“Back to basics of haute couture” marked the show of a young British duo Ralph & Russo. Thirty two year old Tamara Ralph – an Australian-born couturier in the fourth generation is responsible for the creative component of the project, while Michael Russo, in charge of the business part, is just a year older, but his name is included in the prestigious “40 to 40” list of the Fortune magazine of businessmen who made their capital before forty.

Defile Ralph & Russo, which closed the Parisian week of haute couture, takes spectators in its “golden age, when the glamor and fantasy prevailed over reality”. Like revived clichés of renowned photographers from 40s – 50s of the last century (Walde Huth, Henry Clarke, Irving Penn, Willy Maywald, Lilian Bassma), the looks are ultra-feminine. Made in the best traditions of haute couture, silhouettes distinguish by modernity of gaits and timeless symbolism of elegance. Continuing traditions of great masters, designers create unique dresses for modern goddesses, be it Her Royal Highness Mozah of Qatar or a Hollywood queen Angelina Jolie. 1600 hours of hand embroidery, 800 000 pearls and sequins, buttons, 120 handmade buttons from fabric – impressive figures prove the duo’s commitment to the highest standards of high Parisian fashion as an art – the visiting card of France.

Opening the show black and white looks stand apart by their eternal classics. More precisely, dresses and suits of architecturally straight lines are made in white, and only one black, perfectly matched detail, be it a hat, gloves, a thin belt or bow on a blouse, changes the look, resurrecting impeccable Dior style.

The collection is continued by a fanciful romanticism of a garden “à la française”. A woman-bouquet appears in front of the audience in a sheer pale pink “dentelle de Chantilly”. Ensembles of dresses and trousers are very relevant. And the most successful is, in my opinion, the pale blue one, made from a lightest tulle dress worn over lace trousers.

Floor-length ball gowns of bright crimson, royal blue and white colors, and several asymmetric drapes in the form of rosebud are, perhaps, the only “high excesses” that the duo affords. And in this case the collection only benefits from this Anglo-Saxon “conciseness”.

Photo credits: Ralph & Russo