Forty seconds flat.
Hardly any more.
Sometimes even less.
It’s the time it takes for a haute couture dress to appear on the catwalk.
Shooting stars that ordinary mortals cannot imagine, the hundreds of hours of manual work and the fantastic human machinery that works behind closed doors to produce these treasures.
Enchanted feathers, steam smoothed, trimmed, cut, curled, mounted in staggered rows by virtuoso craftsmen;
myriad of camellias, dahlias, peonies, carnations, orchids in organza, muslin, tulle or velvet cut to the nearest millimeter by seamstresses with fairy fingers;
wonderful pleated sun or flat that dance…
To discover
The keys to supporting women in their working lives
Also read They are under 30 and have chosen to become embroiderers, feather workers, shoemakers…
A universe created by elite manufacturers.
But these haute couture workshops practice a cult of secrecy.
We can always try to unravel their mystery by analyzing the pedigree of their creations associated with their names and numbers.
Some titles are as delicious as the tasting menu of a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Small anthology.
Chanel, “look 39, short dress in black organza embroidered with draped illusion sequins by Lesage, decorated on the sides with draped black tulle embroidered with feathers and sequins by Montex.”
Dior, “look 27, draped strapless dress in gold button moire fabric embroidered with Garden of flowers in tinted ribbons, silk, gold threads and antique jewelry.”
A list that could go on for pages.
To find out a little more about behind the scenes of this haute couture enchantment, this antechamber of the catwalks, a piece of advice: take the time to see, or rewatch, the documentaries of Loïc Prigent (read p. 20), including the
Signé Chanel
series ( on Amazon Prime Video).
The journalist and director was one of the first to penetrate the mysteries of the workshops, filming up close the hands deformed by hours of work, also revealing human adventures and legendary characters, including Madame Pouzieux, Chanel's legendary trimmer. .
These shadow artists, discreet and indispensable teammates of the great fashion designers, take on a little light in this issue dedicated to haute couture.
A world as enchanted as the film Peau d'Âne, by Jacques Demy.
A world where the most high-tech machines will never be able to replace the hand that cuts, the finger that pricks, the eye that examines... Sewing?
One of the last refuges of the human, the inimitable, the marvelous, proclaimed Christian Dior.
His message is more alive today than ever.