Friday 22 April 2011

Haute Couture - Preserving an Art


My how times have changed...  A wealthy woman in the 1950s would have had a private viewing of a couture designer collection and up to three fittings to ensure a perfect fit.  Nearly all clothing today, designer or otherwise, is sold directly off the rack.  The last two decades in particular have had a major impact on Haute Couture and it's most impressive how the great fashion houses have responded.  They've succeeded in earning billions while preserving the fundamentals of fashion as art. 

The cost of producing haute couture along with a decline in buyers created a dilemma for the houses.  After WWII, there was an estimated regular international clientele of 20,000; mostly socialites and celebrities.  In fact, some women like the Duchess of Windsor would order whole collections at a time.  Today the number is about 3,000 of which only 200 are regular customers.  The costly fournisseurs, the artisans employed by the ateliers (workshops like the famous House of Lesage), complete the decorative touches such as highly specialized embroidery and ornamental flowers.  Designers still depend on the handwork of the ateliers despite their costs and the lack of buyers due to price tags upwards of $25,000 for a suit and over $150,000 for an evening gown.  Understandably, fewer couture garments are being produced today.  Dior, for example, makes only twenty couture bridal gowns a year. 


 The rising demand for prêt-à-porter or ready-to-wear designer labels was a great boost as these cost less for the houses to produce and were far more affordable for buyers.  At Lesage today, 80% of work is done for ready-to-wear and just 20% for haute couture.  Desrues, maker of costume jewelry for the likes of Louis Vuitton and Lanvin, produces a million buttons a year for Chanel alone of which only 3,000 are used for haute couture.  The ateliers have certainly felt the effects.  In the 1920's, there were about 10,000 embroiderers in France - today about 200.  Consider too the increasing number of houses who outsource cheap labor overseas.  Famous labels such as Coach and Dolce and Gabbana are now made in China and rather than pay the high prices the French ateliers command, some designers like Jean Paul Gaultier are having their handwork done in India. 


What primarily funds haute couture now is the essential licensing.  The great fashion houses rake in profits by stamping their labels on a wide range of beauty products;  perfume, cosmetics, jewelry and accessories.  The reasoning is that, for example, while the average woman may not be able to afford couture Chanel, she can buy a bottle of Chanel Number 5, a scarf or a ready-to-wear Chanel dress.  These profits are what enable the houses to continue producing their otherworldly collections despite the monetary losses. 

 
Interestingly, the cost of fashion shows can go as high as a few million dollars even though very few of the designs shown each season are actually sold.  Francois Lesage said, "The couture dress is unique and may never even be made to order.  It's to attest to the quality of the house and to advertise for the brand.  It is a dream of quality with no consideration of cost."  For further promotion the houses will loan clothes to movie stars and other public figures. 

Buyers' attitudes have also changed in that the client who once remained loyal to only one designer will now buy from many designers to create their desired look.  Also, today's approach to dressing leans more toward personal preference rather than the "must have" ideal of yesteryear.  It's of no consequence to see a woman wearing a chic suit standing next to another wearing a pair of tights with thigh high boots at the same function.  It's little wonder that the vintage clothing market is continually on the rise for it represents a time when the couture houses dictated all style.  What's on the cover of Vogue now is no longer de rigeur. 


So why do they continue in this profitless pursuit of Haute Couture?  In a word, passion.  Fashion is art, both magical and surreal, from the sophisticated Dior to some of the bizarre creations of Schiaparelli.  Fashion is a wondrous form of escape that has filled the fantasies of women worldwide for centuries.  The 1750s woman would have yearned for a silk ball gown as much as the 1950s woman for a mink coat.  Designer labels represent glamour, wealth and luxury and just one small purchase will make you believe you are part of that exclusive world.  So go ahead and treat yourself to that LV bag and then pretend you have reservations at Spago.  Ahhh, a chance to dream...


Tuesday 12 April 2011

Blue Jeans Are A Girl's Best Friend

 
Mention classic Hollywood fashion and immediately we think of glamorous red carpet gowns and film goddesses like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.   She added that essential little black dress to our wardrobes but what about those basics like blue jeans, and nylons?  Ever present in our closets today, I thought you might like to know who to thank for their enduring success.

Before the 1950s, denims were worn primarily for industrial purposes or as cowboy/western attire.  Sorely in need of a new market, they found it when James Dean appeared denim clad in 1955's "Rebel Without a Cause" and Marlon Brando wore Levi's 501's in "The Wild One" (1953).  The rebellious teenager was born and blue jeans became the de rigeur clothing for this new counterculture.  Soon, teenage girls followed suit due in large part to Marilyn Monroe who loved her denims.  In fact, Lee jeans sponsored her film Bus Stop (1956), she wore JC Penney’s brand jeans in River of No Return (1954) and in "The Misfits"(1961), Marilyn wore straight-leg blue jeans and a white button-down shirt.


Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits 1961

Early in her career, Monroe complained it was difficult to find a good fitting pair and claimed she would go to the Army Surplus store, buy men's jeans, put them on and then sit in the bathtub and wear them until they dried to shrink to her proportions.  Lee had created the first women's factory wear "Union-alls" as early as 1914 and Levi's had "Freedom-alls" out by 1918 but it would take several more decades to see traditional blue jeans designed with female curves in mind.  It actually wasn't until the late 1970s that Calvin Klein began designing jeans tailored to women's shapes.  



  
Marlene Dietrich
It's no surprise that women's jeans had a rough start when you consider the centuries it took just for women to be allowed to wear pants period.  In the 1600s, an Englishwoman could face execution for wearing trousers and the bloomers of the Victorian era were sure to elicit ridicule from onlookers.  Hollywood stepped in and by the 1930s, social acceptance finally arrived in the forms of Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Katherine Hepburn.  Known for their aloof and unyielding natures, little wonder the idea of women in trousers always provoked overtones of homosexuality.  Dietrich, who was fond of wearing tuxedos and men's attire, found pants liberating and claimed, "I dress for myself.  Not for the image, not for the public, not for the fashion, not for men."  Good advice!
  
The incomparable Ann Miller
Nylons didn't appear on the market until the 1960s as a convenient alternative to stockings.  The ultra talented dancer/actress Ann Miller, who appeared in musicals like Kiss Me Kate and Easter Parade, complained to the studio's hosiery manufacturer that her stockings were always getting torn during the dance numbers.  The hosiery was sewn to her briefs so the entire garment would have to be removed and resewn leading to production delays.  In the 1940s, Miller requested a one piece garment to be designed for her and so became the first woman to wear the single pantyhose we are familiar with today.  I know I'm grateful because the last time I wore "stay-up" stockings they didn't exactly live UP to their name... 
  
Jane Russel in The Outlaw 1943
This article just wouldn't be complete without mentioning Jane Russell, the brassiere and some myth busting.  Many believe the statuesque actress wore the first kind of underwire bra in "The Outlaw" but in fact the 1930s alone saw three patents for the invention.  The eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes did have an underwired push-up bra specially designed for Russell to wear but she disliked the fit and called it a "ridiculous and painful contraption".  During filming and in all those famous publicity photos of her against a haystack she wore her own with the straps pulled down.  During the 1970s, she was the Playtex spokeswoman for the Cross Your Heart and 18 Hour bras "for us full-figured gals", a far more sensible cry from the torture trap Hughes had envisualized for women!

So the next time you wiggle into your blue jeans or choose pants over a skirt because you didn't feel like shaving, remember the ladies who forever changed how we dress daily.  When Yves St. Laurent said “Fashions fade, style is eternal", he was right because the influences of these iconic women are certainly here to stay.

Monday 4 April 2011

Adrian - The Man Behind the Curtain


Jean Harlow
I've always marveled at the gowns worn in the films of the 1930s.  Even when you watch those old movies today, they steal every scene and make us shout, "I Want That Dress!!".  I was only vaguely familiar with the name Adrian and now realize it was his work I've been drooling over all these years.  

Born in 1903 in Naugatuck, Connecticut, Adrian Adolph Greenberg attended the NY School for Fine and Applied Arts in 1922 before transferring to the Paris campus.  There he was hired by Irving Berlin to design costumes for Berlin's The Music Box Revue.  Natacha Rambova, Rudolph Valentino's wife, hired him for A Sainted Devil (1924).  In 1925, he was appointed Head Designer for the DeMille  studio.  After loaning Adrian out to MGM in July 1928, DeMille followed 2 months later.   The director's contract was not renewed in 1931 but Adrian remained at MGM until 1941 ultimately designing costumes for over 200 films.  Despite being gay, in 1939 he married actress Janet Gaynor and they remained together until his untimely death of a heart attack in 1959.

His film credit line was "Gowns by Adrian".  Understanding the roles his dresses played, Adrian's costumes reflected the setting, character and plot.  In a 1937 interview he said, "Few people in an audience watching a great screen production realize the importance of any gown worn by the feminine star...the fact that it was definitely planned to mirror some definite mood, to be as much a part of the play as the lines or the scenery, seldom occurs to them."

Katherine Hepburn
Proving a woman didn't need a perfect figure to look good, he drew attention to the garment itself to camouflage a body's imperfections.  He magically transformed great actresses like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Katherine Hepburn and Jean Harlow into goddesses.  Crawford was 5'4" tall with broad shoulders and size 12 hips so Adrian created her signature look using Schiaparelli's broad, padded shoulder style that made Crawford's hips look smaller.  Garbo was flat chested and straight-waisted yet one look at her costumes for Mata Hari and you'd swear she had curves.  Preferring simplicity, his talent for draping resulted in designs featuring bold outlines, kimono sleeves and long tapered waistlines with diagonal fastenings. 


During his career, he worked on several period pieces.  Never an easy feat for a costume designer and unlike Walter Plunkett (Gone With The Wind), Adrian overlooked accuracy to please viewers by making historical dress more dynamic onscreen.  Norma Shearer's beaded cap in Romeo and Juliet was grossly inaccurate yet it became all the rage among American women.  His most fantastic work is undoubtedly 1939's The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland's blue and white gingham dress and iconic red shoes.

Adrian copies were everywhere. The wide-shouldered white organdy dress for Crawford's role in Letty Lynton was copied countrywide and Macy's Cinema Shop which sold dresses based on "Gowns by Adrian" alone reportedly sold 500,000.  Similar garments were also marketed as the "Adrian silhouette" and "Adrienne".  A major problem was that MGM used his costumes as a promotional tool, allowing magazines to demonstrate his techniques so that women could make them at home.  

Joan Crawford in Letty Lynton 1932



  
Greta Garbo Mata Hari 1931
He designed 14 evening gowns for Garbo's The Two Faced Woman (1941) but the studio wanted low-cut gowns that both Adrian and Garbo loathed so the pair left MGM.  He claimed, "It was because of Garbo that I left MGM. In her last picture they wanted to make her a sweater girl, a real American type. I said, 'When the glamour ends for Garbo, it also ends for me...' When Garbo walked out of the studio, glamour went with her and so did I."  On an interesting note, Garbo really didn't care for Adrian's dress designs, she preferred more masculine elements.  He returned to MGM just once more for 1952's Lovely to Look At.  

After the Nazis invaded Paris in 1940, the couture houses closed.  American designers had always based their work on Parisian fashions and they were also affected by the restrictions of WWII.  However, 1941 proved to be an opportune year to open his Beverly Hills salon, Adrian Ltd.  Along with designers like Pauline Trigère, Adrian helped create a new look of fashions ideal for the American lifestyle that were casual, practical and durable.

In January, 1942, his first collection was shown at the May Company department store in LA.  Unsuccessful at first, Adrian held another show the following month and was soon selling his designs in department stores across the USA.  His ready to wear line carried the "Adrian Original" label and his couture clothing was labeled "Adrian Custom".  To remain exclusive, he allowed only one store in each city to sell his collections.

His popular suits were produced with the help of NY textile designer Pola Stout.  The tailored suit at this time served as both career clothing for the emerging class of professional women as well as travel and leisure day wear.  Most featured solid colors with minimal decorative accents.  Wartime shortages forced all designers to be more inventive so Adrian added interesting details like subtle stripes and geometric shapes woven into the wool by Stout.  He used common fabrics like checked gingham, drapeable jersey and cotton organdy but after the war he created fuller gowns incorporating yards of fabric, particularly taffeta whose stiffer composition lent itself to sculpting a more dramatic shape.

One has to wonder why this man hasn't been posthumously honored by the Academy.  The Oscar for Best Costume Design began in 1948 and equally outstanding Hollywood designer Edith Head has won 8 times.  Adrian has a special place in American fashion and cinematic history as the definitive force behind 1930s Hollywood glamour, unequivocally the fashion decade that has never been matched.  When we watch those old black and whites we can only be grateful to this man.