T here is no city that takes fashion more seriously than Paris. It is the home of haute couture

and the city of the Sun King, Louis XIV, whose dazzling court catapulted French fashion into the global spotlight and gave birth to the luxury goods business.

In July, when the sun gives the Champs Elysées a warm honeyed glow, new fashion fantasies are born at Paris’s exclusive haute couture shows. These shows with their magical creations demonstrate the very frontiers of craftsmanship, where the talent of the métiers d’art (master artisans) are put to the ultimate test in translating a designer’s vision of beauty into a wearable garment.

Like Paris itself, haute couture is about dreams and romance, but many debate its relevance in the modern world. One man who would dispute this is Olivier Saillard, director of the Palais Galliera, the city’s renowned museum of fashion currently holding a retrospective of couturier Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946), to 23 August.

Before Coco Chanel, Lanvin was the force in fashion, having launched her couture house – the oldest in Paris – in 1889. She blazed a trail as an entrepreneur, creating the world’s first luxury lifestyle brand as she moved from designing hats to children’s clothes, women’s wear, lingerie and interior décor. She opened shops in Biarritz, Barcelona and Buenos Aires, and invented the idea of four fashion seasons. In 1927, on her daughter Marguerite’s 30th birthday, she celebrated by launching the legendary perfume Arpège with its famous mother-and-daughter logo that became the visual identity of the brand.

The scope of her vision is striking in its modernity. She was the first designer to give holistic thought to modern lifestyles. j

How couturier Jeanne Lanvin helped establish Paris as

the world’s fashion capital

W O R D S Paula Hardy

PariSl a n v i n ’ sd e s i g n s

eThe Lanvin exhibition with vintage photos of the great designer

iPalais Galliera, hosting the Lanvin exhibition

ii1930s La Diva design by Lanvin

o n

43

and set within an old engraver’s workshop in the Passage des Panoramas. Further east, the cool Marais district has emerging designers and vintage specialists such as Violette et Léonie, Valentine Gauthier and French Trotters. Private fashion tours led by handbag designer Kasia Dietz open the door to many more.

Also getting a thoroughly Parisian makeover is the historic Forum des Halles. Only Paris could rejuvenate an old wholesale food market in such style. Meadow-like gardens now surround a giant golden-hued glass canopy, which will enclose a glittering line-up of gourmet restaurants and 130 global-brand boutiques. The crossover between fashion, food, art and architecture would have seemed natural to Lanvin who presciently understood that good design affects every aspect of our lives.

She would also, no doubt have approved of the spectacular new Fondation Louis Vuitton, a new contemporary art museum and cultural centre commissioned by another esteemed Parisian fashion house, and set in the Bois de Boulogne. Built by Canadian architect Frank Gehry its shimmering, glass-panelled exterior is both visually surprising and technologically smart, just like Lanvin’s designs. Its aim is to reinforce the connection between Louis Vuitton and cutting edge art and design. More than that, it reminds us that creativity has always existed at the crossroads between art and consumerism. The way we see ourselves, our bodies and our cities shapes fashion for every season, just as fashion shapes us.

Despite the bows, ribbons and pearls that ripple through her silk georgette dresses, her clothes are effortlessly modern and wearable, their apparent simplicity hiding a cleverness of cut and meticulous craftsmanship that is the true signature of haute couture.

One focus in the exhibition is a catalogue of exquisite dresses that, even today, would fit in fine at the famous Debutante Ball, held at the revamped Hôtel de Crillon. Influenced by the graphic quality of Art Deco, the rich ornamentation of embroidery, crystals, bows and beading is expressed judiciously. The outlook, too, is international. Take the lamé dress, with its blue silk train quilted in the Japanese obi belt technique, that was inspired by her extensive travels.

Other beaded silk dresses from the 1920s could easily be mistaken for a modern Lanvin piece from current artistic director Alber Elbaz whose bejewelled mini dresses are de rigeur. Thanks to the summer sales (24 June-4 August), you can buy one for a snip of the usual price at Lanvin’s historic atelier on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. It is located just steps away from the Golden Triangle – an area bordered by the Champs-Elysées, Avenue Montaigne and Avenue Marceau – where you’ll find the world’s most famous fashion houses.

Grands magasins (department stores) such as Galeries Lafayette, Le Printemps and Le Bon Marché are other big-name fashion addresses, while the arcades around the Louvre hide posh boutiques such as La Petite Robe Noire, where Didier Ludot collects and sells little black dresses from the 1920s to 1990s. You’ll want to wear one to the new Caffè Stern, designed by Philippe Starck

Lanvin understood that good design affects our lives

RJ FLIES DAILY FROM AMMAN TO PARIS.

FOR TICKET OFFERS AND TOURS VISIT RJ.COM

eBespoke handbag designer Kasia Dietz leads private fashion tours

iThe Debutante Ball held at the luxury Hotel de Crillon is a showcase for top fashion designers

fGehry’s new Fondation Louis Vuitton

Ph

oto

s: (

pre

vio

us

pag

e) L

a D

iva

des

ign

© P

atri

mo

ine

Lan

vin

; Jea

nn

e L

anvi

n w

ith

Lau

re A

lbin

Gu

illo

t ©

Lau

re A

lbin

Gu

illo

t/R

oge

r-V

iolle

t; P

alai

s G

allie

ra ©

Par

is T

ou

rist

Offi

ce, p

ho

tog

rap

her

Dan

iel T

hie

rry;

(t

his

pag

e) K

asia

Die

tz ©

Ch

loe

Lod

ge; D

ebu

tan

te B

all ©

Le

Bal

/Ren

ault

/Pay

al N

ew Y

ork

(je

wel

lery

)/H

ote

l de

Cri

llon

; Fra

nk

Geh

ry F

on

dat

ion

Lou

is V

uit

ton

© 2

014

To

dd

Eb

erle

44