There is something so gently awakening in my heart just by mentioning “haute couture”. The fashion because of the fashion itself is the purest form of it – and, somewhat, became my dream. The very first thought I will have on my mind is Dior – as the French origin of the surname combines Dieu (it stands for God) and or (it stands for gold) – and the golden decade of his creativity. I am ever so inspired just by looking at such beautiful forms, and what I love the most is the consistent process of making it real. It beginns with a simple idea (the idea of a dress). The idea is being shown by the drawn lines (illustration). It goes to to the fields of matematics for its specification (pattern making), takes the advantage of the technology for its construction (being sewn) and, by using the uniquess of the handicraft, becomes purified (the final touch). Depending on the idea, that could take the hundreds of hours – but how to show the appreciation towards the knowledge and the time it takes but being taken by its beauty?
In this chapter I will present the bridal piece I recently created – oh, haute couture was never closer to me!
Haute couture is an idea that constructs my thinking about the future and where my goals could actually be. I remember the summer when I was thirteen years old, when my grandma learned me how to use the sewing machine and the first steps I took independently – I daydreamed about many wonderful dresses I wished I can create and how their forms made me to start with something. In the mass media there was always that particular type of beauty I gave the importance to, which had the strenght to determinate the more profound ideas in fashion which occured in my later age. The similar experience had the Italian designer Valentino: in the 1950’s he was so enjoying observing the costumes that women worn in the movies, he found them so beautiful that he himself wanted to create – and became the couturier.
A good couturier must be an architect in planning, a sculptor in form, a painter in colour, a musician in harmony and a philosopher in proportion. Cristóbal Balenciaga
I aspire to have more custom orders because that is the way how I could visually present my ideas and to specify them. Having an assigment to make a bridal piece was truly a surprise to me. I was given a direction – it has to be a pelerine, assimetrical in its look: and this is what I have created.
The whole process of making it real was just as decribed on the beginning of this chapter: from the single idea I had about it, from its illustration and the pattern making, cutting into the fabric, using the sewing machine (for the hems only – because of the nature that the ivory has, I did it with the help of the very thin paper that was removed afterwards) and the art that only handicraft has: for adding the flowers (previously cut out of the secondary fabric) and a couple of pearls in front only – the final touch, my favourite part. Even though it can be called like that, it can last much more that expected!
What is inspirational for my work? Any artist will say that is not something possible to define. For example, this thought: “A dress follows the woman’s body, it’s not the woman that follows the dress” (Balenciaga). I am pretty much inspired by the flowers, as the ones chosen for my featured image; Dior haute couture spring/summer 2011 show; the room where I work, the paintings I found in The national gallery of Ireland; some flowers I made with the watercolors. Maybe, instead of searching for an inspiration, the inspiration will find me!
Thank you for stopping by!
© Gloria La Marr
Gloria La Marr 