Paris, Jan 23: Paris couture week drew to a close Thursday with a question mark hanging over the future of catwalk displays as some designers opted for intimate settings, while others sought maximum publicity with large-scale shows. Emanuel Ungaro and Givenchy unveiled their outfits to tiny audiences in the padded luxury of their private showrooms. By contrast, John Galliano summoned 1,000 guests to a polo ground outside Paris for his Christian Dior show.
"The time has come to see haute couture back in the places where it established its roots and its nobility," Ungaro said in a statement.

"Through vanity, no doubt, we have exposed ourselves to ridicule by staging shows in the most varied places, thereby losing part of our soul," he added, in a veiled dig at Galliano.

The rift comes just days after Didier Grumbach, head of the body governing French fashion, said the system of showing ready-to-wear six months in advance was "collective suicide" as it fueled widespread copying of designs by chain stores.
Thousands of images of the fashion shows are instantly beamed around the globe, providing a ready blueprint for copying by lower-priced mass-market retailers.

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Grumbach suggested staging private viewings for buyers, with separate media shows shortly before the outfits hit stores.

The issue of copying is of lesser relevance to the haute couture industry, because its made-to-measure creations are so luxurious that in most cases they are impossible to duplicate.

At the Dior show, a gold dress was embroidered with 140,000 bugle beads. Some outfits required 1,000 hours of handiwork.

The question of whether to scale down catwalk shows goes to the heart of the debate over the future of haute couture.
With a global client base estimated at 200 to 1,000 people, the main purpose of the unprofitable sector is to generate advertising for more affordable accessories and perfume. That is a strong argument for the blockbuster show.
Bureau Report