When I was learning a fashion in Paris in the past, I was critical to "fashion shows" serving as a trade show.
I believe that it was useless to show clothes with the catwalk to get orders, meanwhile it has a bit of meaning to enchant the spectators and praising the works. And I still believe in it.
Then you might think that it is against my belief that Hinaya has been working so hard for collaborations with haute couture maisons in Paris lately.
It is clear to everyone that the fashion industry has been shifting its selling power from
haute couture → pret-a-porter and show → pre-season trade shows , and why Hinaya puts so much energy to haute couture now.
There was a chance to speak with a liaison office manager of one of major Japanese department stores when I was on a business trip in Paris.
He was very skeptical about the scheduling of haute couture shows.
"Why they show haute couture shows 6 months after pret-a-porter shows?", He questioned.
"Why do they show pret-a-porter show present 2010-11 fall&winter in Feb. to March, and then show haute couture in July as Paris collection?", He continued.
Haute couture, where its creation with originality will be shown off should precede pret-a-porter,
that makes sense and proper. I totally agree with the opinion.
Yes, haute couture is at its turning point now.
Many says that it has been held somehow because Chanel and Dior still do it.
When I was in Pairs this time, a journalist of Le Monde magazine asked me why I work with rather small maisons like On Aura Tout Vu instead of big maisons like Chanel or Dior.
Well, if I am totally honest, I could have said that "it is more practical",
but instead, I answered
" On Aura Tout Vu is a young maison. They serves as a very important role as a next generation of haute couture maisons. I am as old as they are, and I belive that I am also serving a critical role to sustain textile industry in Kyoto. We both have frames of old, traditional and cultural frames (sometimesrestrictions), and working everyday believe in the better future. That is we share and how we sympathize".
Sustaining houte couture in Paris→problem institution for the future is exactly what we are facing in Kyoto.
On Aura Tout Vu and Gustavo Lins both have the same recognition like us. And they have been working for it.
It may sounds like a Paradox, but that is why they keep showing new creations.
It simply draws a line between developing pret-a-porter or second/bridge lines.
I used a word "marriage of Kyoto and Paris haute couture" in the twitter the other day.
It may sounds very sweet, but its true meaning is actually opposite.
The fact that we are facing the same problem and challenges and share with them, then both of us mixed-match each values and strength, then move onward for the better.
This is what I mean.
Recently, many asked me why Hinaya receives so much "love calls" from maisons in Paris,
and the answer is fairly simple.
As I mentioned this before,
"That is because we are all facing the same problems now".
by izukuranaoto | 2010-07-15 10:31
