PARIS HAUTE COUTURE EXHIBITION

When we are not scouring the world looking for clothes  to include in our next DWS Sales, we enjoy looking and appreciating the very best in fashion just for th esheer joy of it.  And so we will be hot footing to Paris  this weekend for a new Show dedicated to Haute Couture that opens this coming Saturday 

Some time in the late 19th century  DANIEL SWAROVSKI founder of the famous crystal empire, got in touch with CHARLES FREDERICK WORTH, the Englishman credited with inventing the art of high fashion, to inquire if he was interested in a collaboration. It was arguably the first of its kind in fashion history.

This marked the beginning of the crystal maker’s love affair with fashion, including high-profile collaborations with CHRISTIAN DIOR and COCO CHANEL — a fact that may surprise you when you go through the PARIS HAUTE COUTURE EXHIBITION at the HOTEL DE VILLE,  supported by the Austrian crystal giant.

The show, has been curated by OLIVER SAILLARD, Director of the Fashion Museum MUSEE GALIARD and it brings together about 100 haute couture dresses alongside original designer sketches, photographs and accessories. Displayed in chronological order from the founding days of couture to the present, the exhibit depicts vintage gowns in relationship with contemporary designers such as AZZEDINE AKAI, BOUCHRA JARRAR, and GIVENCHY, whose creations are injected at strategically important places. 

Particularly striking is the juxtaposition of a 1928 dress by PAQUIN and an YVES SAINT LAURENT model from 1968. “These were two very strong decades for women, and interestingly the dresses are very similar, too — richly embroidered, but very simple in style,” noted Saillard. “I’m now thinking about doing an exhibition dedicated to those two periods.”

To find the best examples, Saillard tapped the Galliera’s archives, counting more than 20,000 pieces. “We chose only those that were screaming: ‘Look at me, I’m haute couture.’ Some of the gowns have not been shown to the public in 40 years.” Alongside the grand couturiers such as BALENCIAGA, MADELINE VIONNET and CHRISTIAN LACROIX,  visitors will also discover less familiar names including MOYNEUX, MARTIAL & ARMAND, JEAN DESSES and GUSTAV BEER, who closed down their 'Houses' decades ago.

Click for Slideshow

The Exhibition runs through to July 6th click HERE for further information.

http://designerwarehousesales.com

SHARP SUITS

A long time ago our MD was a succesful Menswear Designer in his own right, and a kind of a big noise in mens tailoring in this country.  We are delighted to read that one of the ROGER DACK suits he designed is featured in fashion guru ERIC MUSGRAVE'S  seminal tone 'SHARP SUITS'  that has just been published by Pavilion Books.

We may be a tad biased, but we think this is a darn good read (and a great gift too).  Available from Amazon UK now, and in the USA in September.

Click here to order the Book

NEW YORK : HERE WE COME

If you are planing to visit New York this summer, then you will be in for a real fashion treat.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art has two major new Exhibitions that we cannot wait to see.

The first is Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity  which will present a revealing look at the role of fashion in the works of the Impressionists and their contemporaries. Some eighty major figure paintings, seen in concert with period costumes, accessories, fashion plates, photographs, and popular prints, will highlight the vital relationship between fashion and art during the pivotal years, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s, when Paris emerged as the style capital of the world. With the rise of the department store, the advent of ready-made wear, and the proliferation of fashion magazines, those at the forefront of the avant-garde—from Manet, Monet, and Renoir to Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Zola—turned a fresh eye to contemporary dress, embracing la mode as the harbinger of la modernité. The novelty, vibrancy, and fleeting allure of the latest trends in fashion proved seductive for a generation of artists and writers who sought to give expression to the pulse of modern life in all its nuanced richness.

If your taste is a little more cutting edge, then check out The Met's spring 2013 Costume Institute exhibition, PUNK: Chaos to Couture,  which will examine punk's impact on high fashion from the movement's birth in the early 1970s through its continuing influence today. Featuring approximately one hundred designs for men and women, the exhibition will include original punk garments and recent, directional fashion to illustrate how haute couture and ready-to-wear borrow punk's visual symbols.

Focusing on the relationship between the punk concept of "do-it-yourself" and the couture concept of "made-to-measure," the seven galleries will be organized around the materials, techniques, and embellishments associated with the anti-establishment style. Themes will include New York and London, which will tell punk's origin story as a tale of two cities, followed by Clothes for Heroes and four manifestations of the D.I.Y. aesthetic—Hardware, Bricolage, Graffiti and Agitprop, and Destroy.

http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions