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By sally, July 7, 2010 3:13 pm

The Haute Couture Fashion Week has begun and the high fashion market has posted some very positive sales news. Top Parisian labels, including Chanel, Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier, have revealed a marked increase in both sales and demand. ”We have received so many orders, we are not sure we can deliver them,” said Dior ceo Sidney Toledano. “The demand is here. The number of clients has increased – they are looking for high quality, and haute couture is the summit. I’m very optimistic for the future,” he continued. “In the business of couture, the numbers are becoming interesting. The rise has been credited to an influx of orders from China, the Middle East and Russia. Chanel has seen a rise “between 20 and 30 per cent” over the past year.

“There is no end of the season,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel to WWD. “The people who are interested in couture, they are quite active at the moment. They can come at any time.”

Kicking off this week’s shows today are Bouchra Jarra, Dior, and new comer Axelis Mabille. Tomorrow sees new offerings from Armani Prive, Chanel and Givenchy – the last time the label will show its highest end collections in catwalk format after it opted to conduct individual appointments. Elie Saab, Gaultier and Valentino will round up the event. This year’s event will also see the introduction of jewellery on the official couture schedule. Van Cleef & Arpels and Chanel Joaillerie will both present their new collections.

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By Nwinkus, November 25, 2009 10:34 pm

I saw a documentary once about Karl Lagerfeld, it left an indelible impact on me, because it gave me an insight into the day to day life of a fashion supremo at work, I am told that Valentino the last emperor has the  same if not more intriguing moments ( one such moments is when Karl Largerfeld proclaims that he and Valentino are the true masters and the rest are just making “RAGS” what a classic line). Taking his last bow before an adoring crowd of movie stars, royals, designers, socialites and supermodels during Paris’ haute couture shows in January. At 76, the designer most often referred to as the “sheik of chic”, received a standing ovation and shed a few tears himself when he was surrounded by models clad in his signature shade, “Valentino red.” Two years ago, at 75, Valentino was abruptly retired by Permira, the private equity group that had bought the company. This attentive, affectionate portrait, by Matt Tyrnauer which traces the final year of the designer’s career, shows that it’s good to be the king. Valentino is the creative wellspring, the man whose intricate demands have to be satisfied. And he is not easily satisfied. One of the last designers whose couture was handmade — his assistants, one of his backers noted, never touched a sewing machine — he relies on his invisible artists, the seamstresses of northern Italy, for the anachronistic grace of his frocks. He designs the dresses; they make them. Antonietta de Angelis, the head seamstress of the house, has some of her boss’s imperious temperament. She knows that anything less than perfection is unacceptable, for a master who keeps wanting to improve on it. After designing a perfect white dress, a symphony of subtle movement, he ponders his creation and announces, “But some sequins can’t hurt.” Says Valentino Garavani “I know what women want,”  “They want to be beautiful.” But the question any couturier must answer is, What kind of beautiful do they want to be?

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By Nwinkus, August 20, 2009 3:04 pm

Karl Lagerfeld is the master of reinvention. From a portly fan-wielding designer for his own label he shrank to a snake-hipped figure (after which he authored and published The 3D Diet – about dropping 92 pounds in 13 months), and – although he still brandished a fan – he set about world domination as designer for Fendi as well as Chanel, plus a range for H& M.

He is a mini polymath: an intellectual who owns 7L – a bookshop in Paris – speaks several languages and has published books of his art photography too.

• Born in Hamburg in 1938, Karl Lagerfeld emigrated to Paris at the age of 14
• He has designed costumes for La Scala opera
• In 1955, at the age of 17, Lagerfeld worked at Pierre Balmain, after winning a competition. He then worked for Jean Patou, Krizia, Charles Jourdan and Valentino
• In 1967 he joined Fendi, then Chloe the following decade, then Chanel in 1983 – returning briefly to Chloe in 1993 to replace out-going designer Martine Sitbon
• In 1984 he also launched his own name Karl Lagerfeld label which, he said, would channel “intellectual sexiness”

It’s no wonder that he appears to be such a master of the fashion landscape. By 1997, Vogue crowned him the “unparalleled interpreter of the mood of the moment”. Humour in his designs never deserts him whether with quilted handbag earrings, to 2007’s quilted ankle bag.

In 2005 he sold his own name brands (Lagerfeld Gallery and Lagerfeld), to Tommy Hilfiger but maintained full design involvement