New Math: The Logic Of Buying Haute Couture

If theChristian Dior haute couture and Giorgio Armani Prive shows are any indication, women are going back to the 1950s. Fashion-wise, anyway. Both showed suits with nipped-in waists, pencil skirts, big shoulders. At Dior they were in shades of green, yellow and pink so bright they bordered on the florescent. They were toned-down, in a manner, by the intricate beading on everything. Chanel should thank him -- he sure keeps those ladies at Lesage busy. Lesage is the atelier famous for its embroidery and beading, which was bought by Chanel a few years back. Art historians in the stands recognized the beading as a tribute to the Symbolist painters. (Fashion journalists were told as much by John before and after the show.) The shapes all owed a big nod to Cristobal Balenciaga. They were more Balenciaga than Balenciaga is now itself. Over at Armani, the suits had also had a geometric twist --- skirts came with a fold at the bottom a bit like an undone hem which looked sharper than they sound. And his colors were the more usual, and wearable, shades of black grey. His evening wear began with a slew of long black dresses -- perhaps a funeral for the missed Award shows this year?

Between shows I went to the house of Loris Azzaro, one of real luxury gems. I walked away with lovely suede trench coat that was marked down (way, way down) from over 5,000 euro. A price not unusual on the best Parisian shopping streets. More "mass" luxury companies like Gucci and Prada have dramatically increased their prices in he last five years. It got me thinking. If I were the kind of customer who could walk into a shop and buy these things at full-price, why wouldn't I "invest" in haute couture, where prices begin at around 10,000 euro. For double the money you're getting something made especially for you, by hand, in the best ateliers in the world instead of something made to fit sizes all based off of one model in workshops splattered across the globe. Beading in india, fabrics from Italy, put together in France.

It might not only be the widening gap between the very rich and the rest of us that is leading to the current boom in haute couture sales. (Christian Dior said theirs were up in the "strong double digits" last year). Could it not also be that the creeping prices in the designer brands has helped make haute couture seem, well, less haute

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