Couture collections are not about trends so much as extravagance, but each season a trend or two emerges. Last season it was shorts. This season it’s hairy fringe, which has popped up at Dior, Givenchy, and Jean Paul Gaultier. Apparently, couture fringe — the finest, most expensive fringe in the world! — is so high-quality because it resembles human hair. Or at least that’s what Times critic Cathy Horyn likened the long, silk fringe in the Givenchy collection to. And the scary thing about that is that Chris March tried to make human hair happen on Project Runway seasons ago. His didn’t work because it was human, and it freaks people out to think about wearing something that grows out of another person. But being on Project Runway, he couldn’t afford the extra-fine non-human materials used to make this season’s couture fringe. Funny how human hair is so budget, while fake hair made from feathers or other materials is so glam and spendy-seeming.
Givenchy Still Life [On the Runway/NYT]
