Popular in Arts and Humanities

Arts and Humanities

Titus Quinctius Flamininus’ “Italian triumph”

McGill University Michael Fronda

Arts and Humanities

Lincoln and the Jews

Brandeis University Jonathan Sarna

Arts and Humanities

Amputations and Convalescence

University of Western Australia Emily Brink

Art

Drawing on the past: Palladio, his precursors and knowledge of ancient architecture

University of Birmingham David Hemsoll

Art

Language, Sound, and Image in Wallace Berman’s Aleph, 1956–1966

University of San Diego Chelsea Behle Fralick

Arts and Humanities

Early Modern Natural Law Theories

University of Copenhagen Knud Haakonssen

Covid, Couture and the 1%

View more insights in Arts and Humanities - Fashion

View more figures from University of Southampton

View the page of Jonathan Faiers

Read the Study

Jonathan Faiers discusses whether couture and its clientele was forced to adapt during the pandemic or if it remained largely unaltered since couture’s establishment in the nineteenth century and as represented in literature.

Image courtesy of interviewee. July 30, 2024

Generating Workspace

Export as PDF

This video is a transcript of a conversation focusing on the concept of "Couture," particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for high fashion. The speaker introduces Couture as a form of high-end fashion characterized by custom-made garments crafted by recognized designers, rooted in a tradition dating back to the 19th century. The discussion touches on how the pandemic led to a significant shift in the fashion industry, with many designers moving their operations online and a surge in public interest in creating clothing rather than just consuming it.

The speaker expresses skepticism about claims of democratization in Couture, arguing that despite the rise of online fashion shows and promotional videos, the industry has largely retained its exclusivity and elitism, catering primarily to the ultra-wealthy. Interestingly, some Couture houses reported increased sales during the pandemic, as their affluent clientele continued to demand exclusive garments.

Further, the conversation explores the historical evolution of Couture since its inception, noting a decline in the number of clients but suggesting that the primary function of Couture remains to signify social distinction. The speaker draws parallels between contemporary fashion presentations and 19th-century literary representations of class disparities and economic inequality.

Finally, the text critiques the notion that fashion has undergone substantial transformative changes post-pandemic, suggesting that the industry has returned to its pre-pandemic models while still fulfilling its role in delineating social hierarchies. The speaker implies that the world of Couture may appear outdated but continues to attract a select audience accustomed to exclusivity and fashion's traditional values.

Language:

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Definition and Origins of Haute Couture**: Haute couture, meaning "high sewing," refers to the creation of custom-made garments using expensive fabrics and intricate handcraft skills. Only designers recognized by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, founded in Paris in 1868, can officially use the term.

2. **Charles Frederick Worth's Influence**: English designer Charles Frederick Worth is regarded as the "father of haute couture." His innovative practices, including presenting seasonal collections and elevating dressmaking to an art form, set standards for modern haute couture despite contention over his crediting.

3. **Impact of COVID-19 on Haute Couture**: The pandemic brought significant changes to fashion retail, leading to a rise in online sales and renewed interest in clothing production among the public. However, the haute couture sector remained largely unaffected, with houses reporting record sales and continuing their exclusive practices.

4. **Discrepancy in Representation**: While haute couture promoted a narrative of newfound accessibility through online presentations during the pandemic, the reality reflected an ongoing exclusivity. The true clientele, often affluent and private, remained disconnected from public view, highlighting an inconsistency in the perceived democratization of fashion.

5. **Literary Reflections on Class and Wealth**: The discussion incorporates literary critiques of economic disparity, drawing parallels between 19th-century representations of couture and contemporary society. The works of authors like Émile Zola serve as a lens to critique the existing social structures, revealing a more transparent portrayal of wealth in the past compared to today's often hidden elite.

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Here are some similar articles and discussions related to the themes of Couture, high fashion, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fashion industry:

1. **"Fashion’s Pandemic Pivot: How COVID-19 Changed Couture Forever"**
- This article discusses the immediate changes in the fashion industry due to the pandemic, including shifts to digital platforms and the long-term implications for designer-client relationships.

2. **"Couture Post-Pandemic: The New Normal for High Fashion?"**
- This piece analyzes how the couture industry has responded to the pandemic, investigating whether the changes made during this time will have lasting effects or if things will revert to pre-pandemic traditions.

3. **"The Illusion of Democratization in Fashion: Is Couture Still Exclusive?"**
- An exploration of claims surrounding the democratization of fashion, focusing on how online access has or hasn't changed the exclusive nature of high fashion and couture.

4. **"The Evolution of Couture: From Elite Fashion Houses to Global Brands"**
- This article traces the history of couture from the 19th century to the present day, examining how the definition of exclusivity has changed and what it means in today's convideo.

5. **"Fashion and Social Distinction: How Couture Reinforces Class Structures"**
- A critical examination of how high fashion, particularly couture, serves as a marker of social status, with a historical lens on its role in indicating wealth and privilege.

6. **"Couture Resilience: The Surprising Success of High Fashion During a Crisis"**
- A look at why certain couture houses thrived during the pandemic, discussing consumer behavior among affluent clients and the paradox of luxury consumption in a time of global crisis.

7. **"Virtual Runways and Real-world Impact: The New Landscape of Fashion Shows"**
- This article reviews the shift to virtual fashion shows during the pandemic and assesses their effectiveness in representing the essence of couture while considering future trends.

8. **"Fashion Narratives: Class, Consumption, and the Historical Role of Couture"**
- Exploring the intersection of fashion with literature and art, this article delves into how historical narratives around couture reflect societal norms and economic disparities.

These topics should provide a well-rounded understanding of the current discourse surrounding couture and high fashion, especially in light of recent global events.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.165 --> 00:02.965
O couture, literally, meaning high sewing

00:03.545 --> 00:07.205
is really the creation of custom made,

00:07.435 --> 00:10.765
exclusive garments, typically involving many hours

00:10.905 --> 00:14.365
of intensive handcraft skills such as embroidery,

00:15.075 --> 00:17.365
utilizing the most costliest of fabrics,

00:17.545 --> 00:21.645
but most importantly, produced by a handful

00:21.785 --> 00:23.645
of designers who are recognized

00:23.645 --> 00:26.205
by the Schaber Synical O Couture,

00:26.455 --> 00:29.245
which was founded in Paris in 1868,

00:30.025 --> 00:31.685
for an equally small

00:31.825 --> 00:34.405
and incredibly wealthy global C clientele.

00:35.145 --> 00:37.915
And in fact, the term o couture itself

00:38.815 --> 00:41.355
is legally protected by law in France.

00:41.495 --> 00:43.915
You know, you can only use the term o couture

00:43.915 --> 00:45.395
and call yourself an o couture

00:46.015 --> 00:48.435
if the Chandra al recognize you.

00:49.095 --> 00:50.995
Um, now interestingly,

00:50.995 --> 00:52.955
the English designer Charles Frederick Wirth,

00:53.135 --> 00:57.435
who was active in the 19th century, is commonly regarded

00:57.435 --> 00:58.995
as the father of o Couture.

00:59.645 --> 01:02.315
Other historians would argue that there were French people,

01:02.345 --> 01:05.715
rose Bertan and ILO Lee Roy predate worth,

01:05.735 --> 01:09.595
but really worth when he relocated his business

01:09.595 --> 01:14.155
to Paris in about 1846, swiftly established many of

01:14.155 --> 01:16.955
what would become the hallmarks of Oak Couture

01:16.955 --> 01:19.835
that we still recognize today, which was really kind

01:19.835 --> 01:21.155
of revolutionary for the time.

01:21.535 --> 01:26.355
He, he really, I suppose, made people appreciate dressmaking

01:26.615 --> 01:28.635
as an art form, really in a, in a way

01:28.665 --> 01:30.355
that had never been considered before.

01:31.055 --> 01:35.235
Um, he promoted himself very much as a, as a kind

01:35.235 --> 01:37.835
of creative genius on a par with painters

01:37.835 --> 01:40.995
and sculptors of the day, something, a game which we still

01:41.835 --> 01:44.475
recognize, I suppose, when we talk about grand fashion

01:44.835 --> 01:46.195
designers as, as creators.

01:46.975 --> 01:50.355
Um, and he also introduced a number of kind

01:50.355 --> 01:52.675
of revolutionary practices, I suppose.

01:52.815 --> 01:57.355
For example, he presented seasonal collections on live

01:57.405 --> 02:00.955
mannequins as opposed to formally a curi

02:01.485 --> 02:02.675
would visit a client

02:02.855 --> 02:04.835
and make clothes according to their wishes.

02:05.455 --> 02:09.115
Um, he was very much aware of kind

02:09.115 --> 02:11.635
of including things like art, historical references,

02:12.195 --> 02:15.795
references to other cultures in, in his designs,

02:16.255 --> 02:19.875
and even down to, you know, the idea of, I suppose, creating

02:19.905 --> 02:22.835
what we would understand as the label today worth some

02:22.835 --> 02:23.915
of the very earliest garments

02:23.915 --> 02:26.315
that have a recognizable dress label in them.

02:26.735 --> 02:31.195
And most importantly, he courted a very, very influential

02:31.715 --> 02:33.675
cleon tell consisting of aristocracy

02:33.695 --> 02:34.955
and celebrities of the day.

02:35.195 --> 02:37.715
I suppose what what got me interested was that, you know,

02:37.715 --> 02:38.955
I wrote it during the pandemic

02:39.255 --> 02:42.835
and during that period, as I'm sure we're all aware, fashion

02:42.835 --> 02:44.275
amongst many other businesses,

02:44.275 --> 02:46.795
certainly physical fashion retailing collapsed,

02:46.815 --> 02:48.235
and a lot of it moved online.

02:48.975 --> 02:50.275
And many critics

02:50.415 --> 02:54.275
and commentators saw this as a moment for perhaps a radical

02:55.215 --> 02:56.555
reconceptualization of fashion.

02:57.735 --> 03:01.125
And so you've got a lot of fashion designers, for example,

03:01.915 --> 03:04.605
experimenting at being filmmakers online

03:04.705 --> 03:07.085
and other kind of related design fields, as well

03:07.085 --> 03:08.365
as actually making clothes.

03:08.945 --> 03:12.045
And also the public, began

03:12.045 --> 03:14.125
to generate a renewed interest, I think, in making,

03:14.125 --> 03:15.765
rather than just consuming clothes.

03:15.765 --> 03:20.045
So you've got a rise in knitting, embroidery, dress making

03:20.765 --> 03:22.565
suddenly boom during, during covid.

03:23.145 --> 03:26.005
And also a lot of people talked about the pleasure

03:26.005 --> 03:28.725
of rediscovering favored long lost clothes

03:28.725 --> 03:30.005
that they started to rewear.

03:30.905 --> 03:33.765
But none of this seemed to really affect, as far

03:33.765 --> 03:36.765
as I could understand it, Oak couture industry itself.

03:37.725 --> 03:40.145
And during this period, what were known

03:40.145 --> 03:43.625
as the covid seasons, I suppose, the Oak Cou cheers

03:44.225 --> 03:47.425
produced a number of quite elaborate promotional videos

03:47.615 --> 03:50.545
promoting their latest seasonal collections online

03:50.545 --> 03:53.505
that were available on a number of digital platforms,

03:53.505 --> 03:56.385
particularly the spring 2021 collections,

03:56.385 --> 03:59.105
which were actually seen in 2020.

03:59.965 --> 04:03.065
And a lot of the time people thought, this is,

04:03.065 --> 04:04.505
you know, revolutionary.

04:04.505 --> 04:06.425
This is the demo democratization

04:06.425 --> 04:07.745
of OK Couture for the first time.

04:07.745 --> 04:08.985
We can actually see them, you know,

04:08.985 --> 04:12.025
and be one, part of the actual kind of audience.

04:12.725 --> 04:14.505
But I felt that they seemed,

04:14.505 --> 04:16.625
when you looked at them closely, seemed

04:16.625 --> 04:19.585
to ironically maintain an, the air of exclusivity

04:20.125 --> 04:23.985
and elitism and its spectacular expenditure at a time.

04:23.985 --> 04:26.665
And everybody was kind of obviously, you know, on,

04:27.245 --> 04:30.345
in dire straits that OK Couture has

04:30.345 --> 04:31.505
traditionally relied upon.

04:31.525 --> 04:34.385
And I, and I found this a really interesting anachronism.

04:34.465 --> 04:36.385
A lot of the designers were saying, look, you know,

04:37.065 --> 04:39.705
suddenly we are, we are democratic and

04:39.725 --> 04:41.825
and we are kind of putting our products out there for all.

04:41.845 --> 04:43.665
But of course, this wasn't really the case.

04:44.165 --> 04:46.265
And these films, in fact, I felt,

04:46.775 --> 04:48.345
said almost exactly the opposite.

04:48.525 --> 04:51.345
And so I got very interested in that aspect of it.

04:51.845 --> 04:54.105
In short, it probably had little

04:54.205 --> 04:57.425
or no impact on Oak Couture specifically.

04:58.325 --> 05:01.265
In fact, many houses recorded record sales

05:01.285 --> 05:02.305
during the pandemic.

05:02.505 --> 05:04.665
I mean, a num, not many commentators were willing

05:04.665 --> 05:08.065
to say this, but a few of the more braver ones did come out.

05:08.125 --> 05:10.545
And when asked were saying they sold more clothes

05:10.685 --> 05:13.545
during the pandemic than they ever had done before.

05:14.565 --> 05:17.465
And I guess for the extremely wealthy

05:17.685 --> 05:19.265
who could afford these sorts of clothes,

05:19.885 --> 05:22.825
it could be argued they already existed in social bubbles

05:22.825 --> 05:24.065
of the super rich, if you like.

05:24.065 --> 05:26.505
They were already to a degree isolated,

05:27.015 --> 05:30.265
kept secluded from the general public, and it was more

05:30.265 --> 05:31.705
or less for them business as usual.

05:31.965 --> 05:35.705
So the round of exclusive social engagements attended

05:35.805 --> 05:37.945
by the select few, the entry

05:37.945 --> 05:40.385
to which has always been strictly kind of, you know,

05:40.385 --> 05:41.785
controlled continued.

05:41.845 --> 05:44.385
And so therefore, did the demand for clothes

05:44.385 --> 05:45.705
to wear at such events.

05:47.065 --> 05:49.225
I guess on a more practical production level as well,

05:49.245 --> 05:51.065
the pandemic, whilst it may have meant

05:51.065 --> 05:53.745
that couture's workforce of skilled laborers was

05:53.805 --> 05:55.105
to an effect diminished,

05:55.605 --> 05:59.805
and it was harder to obtain the raw materials for couture,

05:59.805 --> 06:01.565
you know, the luxury fabrics and so on.

06:02.345 --> 06:05.485
Um, this only added to the time it actually took

06:05.485 --> 06:07.125
to produce a couture garment,

06:07.585 --> 06:10.245
and which ironically was then reflected in the price

06:10.245 --> 06:12.245
of these garments, which rose in accordance.

06:12.345 --> 06:17.085
And so thus, I, I, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm arguing here

06:17.085 --> 06:19.325
that basically overall profits increased.

06:19.425 --> 06:23.485
And when we are talking about incredible sums of, you know,

06:23.485 --> 06:26.245
an average couture garment being anything between 40

06:26.305 --> 06:31.005
to 80,000 pounds a garment, that price tag actually went up

06:31.225 --> 06:32.805
and became even more desirable

06:33.065 --> 06:36.605
for their c clientele since its inception in the later part

06:36.605 --> 06:41.165
of the 19th century, the OK couture industry steadily rose

06:41.425 --> 06:45.245
and I suppose reached a peak about post-war

06:46.205 --> 06:48.925
1947 period, the year when, for example,

06:48.925 --> 06:50.645
Christian Dior launched his new look

06:51.155 --> 06:53.165
when there were calculated to be

06:53.815 --> 06:57.325
maybe about 20,000 couture clients worldwide.

06:58.065 --> 07:00.645
And these at that time consisted mainly of

07:01.365 --> 07:05.685
European aristocracy and the wives of bankers

07:05.905 --> 07:07.365
and US industrialists.

07:07.385 --> 07:09.605
And there are many famous, you know, examples of,

07:09.745 --> 07:14.085
of these kinds of Cleon tell today, however,

07:14.225 --> 07:17.525
and since that point, couture has steadily declined

07:18.145 --> 07:21.445
and there are only probably now between maybe three

07:21.705 --> 07:23.765
or 4,000 clients worldwide.

07:24.105 --> 07:26.005
But that number is very vague

07:26.075 --> 07:28.765
because understandably, the people

07:28.785 --> 07:31.605
who can afford those kinds of sums for those kinds

07:31.605 --> 07:34.605
of clothes like to remain pretty anonymous

07:35.305 --> 07:37.845
and demand absolute discretion from the

07:37.845 --> 07:39.365
cou that they order from.

07:39.465 --> 07:42.605
So even though if you see a couture show,

07:42.615 --> 07:45.445
there is a frontline maybe of celebrities attending them.

07:45.855 --> 07:48.045
These probably aren't the real clients.

07:48.385 --> 07:51.765
The real clients are attended to privately.

07:52.145 --> 07:56.125
The URIs will often visit them where they live or in hotels

07:56.185 --> 07:57.245
and are willing to travel.

07:57.425 --> 08:01.365
So there's a kind of illusion that they have this kind

08:01.365 --> 08:04.285
of public facing c clientele,

08:04.425 --> 08:08.165
but actually the real customers are probably people

08:08.195 --> 08:10.205
that many people would not even recognize.

08:10.265 --> 08:12.965
You know, they are that excluded, I suppose,

08:12.965 --> 08:14.285
from normal society.

08:15.185 --> 08:18.925
And similarly, today's clients are more likely to be made up

08:18.925 --> 08:20.125
or a large percentage of them,

08:20.505 --> 08:24.405
of the super rich from Brix countries, so including China,

08:24.405 --> 08:27.565
Russia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

08:28.375 --> 08:31.435
Um, but I suppose what interested me especially

08:32.295 --> 08:36.235
was the relationship between literary representations

08:36.255 --> 08:38.195
of 19th century oak couture

08:38.925 --> 08:40.425
and how that was used

08:40.425 --> 08:43.585
to critique contemporary society at that time.

08:44.565 --> 08:47.225
And if these 21st century representations

08:47.225 --> 08:50.865
of couture on film fulfilled a similar, function,

08:51.405 --> 08:53.865
and I got very interested as well in the work

08:53.865 --> 08:56.365
of the French economist to pickety,

08:56.485 --> 08:59.045
particularly his work capital in the 21st century.

08:59.825 --> 09:03.725
And in that book, he used 19th century French literature,

09:03.725 --> 09:07.045
well, not just French, actually, to understand similarities

09:07.045 --> 09:09.565
between the economic disparity of the Bella Park

09:09.665 --> 09:10.685
and today's society.

09:11.185 --> 09:14.005
And he used authors such as Bza as a means

09:14.005 --> 09:17.165
of understanding this gulf between the incredibly wealthy

09:17.185 --> 09:18.285
and the rest of society.

09:19.265 --> 09:21.605
Now, for me, someone passionately interested in

09:21.625 --> 09:23.645
how clothes can help us understand larger

09:23.825 --> 09:28.525
and more complex socio-cultural issues, I drew on Emile Zola

09:28.945 --> 09:32.325
and the particular one novel called Luck Lucke,

09:32.495 --> 09:35.845
which is usually translated as the kill written in 1872,

09:36.595 --> 09:40.325
just at the same time as OK Couture is being founded really.

09:40.945 --> 09:44.165
And in the book there's a main character called Rene,

09:44.165 --> 09:47.245
who's the wife of an Avaricious property speculator,

09:47.775 --> 09:50.445
who's growing very, very rich during the period

09:50.505 --> 09:52.365
of Parisian modernization in the latter

09:52.365 --> 09:53.445
half of the 19th century.

09:54.745 --> 09:57.285
And as I say, the book was written at the same time

09:57.305 --> 09:59.085
as OK Couture was in its infancy.

09:59.665 --> 10:02.085
And the novel consists of a series of

10:02.805 --> 10:05.165
brilliantly spectacularly detailed accounts

10:05.165 --> 10:07.445
of the clothes Rene War and for dresses.

10:07.535 --> 10:10.845
Story, as you know, Zola is invaluable actually as a source.

10:11.665 --> 10:14.885
And she wears these clothes at various highly vis events

10:14.915 --> 10:19.125
such as balls, parties, carriage rise as displays,

10:19.165 --> 10:21.605
I suppose, of consi conspicuous consumption.

10:23.065 --> 10:25.085
And in addition, what's particularly interesting in,

10:25.105 --> 10:28.885
in the Kil is it includes scenes set in the Italia

10:29.025 --> 10:32.125
of the famous dress maker that she gets her clothes from,

10:32.625 --> 10:34.245
who in the book is called Worms

10:34.545 --> 10:37.205
and is a thinly disguised caricature of worth

10:37.505 --> 10:41.405
and reason of the day, would easily understand this figure

10:41.465 --> 10:46.285
of, of the kind of slightly neurotic, you know,

10:46.635 --> 10:49.485
kind of it, creative genius

10:49.705 --> 10:51.365
of this character called worms.

10:51.365 --> 10:54.805
And obviously worms, you know, signifying death

10:54.805 --> 10:57.765
and decay, is really a, a,

10:58.045 --> 11:01.645
a pretty thinly disguised attack on, on Kerio such as Wir.

11:01.945 --> 11:04.405
So it's a kind of mother load, if you like,

11:04.565 --> 11:06.685
of information about Couture at the time.

11:08.105 --> 11:10.925
Um, what Pickety suggests is that the displays

11:10.925 --> 11:15.405
of economic inequality that these novels depicted is,

11:15.785 --> 11:19.005
is kind of an unapologetic, and I'd agree with that.

11:19.065 --> 11:21.725
It, they show almost an honest account

11:22.505 --> 11:24.765
of the economic disparity at the time.

11:25.585 --> 11:28.925
Unlike he goes on today's super wealthy who are almost

11:29.535 --> 11:33.445
impossible figures, incalculably wealthy, unknown

11:33.465 --> 11:36.605
to the public, and who remain hidden from its gaze.

11:37.065 --> 11:40.445
Or he argues cloak their privileged position under a ve era

11:40.445 --> 11:42.565
of philanthropy and social enterprise.

11:43.425 --> 11:45.485
And kind of what interested me was

11:45.485 --> 11:47.925
that unlike these earlier literary depictions

11:47.945 --> 11:51.645
of the privileged world of Oak Couture, the films produced

11:51.645 --> 11:54.205
during the covid, seasons

11:54.835 --> 11:57.205
suggested when you look at them, they almost promised

11:57.235 --> 11:58.685
that you were gonna be included

11:58.745 --> 12:02.005
and omitted, inserted into these kind

12:02.005 --> 12:03.405
of artificial front rows.

12:03.405 --> 12:06.645
There were various ones that were set where, you know,

12:06.745 --> 12:09.565
it was as if you were watching the fashion show

12:09.665 --> 12:11.925
and you were seated there amongst the very,

12:11.925 --> 12:12.925
very few other people.

12:13.025 --> 12:15.485
And, you know, it was, you had this privileged view,

12:16.025 --> 12:18.885
but crucially, these films were devoid

12:18.885 --> 12:20.125
of these real customers.

12:20.145 --> 12:21.845
You know, there were models in them, obviously,

12:21.845 --> 12:23.205
and a couple of celebrities maybe.

12:23.945 --> 12:27.845
And these customers, the fa board, 1% of the super wealth

12:27.865 --> 12:30.085
as they're known, or perhaps probably even a smaller

12:30.085 --> 12:34.405
percentage now of society who re remain unknown.

12:35.065 --> 12:37.085
And they're not in these films.

12:37.085 --> 12:40.885
Their godlike economic position is kind of unassailable.

12:41.025 --> 12:45.845
And, and we don't really have any true idea of kind of what

12:46.145 --> 12:47.485
and who these people are

12:47.585 --> 12:49.085
who can afford these sorts of clothes.

12:49.145 --> 12:51.525
And so I got very interested that there seemed

12:51.525 --> 12:55.685
to be an almost a kind of honesty about the wealth

12:56.075 --> 12:57.765
that was depicted in the 19th century

12:57.905 --> 13:01.805
and a kind of dishonesty about this supposedly demo

13:02.125 --> 13:03.245
democratization of couture

13:03.245 --> 13:05.245
that these films represented post covid.

13:05.585 --> 13:08.965
And again, I'm going back to that period, you know,

13:09.265 --> 13:10.605
before Covid and certainly

13:10.605 --> 13:13.365
during it there were many proclamations that, you know,

13:13.635 --> 13:15.965
this would be the death of fashion as we know it.

13:16.665 --> 13:20.205
And, you know, fashion will change irrevocably afterwards.

13:20.225 --> 13:24.085
But it seemed that after covid, the fashion industry,

13:24.155 --> 13:27.485
including OK Couture has returned following much the

13:27.485 --> 13:28.525
same model as before.

13:29.265 --> 13:32.925
And all of the supposed lessons we learned about consuming

13:33.035 --> 13:35.885
less being greener and all of those kinds of things.

13:36.165 --> 13:38.525
I mean, yes, of course there are many wonderful initiatives

13:38.525 --> 13:39.925
to make fashion greener,

13:40.065 --> 13:43.965
but to a large degree, fashion has returned

13:44.065 --> 13:46.165
to much the same kind of models

13:46.225 --> 13:48.405
and circuits that it used to be before Covid.

13:49.425 --> 13:53.045
And I suppose as outmoded as Oak Couture may seem today,

13:54.105 --> 13:57.805
and I say this because at one point, going back perhaps

13:57.805 --> 14:01.525
to its heyday in the 1940s, fifties, it was definitely seen

14:01.625 --> 14:04.405
as a laboratory of creative genius.

14:04.585 --> 14:07.965
If you like many of you know, the most seminal moments

14:08.025 --> 14:10.605
of fashion, 20th century fashion history were

14:10.635 --> 14:11.765
part of Oak Couture.

14:12.425 --> 14:13.485
You cannot say that.

14:13.645 --> 14:16.845
I think largely today the clothes are still amazingly

14:16.845 --> 14:18.045
made and beautifully made.

14:18.465 --> 14:21.245
Um, but they are often quite conventional

14:21.785 --> 14:22.885
and fairly traditional.

14:23.025 --> 14:26.445
And Oak Couture, with a few exceptions, is not

14:26.445 --> 14:28.285
where people would look to today

14:28.785 --> 14:30.165
for kind of innovative fashion.

14:30.865 --> 14:35.045
But it has re continued to, I I would argue,

14:36.365 --> 14:38.205
maintain its primary function, which is

14:38.265 --> 14:39.845
to DeMar case society.

14:40.745 --> 14:43.525
And I suppose I got interested again in looking at literary

14:43.895 --> 14:48.725
forms and another novel, lamp producer's novel.

14:48.785 --> 14:50.925
The leopard set in the 1860s about

14:51.045 --> 14:55.405
Another equally exclusive, possibly, you know,

14:55.635 --> 14:59.485
doom Society on the Brink of Extinction, seemed quite

15:00.085 --> 15:03.485
relevant to I suppose, how Couture was hanging on.

15:04.065 --> 15:06.885
And, and there's this marvelous quote where he talks about

15:07.715 --> 15:11.925
this gathering of, of, Sicilian society, and he,

15:11.985 --> 15:14.365
and he talks about them as being the few hundred people

15:14.665 --> 15:17.645
who made up the world, never tired of meeting each other,

15:17.785 --> 15:19.005
always the same ones

15:19.345 --> 15:22.205
to exchange congratulations on still existing.

15:22.305 --> 15:26.645
And to me, that seemed a perfect example of the audience of

15:26.985 --> 15:29.285
who these films were really appealing to.

15:29.305 --> 15:33.525
And it wasn't us, it was this exclusively surviving Cleon

15:33.525 --> 15:33.685
tell.

00:00 - O couture, literally, meaning high sewing is really the creation of custom made, exclusive garments, typically involving many hours of intensive handcraft skills such as embroidery, utilizing the most costliest of fabrics, but most importantly, produced by a handful

00:21 - of designers who are recognized by the Schaber Synical O Couture, which was founded in Paris in 1868, for an equally small and incredibly wealthy global C clientele. And in fact, the term o couture itself is legally protected by law in France. You know, you can only use the term o couture and call yourself an o couture if the Chandra al recognize you.

00:49 - now interestingly, the English designer Charles Frederick Wirth, who was active in the 19th century, is commonly regarded as the father of o Couture. Other historians would argue that there were French people, rose Bertan and ILO Lee Roy predate worth, but really worth when he relocated his business to Paris in about 1846, swiftly established many of what would become the hallmarks of Oak Couture that we still recognize today, which was really kind

01:19 - of revolutionary for the time. He, he really, I suppose, made people appreciate dressmaking as an art form, really in a, in a way that had never been considered before. he promoted himself very much as a, as a kind of creative genius on a par with painters and sculptors of the day, something, a game which we still recognize, I suppose, when we talk about grand fashion designers as, as creators. and he also introduced a number of kind

01:50 - of revolutionary practices, I suppose. For example, he presented seasonal collections on live mannequins as opposed to formally a curi would visit a client and make clothes according to their wishes. he was very much aware of kind of including things like art, historical references, references to other cultures in, in his designs, and even down to, you know, the idea of, I suppose, creating what we would understand as the label today worth some

02:22 - of the very earliest garments that have a recognizable dress label in them. And most importantly, he courted a very, very influential cleon tell consisting of aristocracy and celebrities of the day. I suppose what what got me interested was that, you know, I wrote it during the pandemic and during that period, as I'm sure we're all aware, fashion amongst many other businesses, certainly physical fashion retailing collapsed,

02:46 - and a lot of it moved online. And many critics and commentators saw this as a moment for perhaps a radical reconceptualization of fashion. And so you've got a lot of fashion designers, for example, experimenting at being filmmakers online and other kind of related design fields, as well as actually making clothes. And also the public, began to generate a renewed interest, I think, in making,

03:14 - rather than just consuming clothes. So you've got a rise in knitting, embroidery, dress making suddenly boom during, during covid. And also a lot of people talked about the pleasure of rediscovering favored long lost clothes that they started to rewear. But none of this seemed to really affect, as far as I could understand it, Oak couture industry itself. And during this period, what were known as the covid seasons, I suppose, the Oak Cou cheers

03:44 - produced a number of quite elaborate promotional videos promoting their latest seasonal collections online that were available on a number of digital platforms, particularly the spring 2021 collections, which were actually seen in 2020. And a lot of the time people thought, this is, you know, revolutionary. This is the demo democratization of OK Couture for the first time. We can actually see them, you know,

04:08 - and be one, part of the actual kind of audience. But I felt that they seemed, when you looked at them closely, seemed to ironically maintain an, the air of exclusivity and elitism and its spectacular expenditure at a time. And everybody was kind of obviously, you know, on, in dire straits that OK Couture has traditionally relied upon. And I, and I found this a really interesting anachronism. A lot of the designers were saying, look, you know,

04:37 - suddenly we are, we are democratic and and we are kind of putting our products out there for all. But of course, this wasn't really the case. And these films, in fact, I felt, said almost exactly the opposite. And so I got very interested in that aspect of it. In short, it probably had little or no impact on Oak Couture specifically. In fact, many houses recorded record sales during the pandemic.

05:02 - I mean, a num, not many commentators were willing to say this, but a few of the more braver ones did come out. And when asked were saying they sold more clothes during the pandemic than they ever had done before. And I guess for the extremely wealthy who could afford these sorts of clothes, it could be argued they already existed in social bubbles of the super rich, if you like. They were already to a degree isolated, kept secluded from the general public, and it was more

05:30 - or less for them business as usual. So the round of exclusive social engagements attended by the select few, the entry to which has always been strictly kind of, you know, controlled continued. And so therefore, did the demand for clothes to wear at such events. I guess on a more practical production level as well, the pandemic, whilst it may have meant that couture's workforce of skilled laborers was

05:53 - to an effect diminished, and it was harder to obtain the raw materials for couture, you know, the luxury fabrics and so on. this only added to the time it actually took to produce a couture garment, and which ironically was then reflected in the price of these garments, which rose in accordance. And so thus, I, I, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm arguing here that basically overall profits increased. And when we are talking about incredible sums of, you know,

06:23 - an average couture garment being anything between 40 to 80,000 pounds a garment, that price tag actually went up and became even more desirable for their c clientele since its inception in the later part of the 19th century, the OK couture industry steadily rose and I suppose reached a peak about post-war 1947 period, the year when, for example, Christian Dior launched his new look when there were calculated to be maybe about 20,000 couture clients worldwide.

06:58 - And these at that time consisted mainly of European aristocracy and the wives of bankers and US industrialists. And there are many famous, you know, examples of, of these kinds of Cleon tell today, however, and since that point, couture has steadily declined and there are only probably now between maybe three or 4,000 clients worldwide. But that number is very vague because understandably, the people

07:28 - who can afford those kinds of sums for those kinds of clothes like to remain pretty anonymous and demand absolute discretion from the cou that they order from. So even though if you see a couture show, there is a frontline maybe of celebrities attending them. These probably aren't the real clients. The real clients are attended to privately. The URIs will often visit them where they live or in hotels and are willing to travel.

07:57 - So there's a kind of illusion that they have this kind of public facing c clientele, but actually the real customers are probably people that many people would not even recognize. You know, they are that excluded, I suppose, from normal society. And similarly, today's clients are more likely to be made up or a large percentage of them, of the super rich from Brix countries, so including China, Russia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

08:28 - but I suppose what interested me especially was the relationship between literary representations of 19th century oak couture and how that was used to critique contemporary society at that time. And if these 21st century representations of couture on film fulfilled a similar, function, and I got very interested as well in the work of the French economist to pickety, particularly his work capital in the 21st century.

08:59 - And in that book, he used 19th century French literature, well, not just French, actually, to understand similarities between the economic disparity of the Bella Park and today's society. And he used authors such as Bza as a means of understanding this gulf between the incredibly wealthy and the rest of society. Now, for me, someone passionately interested in how clothes can help us understand larger and more complex socio-cultural issues, I drew on Emile Zola

09:28 - and the particular one novel called Luck Lucke, which is usually translated as the kill written in 1872, just at the same time as OK Couture is being founded really. And in the book there's a main character called Rene, who's the wife of an Avaricious property speculator, who's growing very, very rich during the period of Parisian modernization in the latter half of the 19th century. And as I say, the book was written at the same time as OK Couture was in its infancy.

09:59 - And the novel consists of a series of brilliantly spectacularly detailed accounts of the clothes Rene War and for dresses. Story, as you know, Zola is invaluable actually as a source. And she wears these clothes at various highly vis events such as balls, parties, carriage rise as displays, I suppose, of consi conspicuous consumption. And in addition, what's particularly interesting in, in the Kil is it includes scenes set in the Italia of the famous dress maker that she gets her clothes from,

10:32 - who in the book is called Worms and is a thinly disguised caricature of worth and reason of the day, would easily understand this figure of, of the kind of slightly neurotic, you know, kind of it, creative genius of this character called worms. And obviously worms, you know, signifying death and decay, is really a, a, a pretty thinly disguised attack on, on Kerio such as Wir. So it's a kind of mother load, if you like,

11:04 - of information about Couture at the time. what Pickety suggests is that the displays of economic inequality that these novels depicted is, is kind of an unapologetic, and I'd agree with that. It, they show almost an honest account of the economic disparity at the time. Unlike he goes on today's super wealthy who are almost impossible figures, incalculably wealthy, unknown to the public, and who remain hidden from its gaze. Or he argues cloak their privileged position under a ve era

11:40 - of philanthropy and social enterprise. And kind of what interested me was that unlike these earlier literary depictions of the privileged world of Oak Couture, the films produced during the covid, seasons suggested when you look at them, they almost promised that you were gonna be included and omitted, inserted into these kind of artificial front rows. There were various ones that were set where, you know,

12:06 - it was as if you were watching the fashion show and you were seated there amongst the very, very few other people. And, you know, it was, you had this privileged view, but crucially, these films were devoid of these real customers. You know, there were models in them, obviously, and a couple of celebrities maybe. And these customers, the fa board, 1% of the super wealth as they're known, or perhaps probably even a smaller

12:30 - percentage now of society who re remain unknown. And they're not in these films. Their godlike economic position is kind of unassailable. And, and we don't really have any true idea of kind of what and who these people are who can afford these sorts of clothes. And so I got very interested that there seemed to be an almost a kind of honesty about the wealth that was depicted in the 19th century and a kind of dishonesty about this supposedly demo

13:02 - democratization of couture that these films represented post covid. And again, I'm going back to that period, you know, before Covid and certainly during it there were many proclamations that, you know, this would be the death of fashion as we know it. And, you know, fashion will change irrevocably afterwards. But it seemed that after covid, the fashion industry, including OK Couture has returned following much the same model as before.

13:29 - And all of the supposed lessons we learned about consuming less being greener and all of those kinds of things. I mean, yes, of course there are many wonderful initiatives to make fashion greener, but to a large degree, fashion has returned to much the same kind of models and circuits that it used to be before Covid. And I suppose as outmoded as Oak Couture may seem today, and I say this because at one point, going back perhaps to its heyday in the 1940s, fifties, it was definitely seen

14:01 - as a laboratory of creative genius. If you like many of you know, the most seminal moments of fashion, 20th century fashion history were part of Oak Couture. You cannot say that. I think largely today the clothes are still amazingly made and beautifully made. but they are often quite conventional and fairly traditional. And Oak Couture, with a few exceptions, is not

14:26 - where people would look to today for kind of innovative fashion. But it has re continued to, I I would argue, maintain its primary function, which is to DeMar case society. And I suppose I got interested again in looking at literary forms and another novel, lamp producer's novel. The leopard set in the 1860s about Another equally exclusive, possibly, you know, doom Society on the Brink of Extinction, seemed quite

15:00 - relevant to I suppose, how Couture was hanging on. And, and there's this marvelous quote where he talks about this gathering of, of, Sicilian society, and he, and he talks about them as being the few hundred people who made up the world, never tired of meeting each other, always the same ones to exchange congratulations on still existing. And to me, that seemed a perfect example of the audience of who these films were really appealing to. And it wasn't us, it was this exclusively surviving Cleon

15:33 - tell.

Faculti AI can make mistakes