Is Couture Dying?

Between the down economy and the collapse of Christian Lacroix’s label, what will happen to Paris’ fabled luxury lines? Robert Murphy on French fashion week and the future of couture.

Paris’ haute couture season hobbled out on its stiletto heels this week, humbled by a down economy and the absence of once-flamboyant French fashion darling Christian Lacroix, whose financial woes prevented him from showing a collection for the first time in two decades.

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The week produced a memorable spectacle and attracted a handful of stars. Tina Turner and Anne Hathaway turned up at Giorgio Armani’s Privé show. Kylie Minogue was at Christian Dior, and Claudia Schiffer and Charlotte Gainsbourg came out for Chanel.

But it was the opulent clothes that largely took center stage. Karl Largerfeld delivered a seamless lineup of outfits in soft pastels given a modern edge with silver embroidery. Dior’s John Galliano took a look back at couture heritage by taking inspiration from Charles James, while Jean Paul Gaultier opted for a Mexican theme that ended in a fiesta when French singer and actress Arielle Dombasle appeared and lip-synced one of her songs.

But despite the glamour of the week, recent developments have led some to wonder if Paris’ prestige is in peril. After all, this is a country that prides itself on its chic lifestyle. And haute couture, the tradition of offering handmade dresses at six-figure prices to the world’s richest women, is considered a point of French national pride, so much so that the government polices the appellation “haute couture” just as it protects gastronomic treasures like Champagne wine and Roquefort cheese.

But efforts to protect couture’s mystique haven’t isolated it from the turbulent economy.

Last fall, a Paris judge effectively closed Lacroix’s once-envied business because it was so heavily loaded with debt.

Rumors about Lacroix’s fate have become popular Paris chatter ever since. There was talk that the court would force an auction of Lacroix’s massive archive of dresses. Though that rumor proved false (for the moment), an auction is being organized to sell the furniture French decorators Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti created in 1987 for Lacroix’s couture salons, according to well-placed sources.