Haute Couture is the benchmark by which fashion is measured, it is the platform which great imagery and ready to wear fashion stem from, but in a fast paced, mass produced world is it a dying art? It’s a debate that seems to resurface every time the couture runways roll around. So far the few participating designers have managed to re-assure us that the fantasy in fashion was still very much alive. The most recent Autumn 2010 runways were not quite so convincing.

The fresh faces of couture Alexis Mabille and Bouchra Jarrar both turned out collections that were borderline ready to wear. Alexis Mabille’s closing pillar of floral and velvet was as close as he came to covetable couture and Bouchra Jarrar’s collection though beautifully constructed, sat even further from the couture runways with hints of gold and fur offering the only allusion of glamour. The future was starting to look precarious.

When veterans such as Armani Privé and Jean Paul Gaultier failed to turn out anything much more invigorating let alone inspiring the future started to look dangerously dull.  Armani showed elegant suiting with a few stunning sequin pieces thrown into the mix, particularly the mermaid like sequin dresses at the end, but like the little mermaid with no voice, the collection lacked the depth to back them up.

Jean Paul Gaultier managed to step it up one more notch turning out a collection of old world glamour with a modern contemporary twist and the signature harder edge of the Gaultier house.  Leather framed by fur, ostrich feather dresses and semi circular shoulders were the power players of the collection. Just as things were looking up though the much-anticipated Gaultier wedding dress appeared and it wasn’t much more than a very long trench coat. Even the ‘happily ever after’ is no longer dressed to the nines. The disappointment didn’t last long though, Dita Von Teese emerged on the arm of Gaultier in an intricately detailed corset and all was forgiven and forgotten. This was one piece worth fantasizing about and we aren’t talking the stuff that fairytales are made of here either, but fantastical none the less.

The next wave of shock came from Valentino, something the house was never famous for in the days of its namesake designer, awe, desire and gasps of sartorial pleasure yes, but shock no. The shock was not because the clothes were shocking in any way at all, this would have made the collection almost couture worthy, the shock was from the new direction that Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli took the couture house in. Valentino’s usual columns of elongated elegance and delicate detailing were cropped ruffled and rouched into darkly romantic Lolita style dresses. The collection titled the ‘Dark Side of First Love’ was certainly aimed at the age group it suggested. There were a few notable silhouettes namely the crinoline inspired top and dress but over all it was a moody collection of maximalist baby dolls on a sophisticated path to heartbreak.

Couture lovers were really left wrought with fear though when the master Karl Lagerfeld turned out a sixty four piece collection for Chanel that didn’t get much past ‘once upon a time’ as far the fantastical Richter-scale goes.  And if it had of been a fairy tale it would have been called “The Princess and the Peacoat,” since the first third of the collection was dominated by immaculately tailored peacoats in Chanel’s signature tweed fabrics. Chanel has always been one for overstated simplicity but somehow that simplicity appeared just plain simple this season. The couture runway began like a slightly exaggerated ready to wear collection but as it progressed the designs began to take flight into the peripheral areas of the imagination.

Metallic tapestry style pieces and floral embellished dresses were the stand out’s of the collection, with the last third of the collection displaying a modern aristocrat look.  The extensive but not particularly diverse collection, also had a much darker colour palate than usual and it didn’t only appear heavier, it was literally weighted, using heavier fabrics and over stated beaded, embroidered and fur trims to anchor it somewhere in the realms of the extraordinary. Chanel’s signature suiting took a very long journey from sophisticatedly stoic to slightly sensational.

What Chanel failed to do in a sixty-piece collection Maison Martin Margiela and Givenchy managed to do in sixteen piece collections. What’s more Maison Martin Margiela did it using second hand materials! The house famous for its deconstructed minimalism took it a new level, deconstructing vintage crocodile, snake and lizard clutches and re constructing the pieces into whole garments. The result was a visually rich, textural collection of collaged minimalist shapes. This was a couture collection to celebrate, totally awe inspiring in its artistic merit and painstaking construction.

Speaking of painstaking detail, Givenchy was by far the hero collection of the season, with dresses that took six months to make incorporating ornamental pieces that took 1600 hours. Riccardo Tisci hailed the themes of Frida Kahlo’s artwork as his inspiration; religion, sensuality and the human anatomy, the latter being the foremost when it came to the visual conception of the garments. Dresses and cat suits were lined with porcelain spines and permeated with tiny ceramic skulls complete with angel wings. Lace, tulle and double silk duchess satin formed their own human skeleton, encrusted with pearls, crystals and fragments of bone as zippers. This was a divine tribute to the human form and a true work of art in its own right.

The third note worthy collection was Christian Dior’s floral tribute to mother nature. Think inverted flower shapes, tulip skirts, floral wrapper style headpieces and raffia belts in an explosive range of vibrant hues. Floral prints were present but the inspiration was mainly alluded to in colour, form and detail, ruching, subtle ruffling and feathering all created a petal like appearance and texture. Christian Dior certainly opened the week with a bang. If only it could have been a precursor to what was to come!

When neat tailoring is meant to be enough to raise an eyebrow and send a shiver down the spine the question has to be asked, have we lost sight of the magic altogether? Givenchy, Christian Dior and Maison Martin Margiela held the dream together, maybe not the ideal fantasy but the kind of prescient fantasy that will inspire something magic in fashion followers and makers everywhere. Lets just hope it’s enough to sustain.