President’s Message
AH-MEN !
Coco Chanel, the Queen of haute couture, once said: “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
The phrase ‘Haute Couture’ or ‘High Fashion’ was used for the first time in 1908 and in 1921, guidelines were put down to decide what constituted haute couture and which fashion house could use the term. This was mainly to prevent piracy and maintain authenticity of a designer’s hard work.
While Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ collection successfully revived the fashion industry from wartime austerity in 1947, it was in 1966 that Yves Saint Laurent launched Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, the first freestanding couture boutique. Pierre Cardin, Andre Courreges, Ted Lapidus and Emanuel Ungaro followed suit by opening their own stores.
In recent times, we have seen a dramatic jump in the fashion industry, from live music performances at Victoria’s Secret shows to more inclusivity in models from gender, colour and body type bias.
However, men’s couture wasn’t even a thing till recently. In the early 2000s, Chanel couture only had runway samples with no plans to make more. In 2016, men’s couture had to be custom-ordered at Dolce & Gabbana.
Fast-forward to 2021 and haute couture for men is flourishing, with Valentino introducing high-fashion looks for men in its recent spring collection, and Balenciaga poised to introduce couture for men in July when it is slated to return to the Paris calendar after a 53-year absence.
Framroze Mehta
President