The line between fashion and art in the ethereal world of haute couture is thin. Franck Sorbier, whose “défilés” (if that word applies to the performances of the designer) were always distinguished by a special creativity, this time made from the presentation of his spring-summer collection a real spectacle. Sorbier guests gathered in the vaults of the magnificent theater, opened on the orders of Richelieu in the middle of the XVII century – Théâtre du Palais Royal (The Royal Palace Theatre).
The curtain rose, and on the stage against the backdrop of the vast plain canvas tapered with tow ropes, appeared a well-known French journalist and TV shows host Henri-Jean Servat. For a quarter of an hour the journalist told the story of the remarkable life of the famous art-collector of the XX century, whose name was given to several museums in the world – Peggy Guggenheim. It was her character, according to the prologue, that inspired the creative duo of Franck Sorbier and Isabelle Tartière – the muse and wife of the fashion designer who hand paints fabric for the collections for her husband. The presentation of Servat was followed by several scene sketches, each of which played around an outfit from the collection. Just about ten. Each one is a work of art and a proof of how, in spite of the shortness of the budget, one can create a small miracle of pure talent and the need to create.
Alas, the global virus of the consumer society did not spare the high fashion. Commercial shows, gathering celebrities and chasing press, leave “out in the cold” that endangered fragile world, to which they associate themselves. Forgetting that haute couture is, above all, the French dream, expressed in symbiosis of a talent and the muse that it inspired and not just red carpets of unified evening dresses.
Photo credits: Franck Sorbier / Piero Biasion