Couture Week Arouses and Challenges Pret-a-Porter

So Couture Week in Paris has been over for a few weeks now, designers have moved onto their ready-to-wear collections, but I keep going back to the fine line between Pret-a-Porter (or ready-to-wear) and Haute Couture. The nature of Pret-a-Porter is one of mass-production, for all. But with the economy the way it is, designers, for the last few seasons have been creating with exclusivity and uniqueness in mind. I think that if people are going to spend quadruple digits they want something unbelievably exquisite. Now the couture shows were, as always, about the one-of-a-kind artisanship, but I kept seeing things that could have been in any Pret-a-Porter, especially in Givenchy (pictured above) and Armani. Tisci, in my eyes, started off amazingly at the iconic french house, I loved his gradient leopard last Couture season, and the use of studs in S/S 07, but I saw this collection as lazy and bland at best. Mr. Armani, who was recently celebrated at the FIT Couture Society Gala, has been less than stellar since 1997, not one of my favs, so this collection was hardly surprising. All that being said, there were some incredible collections. Lacroix was spectacular, as was Lagerfeld's work at Chanel. It was not an incredibly ground-breaking season, but the craftsmanship and eye for detail we trust was evident and thriving in The City of Lights this past month.

Costume Institute Flies, and Soars @ The Met.

The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art premiered its' latest exhibit on May 5, 2008. The $7,500-a-head event was titled "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy", and was (as always) a who's who of New York society. Vogue Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour (pictured above) wore a bizarre but immaculate Chanel Haute Couture gown. George Clooney and Julia Roberts wore Giorgio Armani, and even arrived with the designer. My best dressed would have to be, surprising, Christina Ricci and Zac Posen, that had a certain simplicity and sense of humor I admired.
The Exhibit itself was small and somewhat lackluster. But there were some cool pieces, I especially liked a Hussein Chalayan white dress (also above). The coolest thing at the exhibit was an mannequin that wore a Clark Kent costume and then in the blink of an eye, it was a superman costume, I have no clue how they pulled that off.
"Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy", which was headed by Mr. Armani and Ms. Wintour, as a gala was stocked full of an ever growing population of stunning fabulosity, the exhibit was bland, but hardly mattered.