Haute Couture

Personally, I think enough time has passed and Tyra Banks should be getting her talk show back. As a kid, I would run home after school so excited to watch the Tyra Show and stayed up waiting to watch America’s Next Top Model in the evenings. Besides the drama, what made it such an interesting show was seeing young women chasing something they were passionate about. Many of them leaving behind their families to chase after a dream. It takes real bravery to take a chance on you, whether you think it’ll work out or not. There could only be one winner at the end of the day. Not only that, but kudos to them for having the mental and physical fortitude to stick it out and stay in their industry. The pressures seems way too intense.

I’ve been blessed to have downtime lately so I’ve taken the chance to enjoy the hobbies of my past. As a child I loved to color, cook, paint, sing and write, anything creative actually! But as I became an adult distractions popped up and I left behind the things I use to love or felt that I never had time for it. I never let myself make time for it either. (For so long I was looking for my passion, which was obviously writing, and it was in front of me the entire time. Funny how that works!) While scrolling on Twitter, I saw pictures from the Schiaparelli show during Haute Couture Week in Paris and was reminded how much I loved fashion as an art form. The most interesting aspect of these shows besides the actual fashion is the production. The shape of the runway, the seating, the lighting, and the music all play their role in how the clothes translate to the audience. It’s all part of one elaborate performance.

The actually Schiaparelli show wasn’t as exciting as I expected it to be after seeing Kylie in a sculptured lion head dress or Naomi Campbell walking in a beautiful, black wolf head trench coat. (I would have rocked it in Westeros.) Lots of very structured, black silhouettes, and big elaborate headpieces. I wishing for more by the end of the show but they did have standout moments. Out of the shows I watched I enjoyed Elie Saab most. Lots of natural, light colors, sleek long gowns and whimsical embroidered dresses. The Jean Paul Gaultier show was also a lot of fun to watch.

Most of the models on the runway are stoic, which I understand because the main centerpiece is the clothing, but I do enjoy the moments when they take a chance and smile a little or add more dramatics to their walk. Some models get weighed back or struggle to walk in long dresses and stumble — falling on the runway seems like such “scandal” when it happens. One of the models in the Valentino show even fell down twice in a pair of their shoes, picked them up and walked the rest of the runway barefoot. She has my respect after having such a human moment, sometimes you just have to finish your journey.

Here is a link to all of the shows.