Yes, People Still Care About Couture

Thoughts and analyses directly from Pierpaolo Piccioli's debut Balenciaga haute couture runway.

Alas, one of the last pieces of fashion’s great creative director reshuffling has finally fallen into place. Yesterday morning, we saw Balenciaga’s first haute couture runway collection under the brand’s new creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli.

Why was this such a big deal? Well, as I wrote last year, couture occupies quite an interesting yet valuable place in today’s high-fashion landscape. The term itself refers to the art of hand-sewn, hand-embroidered garments that can take thousands of hours to make, using techniques mastered by only around 2,000 people worldwide.

While many big-name brands don’t make a significant fraction of their revenues from couture, and while the collections don’t always turn a profit, there is still an important cultural cachet associated with participating in haute couture week. And, in a brand showing the world they have the skills and craft and creativity necessary to do so.

Perhaps nowhere is this more important than at Balenciaga, whose brand origins are deeply rooted in couture. Actually, founder Cristóbal Balenciaga once famously said that if his brand did not produce couture, he’d prefer it didn’t even exist at all.

You can read more about this below:

Who Cares About Couture?

So, what happened on yesterday’s Balenciaga haute couture runway? And what can it perhaps tell us about the state of luxury fashion today? Here’s what you need to know.