Best of Haute Couture Fall 2010 - The Glamour, The Fantasy, The Allure

As we prepare for the Spring 11 Fashion Weeks, we reflect the unimaginable beauty of what was Haute Couture Fall 2010

Naveed Hussain has spent some time digesting the magnificence of all that is available for only a privileged few.

Haute Couture has been a tireless subject of debate. While many like to continually point out it's weak sales across the board and diminishing relevance in society. Although that may be the case, wasn't it always?
Isn't couture about that unattainable and highly elusive luxury item we all like to dream of having? Hasn't globalism made "luxury" too readily attainable?

The nine designers who showed for Haute Couture Fall 2010 clearly understand the craft beautifully. However, there were four contributions whose focus and edit were so precise that we want to take a moment and applaud them.

These designers respectively pay homage to the past with their own distinctive signatures while moving things forward with the kind of youthful gusto couture could thrive on.

John Galliano at Christian Dior, Ricardo Tisci at Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, Maria Grazia Chiuri & Pier Paolo Piccioli at Valentino seem determined to energize Haute Couture with troves of tasty options. While at Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld oddly placed heavy, orthodox, old-world & stuffy misconceptions of couture's past on the runway. Reverse psychology? Or is it simply sticking to your guns & your clientele?
Here's a look at Fall 2010's Haute Couture fab four:
Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture Fall 2010

Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture Fall 2010

Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture Fall 2010

Gaultier delivered a fanciful Parisian collection that evoked the wit, luxury, proportion and sex-appeal of two of France's most provocative 90's era legends, Thierry Mugler & Claude Montana.

Christian Dior

John Galliano for Chritian Dior Haute Couture Fall 2010

John Galliano for Chritian Dior Haute Couture Fall 2010

At Dior, Galliano hit his stride with decadent takes on his admiration for some of couture's best, from Poiret to Worth, all in irresistible colorways that were as bodacious as his silhouettes.

Givenchy

Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy Haute Couture fall 2010

Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy Haute Couture fall 2010

Five years later Tisci has almost nothing left to prove at Givenchy. Here, his love of religious Catholic laces combined with a romantic penchant for gothic symbolism made for abreathtaking argument on the exclusivity of beauty.

Valentino

Maria Grazia Chiuri & Pier Paolo Piccioli for Valentino Haute Couture 2010

Maria Grazia Chiuri & Pier Paolo Piccioli for Valentino Haute Couture 2010

Maria Grazia Chiuri & Pier Paolo Piccioli for Valentino Haute Couture 2010

While at Valentino, Chiuri & Piccioli took the house's heritage of princess dressing into today's need for clean while addressing couture's precarious state by placing a sculpted cage over one of their precious exits. -- Naveed Hussain, VagabondNYC

Photos: VagabondNYC

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Dita Von Teese Stripped Down to Her Licorice for Gaultier Couture

One of Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture catwalkers saw fit to strip down to her skivvies. Prior to closing the showmain en main with JPG, burlesque queen Dita Von Teese made her first runway cameo, clad in one of the designer’s high-end iterations of the LBD. Looking like a goth Auntie Mame, Von Teese topped her Kawakubo-esque, bustled black gown with what can only be described as a turban-cum-candy wrapper—licorice, of course. When came time to show a little skin, Von Teese obliged, stripping down to a beaded corset that could totally double as a bejeweled wall hanging. Looks as though Gaultier is saving any thoughts of easy access for his upcoming La Perla lingerie collab


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MARILYN AND MADONNA WORE THEM, WILL YOU?

The bras are enjoying a renaissance prompted by the latest catwalk designs from fashion designers like Louise Goldin and Jean Paul Gaultier. According to John Lewis, sales of its Fantasie Belle, its best-selling conical bra, are up by 10 per cent last week on the previous week.


Elsewhere on the High Street, sales of the Triumph Doreen White are up by 33 per cent compared to the same time last year. Sales of the Triumph Doreen Powder are up 7 per cent on a year ago.
A spokesman for John Lewis said that the trend is indicative of a desire to celebrate women's curves that has followed previous periods of economic turmoil.

He said: "Throughout the last century the trend for feminine pointy shaped bras experienced a renaissance following times of a toughened economy, marking a return of unabashed femininity as women seek to have more fun with fashion as a form of escapism."

Eleri Lynn, the Curator of Fashion at the V&A Museum, and author of Fashion in Detail: Underwear, told the Daily Mail: "Pointed bras first stepped into the spotlight in the 1950s after the austerity of the Second World War.

"Women sought overt femininity and glamour embodied by Hollywood starlets such as Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe. Several decades later, style pioneer Madonna brought the look back into fashion in the form of the cone shaped bra designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, and inspired by 1950s underwear.
"It was worn during her Blonde Ambition tour, following the Wall Street Crash of 1987 and the resulting recession of the late 1980s."

Fashion stylist at London's One Make Up, Crystal McClory, added: "The cone shaped bras of the 1950s and late 1980s are certainly back with a vengeance this summer.

"For Spring/Summer '10, the world's top designers are moving away from recession inspired 'less is more' and offering more playful collections as the economy begins to recover, with London designer Louise Goldin, and veteran designer Jean Paul Gaultier both heavily featuring cone shaped bras within their summer collections."