Alber Elbaz: Whiter Haute Couture

It's nearly time for the haute couture, so get ready for the onslaught of "what's the point of the couture" stories. Every season the dwindling number of journalists (this year Elle didn't make the cut) still allowed to go seem to feed their editor's need for excitement by talking about how pointless it all is -- or not. Cathy Horyn of the New York Times is the first to kick in this season with her blog. She features an interview with Alber Elbaz, the genius designer behind the non-haute-couture brand Lanvin. And it's the most fun I have had reading on the subject since I researched my own Whiter Haute Couture story four years ago. I'll let you read her blog for yourself, but I will give you a couple reasons why this season there's more reason to pay attention to the haute couture than usual.

1. Valentino is probably retiring. Or not, but having a big haute couture show in Rome to celebrate his 45th anniversary on July 5th in any case.
2. Dior is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a show at Versailles this July.
3. Ferre, the first Italian to design for the haute couture, died Sunday. The shock of following the announcement of his appointment at Dior in 1988 is a sign of how important couture was relatively recently.
4. Chanel executives deny they lose money on couture. So it's not always just a play for attention.