Haute couture looking threadbare

Outside the Christian Lacroix shop on Paris's fashionable Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore, two middle-aged American tourists are debating whether to take a photograph.

"It might not be here much longer," a woman says to her husband as she takes a quick snap of the facade before moving on.

Inside, the shops are full of opulently designed clothes - a gold brocade jacket has a price tag of €2790 ($5780) - but they are devoid of customers. Next door, a pharmacy is squeezed incongruously between the high-end designer boutiques, its window displaying boxes of Band-Aids.

Looking at the shops side-by-side, one cannot help but be struck by the thought that the Lacroix label needs more than a sticking plaster to save it.

Last week, after six months in administration amid a desperate search for a buyer, the Lacroix fashion house was made to abandon its haute couture and ready-to-wear lines as part of a restructuring plan approved by the Paris commercial court.

Over the 22 years during which he had been in business, Lacroix, one of France's best known designers, had never turned a profit. Instead he ran up losses of almost €10 million and owes a further €44 million to suppliers and the Falic Group, the duty-free retailer that bought the company in 2005.

The restructuring will license out the Lacroix name for the sale of perfume and accessories, with a workforce of a dozen, reduced from 124.

"Lacroix embodied the brilliance of our country," said France's Industry Minister, Christian Estrosi, when the news was announced, and indeed Lacroix's flamboyant designs and dazzling colours seemed to epitomise the very essence of couture. His clothes were over-the-top, indulgent and, most importantly, had the priceless cachet of being unique.

The demise of this once mighty establishment reflects a far deeper malaise within a highly secretive industry struggling to cope with changing times. Global recession has seen a worrying downturn in the fortunes of Paris's haute couturiers.

The price of an haute couture dress, hand-made to a client's specification, starts at about €20,000. It is a luxury reserved only for the very rich and there are estimated to be fewer than 500 buyers worldwide.

In recent months, with personal fortunes haemorrhaging, these customers are far less willing to spend such vast sums.

"There are fewer clients," admits Anne Valerie Hash, one of the new generation of French haute couture designers. "When their husbands lose millions on the stock exchange, you find that women won't buy 10 dresses, they'll buy one."

There are few signs, however, of belt-tightening in the headquarters of the haute couturier Stephane Rolland.

In a spacious room overlooking the Avenue George V, Rolland leans back on a vast brown leather sofa and surveys his empire. We are surrounded by rails of exquisite dresses, each painstakingly hand-sewn and adorned with a final flourish of pleats or sequins.

Rolland is a relative newcomer to the esoteric world of haute couture - he set up his label two years ago - but he is already one of the most commercially successful. He has between 80 and 100 regular clients, including Queen Rania of Jordan and British celebrity Cheryl Cole. The majority of his clients come from emerging economies in the Middle East.

"I'm telling you, inside their abayas, these girls wear the most sophisticated clothes in the world. I can finance a whole season by doing three weddings in Saudi Arabia."

The recession is still having an effect even here. "In terms of quantity of orders, I have a bigger amount but at smaller prices," he says. A Stephane Rolland creation can take 200 hours to make and starts at around €50,000, but he has cut his prices by 20 per cent. "In general, there is a change because of the recession. For the first time, I've noticed some of my clients now pay in instalments because they are frightened of what they see on the television."

Outside the luxury bubble, the problems facing the high-end fashion industry have broader repercussions, too. The "haute couture" appellation is tightly regulated by French law and has formal guidelines that specify that a house must employ at least 15 people full time. At present there are only 15 members of this exclusive club, each relying on a small army of artisans and seamstresses (the so-called petites mains, or little hands) to meet exacting standards.

"If you want to have a good name, your product has to be perfect," says Rolland, who employs 20 seamstresses. "You cannot sell a dress for €20,000 unless it's perfect. Haute couture is a special label; it has a special spirit."

But the ranks of the petites mains are thinning. The slowing sales have had knock-on effects in places such as Caudry, a town of 14,000 people in northern France that is home to 10 lacemakers, including two of the world's biggest weavers for haute couture.

About 13 per cent of the 800 lace-making jobs in Caudry disappeared in 2008 and more will go this year. According to the French national statistics agency, the number of small businesses serving the high-end fashion industry has shrunk from 468 nine years ago to 115 in 2007.

"I'm sad when I see that artisanship is going to die," says Hash. "All that tradition is going, and once it's lost, it's lost forever. To think of Paris losing haute couture is like saying London will no longer have Savile Row. It is our national pride."

Some of the bigger houses are buying up workshops to guarantee the future of their artisans. Chanel has bought six that no longer have heirs to run them, including Lesage, France's oldest embroidery producer, but smaller houses are struggling.

For Harriet Quick, the fashion features director for British Vogue, such specialised craftsmanship gives the haute couture industry its intangible appeal. "On the one hand, you can say 'this is mad, how can you spend so much money on a dress?'

"But actually how can you criticise such a display of craftsmanship? It takes years to learn. You could apply the same equation to the car industry - 'Why bother making this beautiful Aston Martin?' - but it's the kind of argument you very rarely hear."

It remains to be seen whether the 14 other haute couturiers in Paris follow Rolland's example. But designer Hash says it is too early to say haute couture is in terminal decline.

"I'm not afraid we'll lose haute couture altogether. There will always be a demand for beautifully hand-made, one-off pieces."

* Behind the labels

Chanel: One of the most recognised names in haute couture, the Chanel label goes from strength to strength, with sales of perfume, cosmetics and accessories ensuring that the fashion house remains financially robust. Under Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel recently bought six haute couture workshops to keep them in business.
Celebrity fans: Nicole Kidman, Keira Knightley.

Givenchy: The house was founded in 1952 by Hubert de Givenchy, a French aristocrat famed for making many of Audrey Hepburn's clothes. It is now owned by the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. Riccardo Tisci is chief designer and his haute couture is inspired by gothic darkness and space-age minimalism.
Celebrity fans: Jennifer Connelly, Liv Tyler.

Jean Paul Gaultier: Gaultier started his haute couture line in 1997 after founding a successful ready-to-wear and perfume business and co-presenting the British television series Eurotrash. Gaultier is known for his overtly sexualised clothes; his inspiration ranges from imperial India to Hassidic Judaism.
Celebrity fans: Kylie Minogue, Rihanna.

Christian Dior: One of the world's top fashion houses, founded by Christian Dior in 1946 and made famous for the "New Look" style of dress. The quintessentially French label has a British chief designer in John Galliano.
Celebrity fans: Charlize Theron, Demi Moore.Observer

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