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This page: back view of a wedding ensemble by Karl Lagerfeld for House of Chanel; opposite page: front view of the same dress

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MONTAGE | SPRING 2016 85

The sharp line between tradition and innovation has been artfully blurred when it comes to couture fashions, as designers are increasingly embracing both handmade and machine-made practices. The 2016 Met Gala, taking

place May 2, will focus on the dichotomy between the former (handmade haute

couture) and the latter (machine-made fashion). The gala’s corresponding

exhibit “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” which will be on view May 5 through Aug. 14, challenges

the design world to analyze the role machines play in its current conventions

and asks what the future may hold for this ever-evolving art.

BY TIFFANIE WEN

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Manus x Machina

86 SPRING 2016 | MONTAGE

AT A GLANCE: THE 2016 MET GALA AND EXHIBITION Taking place May 2, the Costume Institute Gala—known more commonly as the Met Gala or Met Ball—will mark the grand opening of the new exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Manus x Machina,” which subsequently runs from May 5 through Aug. 14.

More than 120 examples of haute cou-ture and ready-to-wear—dating back to a Worth gown from the 1880s and leading up to a Chanel suit from 2015—will be on display in the museum’s Robert Lehman wing and Anna Wintour Costume Center. The Robert Lehman galleries will showcase case studies that contrast haute couture and ready-to-wear pieces, while the Anna Wintour Costume Center will be set up like a traditional maison de couture with ateliers of tailoring and dressmaking.

Designers in the exhibit include major names in the industry including Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Lanvin, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Chanel, Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton, among others.

Karl Lagerfeld designed this wedding dress for one of Chanel’s past haute couture collections.

A Chanel suit that dates back to the 1960s

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Manus Since the 1700s, haute couture has been consid-ered the peak of fashion, as the earliest purveyors traveled throughout Europe collecting inspiration for handcrafted made-to-order designs created for royalty. By the 20th century, original cou-turiers like Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel, Cristóbal Balenciaga and Christian Dior, whose houses are still with us today, were designing the finest in handmade design and craftsmanship.

Like Champagne, an appellation of wine, the term “haute couture”—French for “high fash-ion”—continues to carry with it a legal designa-tion. Regulated by the The Fédération Française de la Couture, who is charged with maintaining the official list of haute couture houses, they all have a specific set of criteria to abide by. In addi-tion to designing made-to-order pieces for pri-vate clients, the houses must present designs to the public during fashion weeks around the globe and maintain a presence in Paris in the form of a full-time atelier or workshop.

“The advantages of traditional haute couture are that the garment is made specifically for your body and each stitch is done by hand to perfec-tion,” says costume designer and celebrity styl-ist Jennifer Rade. “Every detail from fit to fabric is impeccable. You have multiple fittings. Haute couture is a work of art through fabric … and it will be around forever.”

The traditional legacy and inherent value infused in an item of couture may partly be why some labels are returning to haute couture after neglecting it to focus on more profitable ready-to-wear lines in recent years. Saint Laurent, for example, announced last year that it was returning to couture for the first time since 2001. Housed inside Paris’s historic Hôtel de Sénecterre, the atelier has been in the works since famed French fashion designer Hedi Slimane took over as cre-ative director of Saint Laurent Paris in 2012. In addition to gowns crafted for famous clientele, handmade pieces will be created for both male and female private clients.

Givenchy also returned to couture in 2015, at least when it came to the runway. In 2012, the label announced it would take a hiatus from show-ing in order to focus on its ready-to-wear lines. Last June however, Creative Director Riccardo Tisci surprised audiences by debuting a new haute couture collection on stage in Paris during their scheduled menswear show. Since then, fans have been hopeful that Givenchy will expand its haute couture beyond its rare special projects.

MONTAGE | SPRING 2016 87

Machina If the 20th century highlighted the simultaneous rise of haute couture in opposition to the wide-spread popularity of pret-a-porter collections that were factory-manufactured and sold to the masses, then the 21st century has been about blurring the distinction between the two.

“Couture and technology are definitely not two different realms. If you talk about heri-tage brands, there’s still an opportunity to rein-vent craftsmanship and improve materials,” says designer and artist Francis Bitonti, who is pioneering the utilization of 3-D printing and additional technologies in fashion and other industries at his eponymous studio. “It’s really just about an emphasis on the machine. A needle and thread are technology. But the question is not about whether or not we should use technology; the question is what you want to gain from it. Do you want to be able to make your craftsman able to do things you weren’t able to do before?”

Perhaps the most visible example the indus-try is seeing today in terms of overlapping haute and fast fashion is the fact that cutting-edge machine-based techniques are increasingly con-sidered couture. These include, of course, 3-D printed pieces that are designed on a computer and based on a precise scan of the model before being printed by machine.

Bitonti became a household name among industry insiders in 2013 with a 3-D printed dress worn by Dita Von Tesse during an event at the Ace Hotel in New York. Created in collaboration with Michael Schmidt Studios and printed by Shapeways, a 3-D printing service based in New York, the seemingly flowing, nylon mesh-style black gown was assembled from 17 pieces and featured more than 12,000 Swarovski crystals.

Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen, a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture whose work appears in the Met’s exhibit, has been sending 3-D printed pieces, often created in collaboration with scientists and/or other artists, down the runway for years. In a recent show in Paris, van Herpen illustrated the combination of traditional and innovative techniques including hand weaving, laser cut-ting and 3-D printing with a dress that was woven live onto model and actress Gwendoline Christie who was lying in the middle of the run-way. For vanguards such as van Herpen and her experimental peers, new methods of creation allow for different shapes and complexities in their progressive couture art.

This 3-D printed dress by Iris van Herpen features silicon feather structures and mold-ings of bird heads on a cotton base.

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Looking Toward the FutureBitonti emphasizes that the widespread use of 3-D printed fashion still faces challenges, both by houses that are hesitant to embrace new tech-nologies and production techniques that adhere to manufacturing limitations and economies of scale. Though they have mostly been reserved for the runway until now, designers are also finding ways to incorporate techniques like 3-D printing into more commercial products, espe-cially shoes and accessories.

LA-based stylist Heather Smith points to laser cutting as another example of a technique that was embraced by fashion houses and has become more widely available. “I believe the argument that laser cutting is couture is absolutely valid because it compares closely to lace, which was seen first in the couturiers. We have seen an emer-gence of technology-embracing ateliers such as Alexander McQueen under [Creative Director] Sarah Burton,” she said. “... Laser cutting has

become so readily available it’s hard to remember it was once only a couture technique.”

Bitonti believes that with the spread of digital technologies in fashion, there will also be a dis-ruption in the traditional sense of value. “The big conceptual question about where materials are trending towards is becoming increasing digital,” he explains. “The material property is becoming a product of software and I question what that means for luxury because you’re going to have a class of materials—what I would call digital materials—that are infinitely reproducible. It’s going to be something people can make at home or at a store, and they’re going to have amazing qualities that are better than what producers are doing at scale.”

As the lines between machine and handmade fashion continue to become obscure, Bitonti believes this process may happen sooner than many people think. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. M