Paris Haute Couture

On Saturday, I went to the “Paris Haute Couture” exhibit at the Hotel de Ville with a friend. It was really fun, despite the hour long wait in line outside in the cold. (What gives, Paris? It was 75 last week, now you’re back to the low 50s? Mean.) My friend is a bit of a fashion maven and the tickets are free, so it was a match made in heaven.

You start off walking along a long hallway, where there are photographs from all the traditional ateliers handcrafting these gorgeous pieces together. There was a shot of someone doing a quilted pattern for a dress and it looked so mind-boggling precise I would probably go crazy trying to do it myself. (Or not. I knit a lot.)

They also had a fascinating display from Chanel’s 2012 Spring Couture line. You basically saw how the dress got made, from the first drawings by Karl Lagerfeld and fabric swatches to the muslin dress pattern to the final product laid out in all its’ glittering glory.

This was one shiny dress.

 One of the things I really enjoyed was the series of haute couture gowns that were presented more or less in chronological order, so you could see the progression of fashion. Also, they started with the House of Worth, which is a personal fave.

This is a couture gown from the 1890s.

This is actually the only picture I got, since an exhibit guide came over and yelled at me for taking photos. Whatever dude, I wasn’t using flash anyways.

I really enjoyed wandering around the dresses. It’s kind of sad how we don’t wear such cool clothing on a daily basis, even if a gorgeous satin dress with a three foot train is a little impractical for the metro. Still fun to look at though.

If you go:

The Paris Haute Coture exhibit is open at the Hotel de Ville from 10 am to 7 pm, Monday through Saturday. Tickets are free, but be prepared to wait in line from anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on foot traffic. The exhibit will be open until July 6, 2013.