here is no city that takes fashion more seriously than Paris. It is the home of haute couture Tand the city of the Sun King, Louis XIV, whose dazzling court catapulted French fashion into the global spotlight and gave birth to the luxury goods business. In July, when the sun gives the Champs Elysées a warm honeyed glow, new fashion fantasies are born at Paris’s exclusive haute couture shows. These shows with their magical creations demonstrate the very frontiers of craftsmanship, where the talent of the métiers d’art (master artisans) are put to the ultimate test in translating a designer’s vision of beauty into a wearable garment. Like Paris itself, haute couture is about dreams and romance, but many debate its relevance in the modern world. One man lanvin’s who would dispute this is Olivier Saillard, director of the Palais Galliera, the city’s renowned museum of fashion currently designs holding a retrospective of couturier Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946), to 23 August. on Before Coco Chanel, Lanvin was the force in fashion, having launched her couture house – the oldest in Paris – in 1889. She blazed a trail as an entrepreneur, creating the world’s first luxury lifestyle brand as she moved from designing hats to children’s clothes, women’s wear, lingerie and interior décor. She opened shops in Biarritz, Barcelona and Buenos Aires, and invented the idea of four fashion seasons. In 1927, on her daughter Marguerite’s e 30th birthday, she celebrated by The Lanvin launching the legendary perfume exhibition with ari vintage photos of How couturier Jeanne Lanvin Arpège with its famous mother- the great designer P helped establishS Paris as and-daughter logo that became the i visual identity of the brand. Palais Galliera, the world’s fashion capital hosting the The scope of her vision is Lanvin exhibition striking in its modernity. She was WORDS ii Paula Hardy the first designer to give holistic 1930s La Diva thought to modern lifestyles. j design by Lanvin 43 Despite the bows, ribbons and Lanvin understood pearls that ripple through her silk georgette dresses, her clothes are that good design effortlessly modern and wearable, their apparent simplicity hiding a affects our lives cleverness of cut and meticulous craftsmanship that is the true signature of haute couture. and set within an old engraver’s One focus in the exhibition is a workshop in the Passage des catalogue of exquisite dresses that, Panoramas. Further east, the even today, would fit in fine at the cool Marais district has emerging famous Debutante Ball, held at designers and vintage specialists the revamped Hôtel de Crillon. such as Violette et Léonie, Influenced by the graphic quality of Valentine Gauthier and French Art Deco, the rich ornamentation Trotters. Private fashion tours led of embroidery, crystals, bows and by handbag designer Kasia Dietz beading is expressed judiciously. open the door to many more. The outlook, too, is international. Also getting a thoroughly Take the lamé dress, with its blue Parisian makeover is the silk train quilted in the Japanese historic Forum des Halles. Only obi belt technique, that was Paris could rejuvenate an old inspired by her extensive travels. wholesale food market in such Other beaded silk dresses from style. Meadow-like gardens now the 1920s could easily be mistaken surround a giant golden-hued for a modern Lanvin piece from glass canopy, which will enclose e current artistic director Alber Bespoke handbag a glittering line-up of gourmet Elbaz whose bejewelled mini designer Kasia restaurants and 130 global- Dietz leads private dresses are de rigeur. Thanks to the fashion tours brand boutiques. The crossover summer sales (24 June-4 August), between fashion, food, art and i you can buy one for a snip of the The Debutante Ball architecture would have seemed held at the luxury usual price at Lanvin’s historic Hotel de Crillon is natural to Lanvin who presciently atelier on Rue du Faubourg Saint- a showcase for top understood that good design fashion designers Honoré. It is located just steps affects every aspect of our lives. away from the Golden Triangle – f She would also, no doubt have Gehry’s new an area bordered by the Champs- Fondation approved of the spectacular new Elysées, Avenue Montaigne and Louis Vuitton Fondation Louis Vuitton, a new Avenue Marceau – where you’ll contemporary art museum and find the world’s most famous cultural centre commissioned fashion houses. by another esteemed Parisian Grands magasins (department fashion house, and set in the stores) such as Galeries Lafayette, Bois de Boulogne. Built by Le Printemps and Le Bon Marché Canadian architect Frank Gehry are other big-name fashion its shimmering, glass-panelled addresses, while the arcades exterior is both visually surprising around the Louvre hide posh and technologically smart, just boutiques such as La Petite Robe like Lanvin’s designs. Its aim is to Noire, where Didier Ludot collects reinforce the connection between and sells little black dresses from Louis Vuitton and cutting edge the 1920s to 1990s. You’ll want to art and design. More than that, wear one to the new Caffè Stern, it reminds us that creativity has designed by Philippe Starck always existed at the crossroads between art and consumerism. The way we see ourselves, our RJ FLIES DAILY FROM AMMAN TO PARIS. bodies and our cities shapes FOR TICKET OFFERS AND TOURS VISIT RJ.COM fashion for every season, just as fashion shapes us. Photos: (previous page) La Diva design © Patrimoine Lanvin; Jeanne Lanvin with Laure Albin(this page) Guillot Kasia Dietz © Laure © Chloe Albin Lodge; Guillot/Roger-Viollet; Debutante Ball Palais © Le Bal/Renault/Payal Galliera © Paris Tourist Office, New York (jewellery)/Hotel photographer deDaniel Crillon; Thierry; Frank Gehry Fondation Louis Vuitton © 2014 Eberle Todd 44.