couture on the cheap

Christian Dior Swears It’s Not Cutting Back on the Couture Show

Last season, fashion houses were all, “We’re not cutting back on couture! Our clients are rich enough to always buy couture no matter what ‘recession’ plagues you normal people.” Well, not really, but the shows went on in just as fabulous a form as ever. But this season, things are shaping up to be a little different, with Lacroix’s couture show hanging in the balance and Christian Dior moving its show to a modest new location. For the past few seasons, the Dior show has been held in a big tent erected in the gardens of the Rodin Museum in Paris. But the show in July will take place in Christian Dior headquarters at 30 Avenue Montaigne for the first time in ten years. Dior CEO Sidney Toledano explains, “We want to do it in this house again to feel at Dior. We really want to transport the spirit.” So this has nothing to do with that so-called recession or saving money. Or the so-called 2.8 percent dip in profits last year. Or the purported 8 percent dip in revenues for the first quarter of 2009. No, no — erecting tents in gardens is just so last season.

HOMECOMING [WWD]

Christian Dior Swears It’s Not Cutting Back on the Couture Show