Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 260 - 255: Within and Beyond One’s Duty

The clientele for Haute Couture was the rarest, but the designers were the busiest.

In this busyness, apart from the design itself, a lot of time had to be spent on communication.

Not every customer could manage their figure like Audrey Hepburn did, textbook-style.

The measurements of Audrey Hepburn’s mannequin were never adjusted once they were made.

Haute Couture clients all had mannequins custom-tailored to each person’s size.

For Yan Yan, who had extreme demands for patterns, naturally, she strived for perfection when measuring clients.

However, the complex procedures of Haute Couture dictated an extremely lengthy "delivery" time for the clothing.

If you ordered today and the clothing was ready by tomorrow, that could absolutely not be called Haute Couture.

Not to mention it was fundamentally impossible, even if it were, such a thing should not be done.

The process of waiting and tailoring was also extremely important for Haute Couture clients; without this waiting period, the clothing would seem "cheap."

At the very least, clients had to wait three months, if not half a year.

Those more complex specialty custom designs would easily require a wait of three to five years.

During this process, many people’s figures would change.

If it was for the better, telling someone they needed a new mannequin was naturally a joyous occasion.

But if the figure had gotten a bit out of shape and a new mannequin was needed, that was definitely a formidable communication task.

Every time this happened, it was necessary for Yan Yan to personally take on the communication.

Not many people were willing to admit their figures weren’t as good as before.

This is why many girls, no matter how squeezed, would still force their way into their old pants and skirts.

Haute Couture had once had such a time, grand and magnificent, beauty beyond measure.

Wearing a dress felt like wearing a palace.

Not knowing how to walk, nor even how to breathe properly.

It was as if the person wearing the clothing was returning to the Victorian Era.

After the mid-20th century era of Haute Couture’s "hundred schools of thought," many began to feel that Haute Couture was dead, including many officially titled Haute Couture designers.

But Haute Couture was far from dead; it grew contrary to trends after the outbreak of the subprime crisis and financial tsunami.

Haute Couture merely switched to a different mode of development.

Today’s Haute Couture no longer takes "grand and magnificent" as its sole appeal.

Using the most comfortable fabrics for the most flattering cuts was an idea Yan Yan had from the beginning of her career as a designer.

Whether clothes or shoes, Yan Yan did not want an overly glamorous exterior to overshadow the fact that clothes were made to be worn, not to be put on display in a wardrobe.

Chanel was at the forefront of comfort in Haute Couture.

Old Buddha, who had enough capital to indulge in waste, was always the most capricious.

Last year (2014) at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, Yan Yan also attended Chanel’s show.

Old Buddha ingeniously dressed the models in sneakers, even adding knee pads.

This season’s Haute Couture at Chanel featured tight corsets, sparkling crop tops, ultra-slim waist cinchers, and charming skirts in sweet, lively monochrome.

And then, beneath these elegant, sparkling garments, they went direct with a combination of sneakers and knee pads!

Old Buddha’s innovation on the Haute Couture runway set the trend for major fashion weeks after January 2014.

After Chanel’s Haute Couture, Chanel’s high-end ready-to-wear continued in the same style.

Countless designers scrambled to imitate.

But even if it was Old Buddha’s idea, as a designer, Yan Yan sometimes did not buy into it.

Luxurious clothing with sneakers, such creativity, Yan Yan would not have, nor was she interested in imitating.

Even if it was the sneakers produced by Chanel’s Massaro Haute Couture footwear atelier, even if the sneakers and clothes were the same color, even if the pearls, python texture, and coarse tweed patterns on the clothes continued onto the shoes, even if the shoelaces were lace, sneakers were still sneakers.

If you had an ultimate figure, the kind that’s all legs below the chest, wearing a dress with sneakers might seem a bit odd, but the figure would still be highlighted.

But for an average person, this combination would simply be a disaster.

Yan Yan’s design style featured minimalist elegance with an undertone of understated luxury.

But within all her style genes, there was no DNA for stuffing sneakers into evening gowns.

As for shoes, Maison Yan II had always had its own persistence—only making leather shoes.

Indeed, Yan Yan hoped to design her leather shoes to be as comfortable as sneakers.

But she could not accept the idea of models walking the runway in sneakers for the sake of comfort.

This season, Chanel’s models’ explosive hairstyles were also a bit of a shock.

Although, the so-called annual fashion trends, colors, and styles all formed after piling up designs from different brands that are somewhat similar.

Yan Yan knew Chanel’s season of Haute Couture would sell well, because those buying Haute Couture definitely have never bought sneakers and knee pads before, and with so many die-hard Chanel fans, they would buy into whatever Old Buddha did.

But designers should still have their own convictions.

.........

Besides these "inner" busy tasks.

A finicky designer like Yan Yan, whenever she had a moment of free time, would undertake some "extra" tasks.

Yan Yan once helped design an entire wedding scenery and plan for the first girl to custom order a wedding dress at Maison Yan II.

Just like designing her own fashion show.

Yan Yan earnestly declared that she was designing the perfect "runway" for her own wedding dress.

Yan Yan was not the first, nor would she be the last Haute Couture designer to "match" an entire wedding to her designed wedding dress.

Providing creative ideas for weddings to Haute Couture brides-to-be, although not considered standard for Haute Couture, wasn’t too uncommon.

Such "service" was not an innovation by Yan Yan.

However, other designers usually just offer some ideas and don’t undertake designing the entire wedding.

After completing the wedding dress, it remained "unclaimed" for two years.

Yan Yan spent a lot of time on well-thought-out ideas that had no place to "reside."

Far from being angry, Yan Yan, two years later, after completing the high-end ready-to-wear show in Melbourne, hand-drafted the entire set of implementation plans for the creative process.

Not only that, but Yan Yan also revisited her foundational skills from her Mechanical System major at the University of Melbourne, designing all the mechanical devices required in the creative plan.