What's Feminist About Couture?

Could the world of haute couture respond to the zeitgeist and make itself relevant? We travelled to Paris to find out…

- Rebecca Lowthorpe

A while ago, in the microcosmic bubble of the couture world, the most expensive made to-order clothes, unattainable to all but the privileged few, were paraded on models (at their thinnest, as is tradition) in front of a private audience of press and clients. And the designers – the best of them – grappled to make it relevant to the real world, a world in the thick of the #MeToo movement, following the red carpet blackout of the Golden Globes, the all-female presenters at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the second of the annual Women’s Marches.

So what does female empowerment look like in 2018? The results were starkly divided: those who chose to idolise femininity – in the form of a gilded princess in, say, a crystal encrusted fishnet body-con gown, exploding with bows and plumage, set on teetering heels – looked as deeply out of touch with women’s lib as Donald Trump, versus those who chose to break the stereotype of a woman as a precious object. In other words, the more stripped back, the more empowering and relevant the look.