logistical constraints in Paris aside, it’s his eponymous brand’s 10th anniversary that cinched the decision.
“I’d been talking about doing a show during New York Fashion Week because that’s where my career started and it would be another celebration in a different city,” he continued. “I feel it’s the right time to bring the message [of sustainable couture] to the people in New York.”
No Olympics Impact
Asked if Olympic preparations would put a crimp on show attendance, Morand said there had been no indication of an outsized impact at this point, according to simulations.
“We have favorable signs in terms of visitor numbers,” he said. “We are following very carefully the mapping of shows and days, depending on traffic conditions by transportation means, and we have estimates that factor in increased travel times.”
The FHCM also broadened partnerships benefiting accredited attendees, including reduced air fares with Air France; discounts with a wide range of ride-hail services; a 24/7 concierge service, and most recently, an agreement with the Accor hospitality group to facilitate bookings.
The federation plans to offer six electric minibuses to shuttle show-goers, up from two previously.
And the federation plans to capitalize on the lessons learned and tools used in preparation of the June shows.
“The Olympic Games have been an opportunity for innovation to us,” said Morand. “We must be in an innovation mindset, just like the houses.”
Before You Call It Haute Couture…
There are stringent requirements to join the official couture calendar and even higher ones to be able to use the registered haute couture designation.
Brands showing on the official couture calendar can have one of three statuses:
Haute couture members are houses that have their studio and atelier in France, and regularly show their haute couture collections in the official calendar. They are allowed to use the appellation by decision of the French Ministry of Industry, after selection by a dedicated commission.
Corresponding members are houses with similar characteristics, but whose studio and atelier are based outside of France. They regularly show their collections on the official calendar. They are selected as such by the haute couture committee of the French couture federation.
Guest houses are selected by the FHCM’s Haute Couture committee to show in the official calendar. Their inclusion is reevaluated each season.
Houses applying to join the official calendar as guests must provide:
An attestation that the garments of the collection are designed and produced in the own atelier of the applicant,
A presentation of at least 25 looks per collection.
A letter of sponsorship from a member of the board of directors or the haute couture committee of the Fédération.
Applicants must meet criteria based on creativity, technical innovation, and savoir-faire and convey a coherent image and communication. Guests can apply to become haute couture or corresponding members.
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