I went to Borders on Charing Cross Road today to look at the fashion magazines. I really wanted to look at something Russian but my only option was Vogue and it had most of the same adverts as the October edition of British Vogue. This made me sad because I feel like there's an international homogenisation of fashion going on, like the cultural influence that should be evident in clothing from different places is dissipating and flowing away. I really would like to get a tangible sense of Russian design. In my head there's a small but clear working knowledge of Asian design and Middle Eastern design but I don't have that type of compass for Russian design that came before modernism and Soviet imagery. I suppose that's what is striking about political dominance from the perspective of cultural image, when I think Middle Eastern that essentially means Byzantine Empire. There are obvious differences between designed silhouettes in Italy and Sweden and Japanese designers all have something in common even if it's just that they're surprising to my english eyes but could I make the same statement about Russia? Not right now but hopefully that reference will make itself apparent later.

A week ago I had seen very few images of Michelle Obama and most of them hadn't presented her particularly well. I had assumed that her interest in her appearance was focused on her role as a politician's wife because she seemed to be a very conservative dresser, prone to pearls and roll necked tops. Then I found out that she was listed as one of the best dressed women of 2007 by Vanity Fair magazine and I thought it was worthy of investigation. I couldn't believe that the photos I had seen could represent the wardrobe of someone on such a list.



Michelle Obama has style and her designer of choice is Maria Pinto who is based in Chicago. Her clothes are beautiful but sadly her website isn't up to date. Pinto's marketing spiel says that she is known for matching the finest European fabrics with modern American design, I'm unclear as to what modern American design actually means, probably clothes designed by an American citizen in America but Obama seems to have made a good choice and it's pleasant to see a democrat dressing so well and providing some competition for the Bush family.

“The end of haute couture's symbolic preeminence has as its corollary the loss of its clientele.” In the October edition of Vogue there is an article on haute couture in conjunction with the exhibition currently showing at the Victoria and Albert Museum. There is much discussion surrounding the loss of handmade, fit to client garments as common. The emphasis is turned away from the growth of industrialised, ready to wear garments that have allowed all people to dress well in interesting, exciting clothing and although that's usually my focus I find the mourning of couture as a large industry easy to understand. It is right to mourn the loss of couture but foolish to forget the benefit that led to it becoming less common and unfortunately to couture becoming more expensive. Writers like Gilles Lipovetsky, who wrote the sentence quoted above for The Empire of Fashion do not forget such things. Beauty should be available to all people, not just the rich or the famous who wear such dresses to film premieres and award ceremonies. Haute couture will never be accessible to the majority of us.

I am watching The Secret World of Haute Couture on BBC4 and it opens with women discussing the wonder of wearing a dress that fits like a second skin. Those types of dresses are complete outfits, you wear no underwear because it is built into the dress. They are often boned and it takes many fittings to truly build a costume for a woman. Only lucky women with huge amounts of money can afford such luxury, internationally there are only around 2000 clients.. It costs approximately $100,000 to purchase a dress. Haute couture has to be made in Paris and it is rare.

Karl Lagerfeld talks about his experience of falling in love with a Christian Dior outfit as a child. He sketches clothing designs with ease, talks about the dreams that give him his best ideas. The women and men in the atelier have the most astounding abilities in their hands that are so precise and skilled. They are artists, creating unique, wonderful pieces. Coco Chanel criticised haute couture in a 1953 issue of Vogue: “I am no longer interested n dressing a few hundred women, private clients; I shall dress thousands of women. But... a widely repeated fashion, seen everywhere, cheaply produced must start from luxury.” It is interesting then that Chanel with Lagerfeld as its Artistic Director is buying up ateliers in order to ensure their survival and the continued presence of haute couture. I do not think it is a mistake to preserve an artform but I understand why Coco Chanel wanted to broaden her influence, ensure that thousands dressed well and importantly she backed up her statements and ignored the copying of her couture items by others. While designers like Paul Poiret tried to stop copies, Chanel appeared to do nothing in this area.

While I am tremendously jealous of the women who can afford these items and a part of me disapproves of this inequality of dress, the fact that very, very few people can afford to purchase haute couture clothing, I do not want this artform to die. My feeling is the same where other arts are concerned, I don't think painting should die because prints are available yet I cannot afford to purchase paintings. Mass production remains a current innovation in the span of history, it allows us to own interesting things yet couture should not die in the face of that, even if it is limited for good reason these days.

At the end of The Secret World of Haute Couture I watch as the journalist who has been interviewing women who buy these unique, original garments finally tries on a coat. Her stance changes, her shoulders go back, she feels beautiful and that is lovely to see. The power that clothes have to bring out all the best things about us into our physicality at times feels unmatched. I hope that one day I will have the same opportunity and will feel that second skin.

There's a slightly patronising article about Duro Olowu in this month's edition of UK Vogue. Luckily I don't expect anything else from the fashion magazine, which has always been aimed at people who either don't have to budget to buy food or do have to budget but will ignore Vogue's absurdities (because they're excited about the very existence of Duro Olowu. I am excited.) Other magazines might interview Olowu but in all likelihood I would have to get past images of flourescent leggings and fashion models clutching religious icons or vinyl records* to find him. Visual pain or Vogue pain? At least the latter gives me an impression of the fashion world rather than the world of faux-cool.

Olowu has just opened a boutique on Portobello Road, he designs clothes that feature beautiful prints. Not only that but they're cut exquisitely and they make these amazing silhouettes that verge on textured, very angular with corners that jut out all over the place. The combination of the shapes and prints really draw me in, Jigsaw had some clothes recently that I was very drawn to, busy natural prints that contrasted and almost clashed with each other and Duro Olowu's autumn/winter '07 collection appealed to exactly the same part of me. Even his plainer clothes are beautiful and affecting, here's something that I think would appeal to everyone:



Now on to Paul and Joe. These clothes remind me of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, perhaps some other programmes from my childhood as well. They look extremely English, are often voluminous in unexpected places and I wouldn't expect to like them but I really do. The purple dungarees are definitely my favourite, there's something really appealing and approachable about them, they look like a piece of clothing that would be really fun to wear and everyone needs clothes like that. Clothes to play in that don't make you look too young but inspire simple enthusiasm all the same. I think they hit on something really good because fashion is so often so terribly serious and pious, even the more extreme couture that is unusual and extravagant is rarely just good fun and there's always room for joyous garments!



*clearly to some vinyl records are religious icons