For Spring 2016, couture embraces street!

Few seasons ago, it was hard to imagine a baseball cap on the rarefied Elie Saab runway. However, Spring 2016 lines see haute couture warmly hugging street style. Bomber jackets paired with shorts seen at Armani Prive being another case in point. Couturiers are catering to the lifestyle of the new and evolved wearer who demands ease and practicality. And this new wave of modernity complements that sensibility.

So picture easy breezy separates, a mix and match of wearable pieces, which are seasonless-yet-fun.  

Hedi is street's poster boy

Designer Wendell Rodricks says, "It is but natural that couture is influenced by the street as the designers who handle couture are now a younger lot. Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent, for example, has always looked at the street or underground for inspiration. Not only are they looking at the street, Slimane is not showing this year in Paris but Los Angeles for Saint Laurent. This said, there are still many clients with surplus cash to splurge on traditional couture with exquisite handwork. I think the ideal couture stands at places like Maison Margiela where Galliano is mixing fantasy with practicality, couture with street."

Street style: a recurring monogram

Asmita Aggarwal, Editor, L'Officiel India says, "I am a big fan of lensman Bill Cunningham, who has been chronicling street fashion of New Yorkers, as the octogenarian rides a bike all over the city armed with a camera for the past many decades. This month for The New York Times he has captured women in animal prints. But that's not all. I would say the biggest contribution to this movement has been by Rei Kawakubo of Comme Des Garcons and the street style at Dover Street markets which she visualised and made a rage. 'I wanted to present high fashion in a store reminiscent of a street market,' she had said and it became iconic. Street style has been a recurring monogram for fashion aficionados, who have loved it for its innate simplicity and character!"

Couturiers take safer route

Sujata Assomull, Consulting Fashion Editor, The Khaleej Times says, "I think we saw a lot of safer styles at couture - so there were lots of "princess" dresses. The sort of dresses that conjure up images of couture in its hey days. It is very literal expression of couture, and then we saw the other side of the coin. Street Fashion. If you are looking to be different, you go to the street - that's another stereotype, a safe tested one. And I think that is what we say in couture week- fashion playing a little safe. And that speaks of the current economic climate, which is a little uncertain, hence fashion is playing it safe."

Casual couture

Zahra Khan, CEO and Editor-in-chief, Hauterfly says, "We've witnessed a lot of 'casual couture' -- if you could call it that -- at the Paris shows, with the clothes exuding a very distinctive, edgy glamour. Couture collections are usually dreamy, abstract, artful interpretations of great style, but even dreams have to be translated into reality to make sense in the larger context. That's why streetwear -- and youth culture -- influence high fashion so much. It's exciting to see how young people put their clothes together, expertly mixing high and low to make a visual statement that's so individualistic. And individuality really begins on the streets, where ordinary people often channel their personalities through their clothing. As we all know, fashion is all about interpretation and it becomes irrelevant if it has no connection to the world at large. Street style therefore becomes a big catalyst for inspiration because it provides designers with ideas for new proportions, colours and what not, and is the best source for curated fashion outside of a show."