Sarah Jessica Parker stepped out in a pair of Christian Louboutin heels that looked like paws at her moscow premiere of her movie, “I don’t know how she does it.”

The red Giambattista Valli Haute Coutoure gown and cape looked amazing on her and had her channeling red riding hood.

A true fashionista is never afraid to take a risk. We love her roaring fashion sense!

Source: The Independent

July 2010

Boom time for haute couture as overseas demand soars.

Couture is back: Rumours of its death had been exaggerated. Designers including Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier and Givenchy reporting a rise in sales of their custom-made creations ahead of this week’s Paris shows.

The increase in sales of exclusive fashions – often costing upwards of £30,000 a dress – is being credited to new clients in Russia, the Middle East and China, as well as the return of US customers who had reined in their spending during the recession.

Chanel estimates sales of the label’s summer collection were up 20 to 30 per cent on 2009, while Givenchy said its January couture sales were up 10 per cent on last year. Jean Paul Gaultier’s president, Veronique Gautier, described the situation as a “spectacular recovery”. The company reported that its Russian client base began growing after it held its first haute couture show in Moscow in May. Dior, meanwhile, showed couture at the opening of its enlarged boutique in Shanghai in May.

“It is difficult to pinpoint where couture customers come from,” said Harriet Quick of Vogue. “The people you see in the front rows at Paris aren’t the same people who are going to the salon to buy them. They are discreet.”

Sidney Toledano, president of Christian Dior, told the US fashion blog Women’s Wear Daily that Dior’s couture arm is booming globally. He said: “We have received so many orders, we are not sure we can deliver them.”

Designers, buyers and fashion editors flocked to Paris this weekend for the city’s couture shows, which open tomorrow. Labels such as Dior, Valentino and Giorgio Armani Privé will stage catwalk shows, while Givenchy has decided to show its designs by appointment only this season.

“It has gone from a beleaguered couture week to a buoyant commercial proposition,” Ms Quick said.

Stringent rules, policed by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, that governed the exclusive world of Paris fashion for 150 years are being relaxed. Once, to use the term “haute couture” fashion houses had to have a workshop in Paris, present a certain number of outfits twice a year and design made-to-measure clothes for individual clients. While purchasing a couture gown from a traditional house such as Chanel requires plenty of both time and money – involving at least three trips to the workshop for fittings – some new designers are happy to work remotely, having the dress sent to and from clients by courier.

“Alexis Mabille does a mix of ready to wear and couture, and the prices are much lower. There is also a new designer, Lee Klabin, who is in Paris showing,” Ms Quick said.

Mabille and Klabin are not the only newcomers to Paris fashion week. Jewellery brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels and Chanel Joaillerie showcased their expensive wares as part of the official haute couture calendar for the first time in February. And the last day of the couture shows is now entirely devoted to jewellery. Since allowing jewellers entrance into the couture week, the Chambre Syndicale is said to have been inundated with requests to open up the shows to other brands.

Source: New York Times: Fashion

Published: June 6, 2010

PARIS — A second high-style/low-price hook-up took place last week from the same source: Tokyo Fast Retailing, which is the umbrella company of the American brand Theory.

Olivier Theyskens, the Belgian designer known for a couture sensibility, has been tapped by Andrew Rosen, chief executive officer of Theory. In the spirit of the Jil Sander/Uniqlo collaboration — but at a middle-market price point — Mr. Theyskens is taking to Main Street an aesthetic that has formerly been seen at the Paris houses Nina Ricci and Rochas.

“I think it is a breakthrough for the next generation — it has to do with clothes that are not so preciously made, but made with great integrity,” said Mr. Rosen, who founded Theory in 1997 in partnership with Elie Tahari. “Today, you can’t just be good — you have to be great. I want to be proud of the clothes I make.”

Mr. Theyskens, 33, admits that he has had problems reconciling his haute design with the frustration that it was unapproachable to his own generation.

“For a long time I have been thinking about affordable fashion — you can be disappointed when not so many people can wear your stuff,” Mr. Theyskens said. It was a learning curve to work with Theory to make “a perfect modern look” and take responsibility for its development, he said.

The Theyskens capsule collection, which will be shown in New York in September for the Spring 2011 season, by appointment, will fill the barren middle ground between high street and high end. This is the territory that Mr. Rosen has explored with Theory, aiming for a no-fuss emphasis on wearable, well-made clothes.

“I think the space is very crowded and the idea is to find new ways to stimulate the customer,” said the executive, who met Mr. Theyskens by chance when he was launching a book in New York.

Eager shoppers have been teased with short-lived collections from major designers ever since Karl Lagerfeld partnered with H&M in 2004, setting off a slew of further collaborations from Comme des Garçons at H&M to the current Stella McCartney line for GapKids.

But if Theory succeeds in bringing designer clothing down to a reasonable price on a more permanent basis, it will help usher in what already seems like the dawn of a new 21st-century fashion era.