Haute Couture Fashion Week - Highlights and Review
Hello and welcome to the thirteenth issue of moderated, a newsletter created to dive into insights and phenomenons in the Fashion Industry. It also has a curation and summary of the most talked last week’s events of the industry, offering further readings for more details.
If you are here for the first time, welcome! I hope I can somehow help you to keep up with the fast-paced Fashion Industry. If you haven’t subscribed yet to receive a weekly issue by e-mail, you can just by clicking below.
In this week’s moderated, I did a review of the highlights from the Haute Couture Week - explaining what this season’s event represents for the industry.
But before we jump into the main article, check the last week’s recap of the Fashion Industry - unfortunately, full of bad news :(
Last Week’s Recap
Investors Revolt Against Ted Baker’s Executive Pay
The British fashion brand Ted Baker has been experiencing a decrease in profits since last year’s forced hug scandal. Then, at the beginning of this year, Deloitte found out Ted Baker had overstated its inventory stock value by £58 million. The impressive accounting discrepancy rapidly brought the company’s stock value down by 7%. With the Covid-19 lockdown measures, the brand’s battle for survival became even more challenging. This sequence of events resulted in the company's shares value dropping by 95% in less than two years. Amid this situation, Ted Baker is attempting to increase executive pay. As expected, the retailer's investors did not like the proposal. The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommended that the investors vote against this remuneration policy next week. According to the agency, this increase in salaries and bonuses is not justified.
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US Targeting French Luxury and Beauty in Tariff Retaliation
After the President of France Emmanuel Macron stated that the government is planning to tax Silicon Valley tech giants, the U.S. decided to retaliate. Last week, the government of the United States announced that it would be taxing French luxury and beauty products. If both countries don’t get to an agreement, a list of French imports worth U$1.3 billion will be subjected to an additional 25% tariff in the U.S. The list includes items such as lip and eye makeup, handbags and “outer surface reptile leather”. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire already said that “France’s response will be unchanged (…) If there is no international solution by the end of 2020, we will, as we have always said, apply our national tax.”
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Boohoo PR Crisis After Work Exploitation Accusation
Boohoo was going through a great phase, with sales increasing during the lockdown and with on-point acquisitions of competitors. However, recently, the company got involved in a work exploitation scandal which resulted in a PR crisis. Everything started with an investigation by the UK’s Sunday Times, which alleged that workers of a Boohoo’s Nasty Gal label supplier in Leicester were being paid only £3.50 per hour, which is way lower the UK’s £8.72 per hour minimum wage. The article from Sunday Times is now under legal complaint Jaswal Fashions Limited, the owner of the factory being accused.
Amid the scandal, Boohoo has been trying to keep its reputation by cutting ties with two suppliers, starting a private investigation into its supply chain, and investing £10 million to improve its compliance processes. But with so many negative headlines and after having the event being labelled by UK authorities as “modern slavery”, the company saw its shares drop roughly 40%. Concurrently, retailers such as Zalando, Amazon, Asos, and Next decided to stop selling Boohoo products. On top of that, one of Booho’s largest investors, Standard Life Aberdeen, sold all its Boohoo's shares, alleging that the current situation is "inadequate in scope, timeliness and gravity".
It was not the first time Boohoo has been involved in a scandal related to inadequate work conditions. But this time, the scenario of the Covid-19 outbreak made it impossible for the company to contain the allegations. On Friday, the shares went a little up after many investors raised their stakes at the British retailer and the UK authorities said they found no evidence of “modern slavery” crimes.
Many people believe that the problem of inappropriate work pay and conditions in the fashion supply chain only occurs in developing countries. However, the virus outbreak made clear that this is a worldwide fashion industry problem. After Boohoo's scandal, the American factory Los Angeles Apparel also faced backlash and was closed after authorities identified that the supplier had more than 300 workers with Covid-19 and 4 employees deaths from the virus. The scandal in L.A. brought to surface many investigations that brought down the idea of “made in the U.S.A.” being a synonym of ethically made products. Until this systemic issue of mistreatment of garment workers is not properly addressed, the fashion can’t be considered an ethical industry.
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Keeping Track of Covid-19 Financial Crisis Impact
Muji Files for Bankruptcy in the US.
John Lewis closes 8 stores and plans to cut 1,300 jobs.
H&M announced it is planning to close 170 stores around the world.
Levi’s plans to cut 700 non-retail and non-manufacturing jobs this year (15% of its workforce).
Haute Couture Fashion Week Review
Before we start, if you are not familiar with what the term haute couture, let me quickly introduce it to you. Haute couture, which in English means ‘high dressmaking’, originated in late 19th-century Paris and it’s fashion at its finest. As explained by Ralph Toledano, president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, haute couture is “a fantastic laboratory of both craftsmanship and design innovation (…) [It] is a land of free expression for designers, as well as an image builder for brands”. In a less poetic explanation, haute couture is the most exclusive and carefully made sector of fashion, in which designers have the freedom to explore all possibilities of a garment because price-point is not an issue. An haute couture piece is priced between €9,000 to €1 million. The clients? The wealthiest people you can imagine, which is estimated to be only 4,000 people around the world.
Accordingly, the world of haute couture is the desire of many but just accessible for a few. However, somehow, it doesn’t fall out of touch with the current reality because it is a space of creative expression, dream, and craftsmanship. The carefully made pieces give space for everyone to escape reality and enjoy fashion in its most pure state: art. I see haute couture creations as pieces of art – they are acquired by few but appreciated by many. It is a niche in the industry that keeps the dreamy side of fashion.
Thus, in such hard times for the world and the industry, I decided to allow myself and you that is reading this newsletter to just enjoy the purest art of fashion by doing a full review of the haute couture fashion week. The three days of the event, that happened last week from 6 to 8 of July, were completely different from their normal. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown measures, the event happened 100% digitally for the first time. Other fashion weeks also went online this year, such as Shanghai, NY Brides and London. But haute couture has that larger challenge and extra value of being seen live because it is all about creating a dream and showcasing the meticulous details of its craft, advanced techniques, and embroideries. The haute couture fashion week usually also receives its most important clients to choose which pieces they will acquire to have perfectly fitted to their measures - which was not possible this year.
In this scenario, this year’s haute couture fashion week challenged fashion houses to be more creative than ever on the way they presented their collections. The event made it clear that live fashion shows have their value, but brands worked very well with the possibilities they had. Different from the previous attempts of digital fashion weeks, the haute couture impressed many, and some accomplished excellence without the usual major productions, because as I said: haute couture is all about the art of fashion. However, some presentations, as beautiful as they were, focused too little at the main point of fashion shows, especially haute couture: the garments. This made some clothes serve more as costume wears to its glorious films than haute couture pieces. So let’s go through the highlights of this season’s haute couture fashion week.
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Naomi Campbell Opened the Fashion Week With Class
The event started with a video message from the supermodel Naomi Campbell. The speech was about inclusivity – as ironic as this is, once haute couture is the most exclusive industry of all. However, the speech had a good tone amid the Black Lives Matter protests around the globe. Perhaps it was a good touch to make the haute couture week less out of touch with everything that has been going on in the world (even though some brands miss this memo). Some strong parts of the supermodel’s speech were:
"The fight for diversity and for equality has been a long journey in society and in the fashion industry. (…) Today, in 2020, we still have a long way to go and the time has come to collectively call the fashion world to task regarding inequality in our work spaces and in our industry. (…)"The time has come to build a more equitable industry with a good form of cheques and balances. It is now more than ever compulsory to include them in a permanent way and not a transient one. It is time to have regular and sustainable conversations with minorities of each country and culture, who are already invisible actors of this mega industry.
It starts now in France."
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Dior Got It So Right and So Wrong at The Same Time
Dior held a cinematic short film experience with mermaids and nymphs for its autumn/winter 2020-2021 collection. The fashion film, called ‘Le Mythe Dior’ was directed by Matteo Garrone and followed the story of a dollhouse with a couture collection in miniature. The miniature pieces pay tribute to an exhibition of small scale fashion mannequins that travelled Europe and the United States after the war in 1945 due to wartime shortages. This was a fit for the current times, in which ateliers closed for a long period due to the lockdown measures. Each of the 37 pieces of the collection was made to fit a 55cm tall mannequin, as well as a full-size version dresses by the mythical characters at the film. The idea and creative execution of the film was beautiful and brought all dreams we can expect in an haute couture collection presentation – or did it?
The Dior pieces were not breathtaking. They all reminded something that was already done before, but to be fair, it was a challenging moment to create an haute couture collection. However, the main issue in the fashion film was the hard-to-swallow lack of diversity of the all-white cast. Pointed out by the Instagram account Diet Prada, the film's lack of inclusivity quickly went viral, especially due to the antiracist movement going on around the globe after the murder of George Floyd. In this scenario, Maria Grazia Chiuri addressed the issue in a press conference, explaining that ‘[diversity] is so present in all of my work,’ adding that the casting of the film was due to its historical Greek references. This justification may ‘make sense’, but with the current discussions about race and inclusivity, it is just impossible (and unnecessary) to justify an all-white cast. Dior got it so right in the imaginary and storytelling, not that on-point with the pieces themselves and so wrong in the casting.
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Schiaparelli Had a Major Moment With a Humble Approach
Schiaparelli made noise with an ‘imaginary collection’. According to Daniel Roseberry, the creative director of the fashion house, “It’s the story of a collection that could’ve been (…) There’s this beautiful, poignant admission that we didn’t have the resources to function as usual”. Indeed, the fashion world accepted well his collection composed of sketches of the pieces that will be presented in December. No clothes were made, but the ideas were so beautiful that the reception of his imaginary collection was outstanding. In an all-digital fashion week, the simpler form of fashion art – sketching - was one of the major highlights of the event.
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Viktor & Rolf Was All About Quarantine Moods
Viktor & Rolf was one of the major highlights of this haute couture fashion week (and my personal favourite). The designers mixed a good sense of humour and craftsmanship to create their collection called Change. In their words, the collection was basically “three wardrobes for three mindsets in extraordinary times of change”. Each wardrobe had three pieces, one coat, one dressing gown, and one negligee, all representing different pandemic-related emotional states. All pieces were made by local suppliers in Amsterdam and all fabrics were from the brand’s own stock.
The collection was present in a film that, as simple as it was, just manage to communicate everything it needed to. The narrator explained each detail of the pieces, making sure the craftsmanship of haute couture was not lost. It is genuinely hard to point out any issue in this collection. The double of designers stated that they were unsure of what direction to take: “The situation has been so terrible, it made [us] wonder, Are we allowed to do this?”. But after debating it with their team, they decided that they couldn’t skip the collection, but whatever they did “had to be meaningful”. Congrats, it was!
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Rahul Mishra and a Collection With Purpose
The haute couture collection of Rahul Mishra, a Delhi based awarded designer, was produced very last minute and for a good reason: supporting artisans embroiderers in India. Usually, he takes six months to develop an haute couture collection, but this one took only six weeks and had as its main goal to give work to artisans that lost their jobs with the impact of the Covid-19. The collection has as its theme the nature coming back to life without human intervention. The pieces were, of course, full of beautifully made embroidery and a lot of nature references. In the video where the pieces were presented, he explained his mission and the purpose of this collection.
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Giambattista Valli Was Breathtaking As Usual
The Italian designer Giambattista Valli presented his fall 2020 haute couture collection in a video where he dressed the famous model Joan Smalls in 18 gowns. As usual, each piece was bigger and more tulle-adorned than the one before. With the signature aesthetic of the designer, the pieces varied between petticoat-like bubble waists, enormous and voluminous skirts, and many mini dresses. The palette of the collection included only white, black, pinks, and red – and there is an explanation for it. The collection was an ode to the city where it was created, Paris. The red is for the lipstick left on the rim of café cups, the black for the classic little black dress, pink for the rose gardens around the city and white is for the decorative mouldings present in most Parisian apartments (which is also an appreciation for the inside, where everyone was during quarantine).
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Guo Pei Animal Inspired Collection
If you are not familiar with Guo Pei, here is a reference to show you know her work: she created the ‘omelette dress’ wore by Rihanna at the 2015’s Met Gala, one of the most iconic gowns of fashion history. After that, she became one of the most acclaimed fashion designers. To know more about her check this article from Radii.
The idea of her couture collection called Savannah came from a visit to Paris’s National Museum of Natural History, where animals migrating inspired her. The collection clearly tells that story with traditional fabrics being manipulated to create evocative and unexpected designs. Savannah, which is the designer’s 10th haute couture collection, was presented in a 10 minutes video shared in her social media. The short film brings you on a journey from the inspirations for the collection, passing through sketches and construction of pieces until the final result, all narrated by Guo Pei herself. In the video, Pei managed to show the backstage of fashion couture while also creating an immersive scenario for her collection.
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Ralph & Russo and the Seven Wonders
Ralph & Russo was very innovative with its collection presentation. The pieces were based on the seven wonders and the model that presented it was an avatar called Hauli – a Swahili word which means strength and power. The pieces were beautiful, even though they were not ‘never seen before’ designs. The way the collection was presented really brought some magic to it.
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Chanel Production Had Something Missing
Just to state, the clothes were not the problem here, the production itself was. For the Chanel haute couture AW20/21 collection, the artistic director Virginie Viard got inspiration from Karl Lagerfeld. With a ‘punk princess’ vibe to it, the collection was filled with ornate and embellishments in a romantic atmosphere. “I was thinking about a punk princess coming out of ‘Le Palace’ at dawn,” explained Viard.
For some, the problem at Chanel was the way the collection was presented. Before the haute couture fashion week, the brand had been releasing black and white videos showing the backstage and savoir-faire of how haute couture is created, building up to the final result. When the pieces were finally revealed, it was just a 1 minute and 22 seconds video of models dancing showcasing the looks against a plain backdrop. It did fall a little flat for an haute couture collection, especially from Chanel that is known for grand fashion shows – also because their aesthetic is very constant, which reflects on the clothes, so the show is usually how they get media to talk about the collections.
At least, after a less than groundbreaking approach, Chanel started to release a mini-series on its social media with more scenes from the backstage of the collection’s creation, which is…ok, I guess. We miss some of the details of creation with the black and white image and it could perhaps be more entertaining, but that’s just my opinion. Some critics from BOF and Prestige actually liked Chanel’s presentation.
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Aelis Immersive Dance Video
The Aelis haute couture collection was presented through a beautiful performance art film. The brand’s designer Sofia Crociani gave freedom to the choreographer friend Jacopo Godani to create a performance wearing the couture clothes. This approach could make the clothes look more like costumes than haute couture garments, but somehow it didn’t. The result is actually incredible and worth the watch.
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Iris Van Herpen One Piece Collection
Iris Van Herpen, famous for uniting technology and craftsmanship, made a short film for the Haute Couture Week with one single piece. The Dutch designer stated that “Working on this project felt like a new start. We have to surrender to the fact that things are in a state of change. I really don’t want to hold on too rigidly to the structure I’ve known before.” His approach was not the most commented, but was there, reminding us how talented the designer is, but it sure looked like something we have seen before from her.
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Maison Margiela, Valentino and Elie Saab Just Gave Us Teasers
Remember when Maison Margiela Spring/Summer 2020 went viral with the unexpected and unique walk from the model Leon Dame? I mention this because the model was back with his walk for Maison Margiela’s haute couture teaser video. The main video will come on July 16 and two other teasers will still be released on July 11 and 15. The films are a creation of the renowned image-maker Nick Knight. We are waiting for what Maison Margiela has stored for us.
Valentino also just gave us a teaser, a short black-and-white video of swirling fabrics. The video ended announcing a performance called “Of Grace and Lights” that will go live on the 21 of July, in collaboration with Nick Knight (yep, the same image-maker of Maison Margiela).
Elie Saab had a slightly different approach. The house presented the inspirations for the haute couture collection in a short teaser video, where many nature forms mixed in shapes and colours with the material and garments being prepared. The actual collection will just be launched in September 2020.
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That’s a Wrap
These were my highlights of the haute couture fashion week. There were other presentations from other creators, but I decided to summarize the most important ones to mention (in my opinion of course). Even though I had some critics, I was extremely impressed with the high level of production and the creative approaches of the houses when presenting such complex creations digitally.
Thank you for reading this week’s moderated and next Tuesday I will be back with more. If you haven’t already, subscribe below to receive the moderated newsletter straight to your email, and if you really liked it, share this post with friends and family.
Bye-bye and see you next week!
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