Danny Kasirye
Haute couture. The phrase conjures images of romance, fantasy, visual extravagance. But wardrobe basics? Probably not.
Yet to characterize couture as the pinnacle of sartorial indulgence for celebrities and the superrich is to misunderstand and undervalue the form. Yes, grand gowns, often embroidered, feathered, and frothed for otherworldly enchantment, play an essential part. But couture is not only about that.
It is also about clothes for real women in real life—“albeit,” Giorgio Armani tells
T&C, “a very rarefied form of real life.”
Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri, another of couture’s most high-profile practitioners, says couture is “clothing that isn’t content to shine only under the chandeliers of a gala or party, but that proudly displays its personality in the light of day.”