Fashion staples given superluxe treatment

Established notions on which fashion items can be termed ‘investment’ pieces is being challenged.For current and forthcoming fashion seasons, designers from Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Balmain and Cavalli have all taken a new approach to the

denim staple, creating luxury jeans – many for over a £1000 price tag.

Couture usually associated with show stopping, elaborately designed pieces even looked to casuals and gave them the high fashion factor. Chanel S/S couture for instance took these basics in blues, blacks and pinks and gave them a luxe treatment with trompe l’oeil pockets and jewelled buttons.
Challenged by the media as to whether in rocky financial times, the fashion landscape really needed to advance a key high street staple, Chanel creative director, Karl Lagerfeld commented that they illustrated ‘how to wear couture today.’

Other big design houses seem to think he has a point. Ralph Lauren will launch a standalone denim range in the fall with price points reaching over £1000 for pieces embellished with fringing, leather and studs.

Nor is it just jeans. Plain white tees, the other regular fall back in any modern woman’s wardrobe, has been given an embellished, sequin heavy, tulled makeover. With Jil Sander, Michael Kors, and Proenza Schouler, all houses recognised for their tailoring and chic aesthetic, using the white tee to sit with sccoped maxi skirts and sharp fitted trousers. Trickling down to contemporary fashion, labels have seen the demand and made it a starting point – think James Perse, Vince, J Crew.

Roisin Murphy, women’s casual wear buyer at Selfrigdes, says, ‘People don’t wear tees in the same casual way anymore. For the first time, T-shirts are being bought and worn in a style focused way. These T-shirts give a casual/effortless look to an outfit while keeping that element of luxury.

With these luxe, often art inspired and reinvented classics now costing anything up to £1000, it seems a reverse trend is happening – couture like daywear.

With fashion’s current obsession with an easy day to evening wear transition, it looks set to be a continuing trend.