Handwork

Before you - the updated format of the heading "Trend". Here, as before, we pay attention to trends that somehow affect our appearance every six months, but we reflect on them in the context of more significant trends - trends. In our new trend "Handmade"we understand why an increasing number of designers are launching couture lines, are fond of democratures and open atelier.

You do not need to be a fashion historian to understand that handicraft has been the basis of clothing production for centuries. It is pointless to single out trends in it: it is not about creating - embroidery with kittens or appliqué of lace flowers, and how to do it. Most manual production is applied in two areas. This is a couture industry that has existed since 1945 and is now experiencing a rebirth: the couture line was recently launched by Giambattista Valli, and the house of Versace revived it. As well as the demicure - ready-to-wear, stitched with the use of painstaking handmade. Perhaps, Alexander McQueen can be considered an adherent of de-couture, who hand-embroidered dresses with beads, flowers and feathers, and the duo Dolce & Gabbana, which adorns the tops and skirts with multi-colored stones.

From left to right: show Alexander McQueen SS 2012; showing Alexander McQueen SS 2012; showing of Antonio Berardi SS 2012; the show of Chanel SS 2012; the show Dolce & Gabbana FW 2012; Photos from the blog Jak & Jil; Dolce & Gabbana show; the Prabal Gurung FW 2012 show;

Do not forget about the small and often local brands that create things exclusively by hand. Not to enumerate everyone, but in Russia, accessories designers, Asya Malberstein and Love Corporation, or Etnies and o-l-o-v-o accessories fall into this category. There are brands that run the studio - in Moscow it is with Alexander Terekhov. Even mass-market brands tend to use manual work. For example, the company Asos has a collection of Africa, things from which are made in collaboration with African craftsmen.

From left to right: back-show of Rodarte; Alexis Mabille Haute Couture FW 2010; showing the Givenchy Haute Couture SS 2009; screening by Alexander McQueen; the show of Balenciaga SS 2006; screening of Chanel Haute Couture FW 2010;

Couture: the revival and rise of ancient art

At the beginning of zero fashion critics predicted the death of a couture, but now this industry is opening again. Together with the craze for vintage, the awareness of the value of things from the past has come. Chantil couture jackets or Dior gowns from the sixties show particular interest. As a result, collectors of couture appear more and more, and the number of designers creating couture is gradually increasing. So, most recently, Azzadine Alaya and Giambattista Vallie joined the High Fashion Week in Paris, plus the Italian house Versace was revived by the fancy line. By the way, already now the new Dior creative director Raf Simons is working on his first collection of couture.

Now every season couture make their masters - Giorgio Armani, Jean-Paul Gauthier and Karl Lagerfeld, who for decades have been working with the same families of embroiderers and lace-makers. Holds the brand and creative director Givenchy Ricardo Tishi: the creation of flying dresses, decorated with flounces, lace and stones, often takes two to four thousand hours. Couture show Elie Saab and Valentino: their dresses, perhaps, most often flash on the red carpet.

Demicure: Pret-a-porter + haute couture

The concept of "demicuture" entered our lexicon in the middle of zero. It means something between ready-to-wear and haute couture. So, for example, a de-jacket blouse can be sewn on a typewriter, and embroidery on it can be made by hand.

Why did the delicure appear? Fashion156 magazine believes that dozens of meetings with customers and spending months on creating one dress is a tribute to the era of couture that has gone into the past. The complexity of the complexity is almost the same as the couture: any intricate décor, whether it be sequin appliqués or embroidery, requires days of painstaking handwork. But on the other hand, the design takes less time and allows a large number of designers to show their skills and please more sophisticated customers. By the way, the latter also win: the price tag on things that are only half the couture, several times lower.

Demicure is closely related to the passion of designers with handicraft techniques, which already wrote Look At Me. Young brands like Mark Fast, Proenza Schouler and Rodarte are not afraid to experiment with macrame and patchwork. And giants like Balmain and Lanvin decorate their outfits with mosaics of beads and crystals.

Handmade in images from movies

Costumes for films and TV shows are most often designed and made by the costume designer and his team, which in itself implies a large amount of handwork. We remembered the sophisticated film images that, by the way, could inspire the couturier.

Italian Piero Gerardi created costumes for two films of Federico Fellini - "8 and a half" and "Sweet life". Both works of Gerardi received an Oscar for the best costume design.

Cleopatra, whose role in the film of the same name is played by the actress Elizabeth Taylor, for the whole action changes a dozen dresses, stitched by one of the most famous costume designers - Irene Sharaff.

Historical dramas like no other genre give room for the creation of costume designers. About the leader of the genre, "Marie Antoinette" Sofia Coppola, we wrote more than once. It does not lag behind "Orlando" with Tilda Swinton, "Golden age" c Cate Blanchett, "Duchess" with Keira Knightley, and this is not to mention the pioneers of the genre - "Orlando", "Thousand Days of Anne" and "Dangerous Liaisons".

Costumes play an important role in the films of Tim Burton: the director creates the world on the edge of reality and fairy tales, so the clothes of the characters here are just as important as their actions and words. One of the last works of the director, "Alice in Wonderland", won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. The author of the outfits Mia Vasikovskaya, Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway - American Colin Atwood - received the same award for "Chicago" and "Memoirs of a Geisha."

Last year, the main film award for the best costume design received a black and white silent film "Artist" about love and twenties, for the costumes of which Mark Bridges answered. Not so long ago, the trailer appeared on the network adaptation "The Great Gatsby", whose heroes in the style of Art Deco dresses twice Oscar winner Catherine Martin. Apparently, this year Martin will have a third statuette.

Bohemique designer duet

The art of haute couture existed and exists exclusively for a limited number of clients. This is always of great interest. Just like the visual arts, haute couture will not disappear. The only difference is that someone can afford to buy it, and someone to admire in museums. We believe that now, during the uncontrolled growth of the mass market, high fashion will cause a wave of new interest.

Bohemique is not a haute couture, we use some handwork. We prefer to concentrate on the other: form - cut - fabric. If for complete self-expression we need to apply handicraft - be it embroidery, "tattooed" - then we, of course, will do it.

Most Bohemique products exist in a single copy, and our clients like it very much. So each of them feels special. If there is a need to put on more clients, we will most likely increase the lineup, not the number of units per model.

Couture inspired items on online stores

Of course, if you want to have a hand-sewn thing, you can order it in the nearest studio, but for dresses with the most interesting decor and handmade accessories, you should go to online stores.