Thursday, June 26, 2008

The Secret World of Haute Couture


"The decadence of it all. It was breathtaking." --Margy Kinmoth

I love a good documentary. And if it has to do with fashion, well, toss me a bag of popcorn and I'm in cinematic heaven.

So yesterday's blog about Madame Daphne got me thinking. Who really knows all that much about the elite coterie of women who wear haute couture? Margy Kinmoth of the BBC must have wondered the same thing, because she has produced one of the best documentaries about this highly visible, yet little known, area of fashion.

I love that she treats the matter like a piece of investigative journalism, delving into this secret sect as if it were the Church of Scientology. In point of fact, the secret world of haute couture is even more elite.

Kinmoth even scores an interview with Helene de Ludinghausen, who was employed as house director of YSL for some 30 years. This, on top of sit downs with Galliano (he says words like super!), The Kaiser Karl, and Mr. Valentino. When Valentino talks about the modern woman's approach to fashion, I can literally see the pearls of wisdom dropping from his lips.

5 comments:

Blogger said...

Wha? Patti Smith appears in Part 3 of this broadcast (via YouTube)

meliindaa. said...

"pearls of wisdom dropping from his lips" i love that! haha.

Victorya Hong said...

Who knew that the queen of rock and model client of Demeulemeester was also a fan of Rucci?

Victorya Hong said...

And who knew that Valentino was such a keen observer of the modern gal, or even spoke English so fluently?

Maverick said...

fascinating clip. i love this blog!