PFW S/S 2016 Couture Fashion Report

Dear readers,

Welcome to my Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2016 Couture Fashion Report!🎇

If you’ve been following my posts, you will know that I usually cover fashion week ready-to-wear, but this is the first time I write a report on Haute Couture collections…which got me thinking about what the difference between RTW and couture should be; and why are couture collections incessantly regarded with the highest of expectations?

Well, surely there are boxes that both categories should tick; for instance, a good collection regardless of it’s couture or RTW nature should have an element of novelty, surprise, and the right combination of avant garde and of-the-moment designs. Evidently, the ratio of these three elements will be different in rtw and couture collections, and some designers will explore their creative outlets more than others. 

When I go through rtw collections, my expectation is to come across clothes, outfits, and accessories that make me swoon over them, and make me covet them in a way that compels me to shop and re-vamp my closet. Additionally, I am looking for the portrayal of a woman with a lifestyle I can relate to, and one that I’d want to be. In essence, I expect a rtw collection to be spectacularly desirable and to exude a lifestyle of an accomplished woman who can inspire others with her daily consummations, and who above all, is a style icon.

While I expect this from couture collections, I demand so much more. When I think of couture designs, I think of magical, perfectly engineered collections, which are in equal parts creative, lustful, and exquisitely unattainable to a point that makes me ache with desire. A couture collection for me should be crafted in a way that makes viewers feel enchanted in their seats, as if they’ve just walked into a world where no ugly exists, and they are eternally falling in love with things their eyes have never seen before… a sort of Happily Ever After scenario. 

Our minds have the incessant need to explore endless realms of beauty and fantasy (why do you think fantasy books/films are so popular!) and fashion has the ability to offer that. It sort of works like a puzzle, where you add textures, colours, and shapes, and suddenly you have the perfect outfit, one you haven’t really worn or seen before but which you know works. The expectation of couture is so high precisely because people expect designers to offer a perfected and refined version of rtw collections, one which they haven’t seen before but makes them want to live in that world.

Anyway, now that I’ve got you in that magical head space which is ready to explore couture collections, why don’t you turn the page to find out some of my favourite collections from Spring/Summer Couture Fashion week in Paris 💋💋💋

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