本期沙龙的主讲人，Gilles Montezin，是一位Haute Couture（高级定制）设计师，他为许多艺人、名模、公众人物定制时装，其作品也出现在大量影视作品和时尚杂志中。他的耀眼简历请参考主讲人介绍。Gilles热心公益，创办非盈利机构International Foundation for Women Artists，也多次为高级定制和时尚设计专业的学生提供讲座。
本期沙龙，Gilles将带领大家回顾时尚和高级时装定制的历史。Haute Couture这个概念如何在巴黎诞生、发展？有哪些里程碑式的设计师和作品？有哪些顶级院校？谁从纳粹手中挽救了Haute Couture？香奈儿的轶事？Haute Couture在纽约焕发出什么样的生命力？时装周应该看些什么？
The talk is intended to people with minimal to no fashion background. I believe my talk can interest people with various of background since fashion is always linked to all aspects of life.
The talk is part presentation, part Q&A. The "History of Haute Couture" talk is an opportunity to connect people who are curious about fashion, its "who, what, where, how" and to discover the little secrets of those who made it.
Full of anecdotes about people, places and times, the talk will go through time from the birth of Haute-couture in Paris to present time, NYC.
A period of Q&A with the host / audience will follow for those who want to know more.
Brief synopsis:
-- What was before modern fashion designers? How were clothes designed and made?
-- How did Haute-couture started? Why? Who was the "father of Haute-couture" ?
-- The very first "couturiers"
-- The very first multi-brand designer
-- Creation of the Haute-couture union , the trade mark, and the school of Haute-couture
-- Chanel, her story and secrets
-- Fashion during WWII, who saved Haute-couture from the Nazis?
-- After the war, nothing is the same
-- New wave of "designers"
-- What happened on November 28, 1973?
-- Fashion now
-- Q&A period with attendance
Gilles Montezin received his professional training at l'Ecole de la Haute Couture in Paris. After completing his studies, he went to work at l'Opera Bastille where he perfected techniques for elaborate period costuming that contribute to his craft. At the same time, he worked for both Loris Azzaro and Christian Lacroix Haute Couture and remained at Maison Lacroix for eight years. During this period, Mr. Montezin completed designs for Madonna and actresses Catherine Zeta-Jones and Monica Bellucci.
In 2004, he moved to New York City to start his own company. The designer has since had pieces filmed in "All My Children", "Guiding Light", "Ugly Betty", "PBS Live From Lincoln Center", and "Barbara Walters Special" television productions and also in the feature films "Sex and the City", and "Confessions of a Shopaholic". Celebrities he has dressed are actresses Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Mary Tyler Moore, Debra Messing , Lisa Marie, news correspondents Andrea Mitchell and Courtney Hazlett, international top model Carmen Dell'Orefice, and opera singers Susan Graham and Erica Sunnegardh.
His clothes have been featured in Social Life, Elle , Women's Wear Daily, Ebony, Brilliant magazine, OK!, The New York Times,WWD, The Huffington Post, The Palm Beach Daily News and British Karen magazine ,and Papercity magazine.
