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Given the economic climate, you could be forgiven for assuming that shopping is the last thing on most people's minds. Even the more profligate are less likely to splash out on designer clothing than they used to be, in the Western world at least. But then there are the handful of women wealthy enough to spend tens of thousands on a single garment that has been hand-cut, sewn, embroidered and over-embroidered, then fitted to suit their every idiosyncrasy and curve.
And spending they are. If the brains behind the most feted fashion houses are to be believed, their haute couture collections are recording significant gains across the board - for princesses, the wives of business tycoons and, of course, stalwarts of the red carpet, it appears that such spending is a mere drop in the ocean. So what will such women be wearing once their hand-worked wardrobe is delivered in grand boxes and wrapped in more tissue paper than is strictly seemly?
It is rumoured that Donatella Versace has long had her own swimwear made by the petites mains who staff her haute couture atelier: a far-from-demure neon yellow bathing costume featured in her presentation, which kicked off proceedings at the recent collections. Versace said she was thinking of "glamorous warriors" for the first Atelier Versace collection shown in Paris since 2004, and in their silver and gold sheath dresses, super-structured minis, thigh-high crocodile skin boots and gladiator sandals, the models looked fierce.
Source: New Zealand Herald