Paris Haute Couture Fall 2017

With the Fall 2017 Haute Couture season fully wound up, it does seeem that the number of collections shown at Paris Haute Couture week contracts year-by-year, resulting, this year, in a ‘week’ spanning just a few days and selective invites to some of those willing, and with ‘interesting’ ready-to-wear (RTW) collections, to join the party.

This makes me kinda sad as I love the sheer beauty of the craft in Haute Couture but it obviously is a consequence, commercially, of both the tiny demographic and market of those able, and prepared, to pay Haute prices for a one-off work of fashion art.

There are a number of fairly uninteresting, to me, Haute Couture collections that flatter only the global super-rich who are in the market for extravagant, ornate  even ostentatious design and fabric of traditional design and style.

Then, there are the few collections who are more leading edge – in design, style, material, process or concept – pushing boundaries, some veering on the unwearable. These are the collections I love best but are they commercially viable?

Maybe the future of ‘edgy’ Haute Couture will be in the hands of art sponsors rather than business-people but might that make its’ art more moribund – to be further removed from real-life, real people and functionality?

I don’t know but I shall just enjoy the viewing of it for as long as I am able – Runway, exhibition, book or other media.

Admire the artistry and leave the more esoteric arguments about its’ future to others with more vested interests.

I do hope you enjoy – even share? – my guilty pleasure both here – in a final look at a variety of designers – and on the separate blogs previously posted for the Haute Couture Fall 2017 season.

Happy weekend ☀️

Image, top, from Schiaparelli Fall 2017 Haute Couture.

All images courtesy of The Fashion Spot.