Couture Craziness - Fab or Drab?

We all loves those Couture houses in Paris! The beautiful beadings, hand-finished seams and hems, houndreds of hours to finish one garment ..... but as the economy gone bad worldwide, it's hard to see those couture houses we loved are closing it's doors or licensing their names to try to make it.








In the 80s and 90s there was an explosion of licensing agreements whereby fashion houses lent their name to all manner of operations producing lower value goods from perfume and eyewear to pens, scarves and watches, as a means of drawing in more income than ready to wear and Haute Couture could generate. As time has progressed and fashion houses have restructured and rebranded themselves, many of these residual licenses cause image headaches for brands, as they sap away at a brand's exclusivity and often bear little or no resemblance to the creative direction the current head designer is trying to set.




We have to admit to deriving a small amount of pleasure from knowing that while Christophe Decarnin is producing astronomically priced, trendy clothes that have celebrities and fashion editors alike seemingly enthralled, a company somewhere else is (legitimately) producing 'executive gift' Balmain pens which retail for around €38 and, to make not too fine a point of it, fail to conjure up the trashy rock glamour that Balmain so feverishly pushes season after season at the moment. And if pens aren't random enough for your liking, there are always Balmain hair extensions, also made under license:


Recently the bad news of my idol, Christian Lacroix has also filed bankrupcy, I really hope he won't be selling his name to some cheap licensing deals and see a "Lacroix presson nails" or a "Lacroix wig collections" !!

xoxo

Alan + Mei-Mei the pug