Tuesday 11 March 2025

Haute Couture is an art form, inseparable from fashion, that achieved some of its finest moments during the years following World War II. During this period, Paris reaffirmed its position as the Capital of Fashion and its reputation for producing the most luxurious and creative clothes money could buy. Three names became synonymous with luxury, glamour and elegance during haute couture’s most exclusive and fertile period – Christian Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga and Jacques Fath. Undisputed masters of mid 20th century haute couture, Cristóbal Balenciaga was the father of Contemporary fashion, Christian Dior redefined post-war fashion in 1947 with his ‘New Look’ and Jacques Fath, now relatively unknown, was an innovator known for dressing “the chic young Parisienne”.  This lecture explores the life and creative output of three designers during the period widely considered as the zenith of French haute couture.

Scott Schiavone: 

Scott is a Fashion Historian and Curator and an alumnus of both University of Glasgow and London College of Fashion. He has worked with fashion and textile collections across the UK, including Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland and The Harris Museum in Preston where he is currently the Decorative Art Curator. Scott has his own YouTube channel, Fashion &…which now has over 5,500 subscribers. His areas of expertise are nineteenth and twentieth century French, British and American womenswear, luxury fashion accessories and marginalised social histories of fashion.