WHEN VIRGINIE VIARD presented her first haute couture
collection as artistic director of Chanel this past summer, she
reinforced how utterly qualified she was to succeed the late Karl
Lagerfeld—she’d been with the brand for 30 years, after all—but
she also confirmed that we are entering an era in which female
creatives are finally being acknowledged for their talents. Between
Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior, Clare Waight Keller at Givenchy and
Viard at Chanel, the three most prestigious haute couture houses of
our time are artistically led by women, a fact that is cause for pride.
To understand just how rare this is, consider the numbers: There
are only 15 haute couture ateliers (corresponding and guest members
like Iris van Herpen and Guo Pei add 22 more names to that list)
designing for a scant 4,000 clients worldwide who don’t flinch at
s p end i ng a ny where f rom $10,0 0 0 to $1 m i l l ion for a n out fit. To g a i n
haute couture status, a house must have an atelier with at least 15
full-time employees and each look it creates must be made-to-order
with more than one fitting.
While couture establishes new trends for ready-to-wear and
exists as a type of research laboratory for textile and technological
innovation, having that status is hugely important to a brand’s
image. Couture also brings a house close to its client. And while we
assume that the client informs the designer, let’s not forget that the
designer can also inform the client—and these clients are among
the wealthiest, most powerful people in the world.
Ever since her 2016 debut, Chiuri, a veteran designer respected
for her time at Fendi and Valentino, has shaped Dior around her
politics and helped shift the conversation surrounding feminism
and fashion. It was Chiuri who put Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s
words “We Should All Be Feminists” on a T-shirt before the great
Women’s March of 2017 and before #MeToo broke. That’s why it
was fascinating to see her use couture to pay homage to caryatids.
The goddess-like sculpted female reliefs are a “metaphorical illus-
tration of the supporting role women play, both in architecture
and society,” read a caption in Dior’s Instagram feed during Haute
Couture Week. Meanwhile, at Givenchy, Waight Keller called her
fall/winter collection “Noblesse Radicale” with the accompanying
tag line “The threads of a gilded past weave a radical future.” The
respected British-born designer, who spent years at Chloé (she also
created Meghan Markle’s wedding gown), said that while working
on this couture collection, she imagined an “anarchic” noblewoman
literally roaming around her beautiful château.
For her part, Viard transformed the Grand Palais in Paris into an
enormous circular library. The house’s founder, Gabrielle “Coco”
Chanel, loved to read, as did Lagerfeld, who was often photographed in his study. The setting was cerebral
and stunning, with models wandering through the stacks in luxe loose pants and ballet flats. In such galvan-
izing times, Viard’s bibliothèque felt like a call to action to dig deep, do the research and learn the facts. For
those of us who remember when fashion was overwhelmingly male, having Viard join Chiuri and Waight
Keller at Couture Week felt seismic and special. And if these women are sending a message of empowerment
into the stratosphere of society, it’s an indicator that perhaps the crusade continues. JACQUELYN FRANCIS
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