PARIS couture week 2011

couture week: franck sorbier

(images via style bistro)
“You can buy tickets to concerts, to plays, to standup comedy acts, and really a fashion show is a kind of spectacle, too, with drama, emotion and beauty.  So I figured, why not sell tickets to my show, too?” franck sorbier told forbes, of his decision to to charge € 31, or $44, online, to anyone wanting to come.


and like that, the industry was revolutionized and scandalized (what?!?  an outsider without the proper ysl archives in the closet or imdb credits to his/her name?!? SACRE BLEU!).  we’ve only seen a dash of mr. sorbier’s work before (s/s 2011 hc), but he’s not known for the mundane (and the industry paid him back in kind for his transgressions, the nyt sniping that the range was “rather repetitive.”  read: get back in line with the social hierarchy and celeb-worship, son.)


as for the collection itself, slate explained (trans.) “(i)n the theater of the Cirque d’Hiver foresty settings had been drawn up, wood, stumps, branches, moss…”, a setting for, as thenyt writes, “the story of a sleeping beauty (in the form of the French pop singer Shy’m) who dreamed of woodland nymphs and gnomes.”  the pieces, all hand-crafted, frequently appeared like the science experiments that happen when a tree falls over: mold, mushrooms, mildew, and moss sprouting up in a bevy of colours and textures.


“It’s the anti-couture couture show.  There are no sequins, no crystals, nothing that sparkles. Just pieces that required lots and lots of work,” the designer explained to forbes, the site then writing that “Sorbier says he personally did the lion’s share of the labor, hand-scrunching the silk georgette into the rumpled texture that has become the veteran designer’s trademark. All the material was then hand-dyed in the atelier sink.”


and though the show certainly didn’t have the sheen, the overwhelming commercial appeal of the valentino or armani privé collections, it did boast an eclectic charm and a quality that no other presentation could match.  after all, who can deny the artistic value of a piece like that below, with its slowly fading melange of colours, its almost organic appearance, its ability to transmit a physical texture through image alone?  we’re not all of us looking for a pretty dress to the oscars and mr. sorbier is smart enough to know it oughtn’t be the celebrities he courts.  i imagine the public, where his fans and customers will spring from, are now very pleased indeed.