Realists and dreamers compete at Haute Couture Week in Paris

The legitimacy of couture and its often ostentatious excess on show can occasionally attract scorn, especially in times when the couturier's work is far removed from many a person's reality. So much of what is shown at couture weeks nowadays, with celebrity front rows meticulously documented and shared by the millions on social media, seems to be spectacle without substance. So much so, that it’s easy to forget that the often times larger than life clothes that take hundreds of hours to make are ultimately meant to speak to the select few real life customers who can afford them.