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00:09O Clube de Vida
00:30o mundo inteiro, todas as mulheres.
00:34O que elas têm em comum é o desejo e a possibilidade
00:37de adquirir os mais caros que o dinheiro pode comprar.
00:45Eles se sentem como nada mais.
00:47Eles são muito, muito lindos.
00:49É como se vestir a segunda pele.
00:53Quando você entra o mundo de haute couture,
00:56você vê que essa dress é uma parte de você,
00:59você coloca e não pensa mais sobre isso,
01:01porque isso tem sido moldado na sua pele, se você.
01:05Para mim, haute couture é como um virus.
01:08Quando você começou,
01:09não havia nada de jeito que você pudesse fazer.
01:12Quem são essas mulheres?
01:13Por que elas gastam R$100,000 em uma roupa?
01:17O que são suas regras?
01:18E por que é isso tudo bem hush-hush?
01:29Eu vou tentar infiltrar o mundo secretário de haute couture
01:33para traitar os clubes,
01:35encontrar com eles,
01:37conversar com eles,
01:38conversar com eles,
01:39conversar com eles,
01:40conversar com eles.
01:47Mas, apesar da pressa,
01:49muitas pessoas não são membros do clube.
01:52Eles apenas lindem a roupa para grandes noites.
01:56Um estilista de minha irmãs
01:58começou a fazer algumas calls
01:59e nós descobriu que muitas pessoas
02:01estavam interessadas para me usar
02:02e é maravilhoso.
02:05É maravilhoso.
02:05Real club members
02:07buy their dresses
02:08and most shun publicity.
02:11So where do they congregate?
02:13Not surprisingly,
02:14it's Paris.
02:15If clothes aren't handmade in Paris
02:18they can't be called haute couture.
02:20And twice a year
02:21the city becomes
02:22the club's unofficial headquarters
02:24as members fly in
02:26from all over the world
02:27to see the haute couture shows,
02:29staged by the fashion houses,
02:31which have the allure of exclusivity
02:33but which are household names.
02:37I was in the right place
02:38but the fashion houses
02:40are famously discreet
02:41about two things,
02:42prices and clients.
02:44So they'd be no help
02:46in introducing me to members.
02:50I'd written to over 30 women
02:51I thought might be coming to Paris
02:53but it was like hitting a brick wall.
02:55Almost all of them refused to meet me.
03:00I began to wonder
03:02if I'd ever get my foot in the door.
03:05Finally, I struck lucky with a newer member.
03:09She was staying where they all stay,
03:11at the Ritz.
03:13Becca Casson Thrash is a philanthropist
03:16and the wife of a seriously rich
03:18Texan oil and gas tycoon.
03:21She agreed to let me in
03:22on some of the secrets of the club.
03:24Let me tell you something
03:25about what I've learned
03:26after being here for five years now.
03:29The haute couture is like a private club
03:32and many of the members
03:33don't want to let you in.
03:35They put you on the sixth row
03:37in the very back of the tent
03:39and you know, you just have to
03:40you have to be patient
03:42and get to know people
03:43and let them get to know you.
03:45It all changed when Becca raised $450,000 for the American Friends of the Louvre.
03:51Discreetly, she was fast-tracked to the front row of the Paris shows.
03:55She's now a star name and a fully paid-up member of the haute couture club.
04:01Becca's obsession with fashion and haute couture in particular started when she was very young.
04:06You know, I do not come from a family of means.
04:11I come from a loving family, the working class.
04:16But when I was growing up in a little small town in South Texas,
04:20I would see the Vogues on the stands at the grocery store
04:23but we couldn't afford to buy them back then.
04:25So while my mommy was buying the groceries, I would be flipping through
04:28and it became an obsession with me, fashion.
04:32So how much would one of those cost?
04:34Well, it's all over the place.
04:36I mean, you can find a piece for, you know, for €20,000
04:40and then they can exceed six figures.
04:43It's often that I'm chairing a very important charity event.
04:48Becca stressed the importance of philanthropy in all this.
04:51Well, it's the only way I could ever even remotely justify it.
04:54I mean, I spend, I don't have children and I spend most of my day raising money
05:02and so I come over, you know, looking for one specific item
05:05for something for the Prince of Wales Foundation.
05:08You know, when I went to Balmoral last year,
05:11I wore a Dior jacket with a Ralph Rucci haute couture skirt.
05:18So for Becca, the vast sums she raises at her charity gigs
05:22squares the huge amount she spends on the haute couture she wears on those occasions.
05:28But what about the rest of the members of the club?
05:33I needed someone on the inside, someone who'd talk.
05:38I'd been told by a source about a Russian baroness, now retired,
05:43who'd worked at the highest level within the business for over 30 years.
05:47She agreed to be filmed.
05:49She loves mascara and makeup, ugly clean.
05:53I asked what had driven her clients to spend such fortunes.
05:59It's a lady that if she buys a car, she'll get the best car.
06:04If she goes to buy furniture, she'll buy the real thing.
06:09And if she wants a wonderful suit, she'll go to the best that can provide for it.
06:15I think it's a question most of all of quality.
06:18That is the good reason to buy couture.
06:21I think, I wouldn't call it a bad reason, but there may be more superficial reason,
06:27is wanting to be part of a certain world.
06:31Part of glamorous people who do that, and ladies who dress like that, being part of that group.
06:42How much does an haute couture piece cost, and has this cost changed?
06:47You know, Yves Saint Laurent closed in 2002, I think things have gone up.
06:52But a suit and a blouse would cost anything between $20,000 and $30,000.
06:57But an embroidered dress could cost $100,000.
07:03These prices were astonishing, higher than I'd ever imagined.
07:08Time to actually see some of this quality clothing.
07:12I'd read about a club member with homes both in New York and here in Paris, who had a massive
07:18collection.
07:19But would she even meet me?
07:22When I eventually made contact, she first asked her husband permission.
07:28He agreed.
07:29Doors were opening.
07:32Once an air hostess, Susan Goodfriend is the wife of legendary Wall Street banker John Goodfriend.
07:40Susan had built up her large wardrobe during the heady Bond boom of the 80s.
07:45I was about to get my very first sighting of haute couture in the flesh.
07:52This is what started me on my voyage with the haute couture.
08:00And as you can see, the handwork is extraordinary with all the ribbons and the crystal aurora borealis in the
08:08center.
08:11And as I say, I've just never gotten over the beauty of this dress.
08:16And to this day, it enchants me.
08:19I've always been passionate about textiles for as long as I can remember.
08:23And this for me was the ultimate.
08:25I bought this dress.
08:26I felt like I had been transformed.
08:30It was very much the way a young girl feels about when you see your first Cinderella movie.
08:36And I was enchanted.
08:39I was convinced I was the prettiest girl in the street.
08:42You see?
08:43The whole thing you snap open.
08:47I think that haute couture does change you from the point of view that you enter into another world.
08:55And it is that very refined world and rarefied world that has become increasingly smaller.
09:05And this one I love.
09:07This is a Chanel from my vintage collection.
09:11And this I love because I think the textile is so amazing.
09:19I love the colors.
09:21I love the textile.
09:26And of course, this is one of those dresses where you can't eat because the bustier is so tight.
09:33And this is done in cashmere.
09:36And here you see all the work and the bones and the underpinnings.
09:41I learned from Susan that as a club member, it's not enough to wear the clothes.
09:45You've got to really appreciate how they've been made.
09:49It's part of the club subculture.
09:51For Susan, haute couture is a wearable art form and she's a patron.
09:55It's worth every penny.
09:57How many pieces of haute couture would you say you had yourself?
10:04Oh, I have a few pieces.
10:10Club members don't go to the Paris shows just to see the clothes.
10:14Equally important is the catwalk moment when the house designer himself takes a curtain call.
10:19Club members worship them.
10:22Valentino never stops.
10:24And he's a really a fabulous person.
10:28I love Jean-Paul Gaultier.
10:30I love him as a person.
10:31So fun.
10:33I just love him.
10:34I love everything about him.
10:39Christian Dior's house designer is John Galliano.
10:42He's a genius, unequivocal genius.
10:45Karl Lagerfeld is Chanel's top man.
10:47He's a genius.
10:49He's a true genius.
10:51And I think it gets better.
10:53And he goes from strength to strength.
10:56And I think he's unique.
10:58It seems to be protocol amongst club members to swear allegiance to their god designers.
11:05Susan simply adored Karl Lagerfeld.
11:08He's Chanel's top designer.
11:10And it's his job to continue the tradition of the founder, Coco Chanel.
11:18For six months I'd been negotiating access to Chanel and to Karl.
11:23There were terms and conditions.
11:26I'd soon discovered the house of Chanel is highly protective of its brand.
11:31And of its main man's privacy.
11:41Finally, there he was.
11:44I reckon Becca and Susan would be green with envy if they'd known I was about to get close-up
11:50and personal with their genius.
12:04What was your very first experience of haute couture?
12:09As a child I saw a collection by Dior when I was 11 years old in Hamburg.
12:16And I loved it.
12:17I loved the mood of it.
12:18And I had seen photos in magazines and things like this.
12:21And that year it was in November.
12:22And that year I asked for a subscription for Vogue for Christmas and got it.
12:26I still have the old issues.
12:27Because I didn't even know in those days that one could make a living out of that.
12:31I mean, that was not a job then.
12:36The best ideas I had in my life, I saw them in my sleep in the early morning.
12:41Like this, it pops more out of the page when you make some colour around.
12:47Oh, it's lovely.
12:54I don't go to bed thinking about dresses.
12:56I read books unrelated to all that.
12:59Not that I don't like that.
13:00But suddenly, in the early morning, I see, especially for couture, not only I see the silhouette, the spirit, but
13:07I even see the set.
13:10I'd asked if I could follow the making of an haute couture piece.
13:14Maybe then I'd understand what all the fuss was about.
13:18Karl agreed to my request.
13:20For the coming Paris show, his magic pen is creating a dress made almost entirely of feathers.
13:28At this point, it's an industrial secret.
13:31A secret only me and my cameraman are being allowed to share.
13:38A few miles away, another hidden world of haute couture.
13:42An atelier, with the job of incorporating some of the world's rarest and costliest feathers into Karl's design.
13:50Feathers specially farmed in South Africa.
13:58The dress is in two bits.
14:01The bottom bit is being pinned back at HQ, while the top is around the corner being embroidered.
14:08It was like watching the pyramids being built.
14:11Here was Karl, as Ramesses II, and a massive workforce beavering away on his behalf.
14:17The decadence of it all. It was breathtaking.
14:21How long does it take to make an haute couture piece from start to finish?
14:30About 150 hours.
14:34An average of that.
14:35The material is prepared with irons, special irons, special way of ironing it.
14:40You work the material.
14:42You don't cut in a raw material.
14:44And once you've done that, the advantage is, if you have even a silk dress done by haute couture, work
14:50that way.
14:51You take it and you pack it in your suitcase, you arrive God knows where, you take it off and
14:57it's impeccable.
15:00It was once a booming industry. Just after the war, 46,000 people were employed in it. Now it's down
15:08to some 4,500.
15:09And the reason? Mass production. Factory-made clothes, ready to wear, have become the norm both for rich and poor
15:18alike.
15:19Skilled artisans are now hanging on by a thread. There are only a handful of ateliers left.
15:25Chanel's been buying most of them up to try and ensure haute couture stays alive.
15:30And all of these things are what makes an haute couture dress so special.
15:37And there are fewer and fewer of these ateliers that exist.
15:41And if they're not supported, you lose an art form.
15:46And I've always considered haute couture the most extraordinary art form.
15:52I may have been let into the secret of the feather dress, but Karl wouldn't let me into another secret.
15:58The identity of the dress's future owner.
16:01Club members can breathe a sigh of relief.
16:04They don't want to be mentioned. You know, there are many, many rich people today.
16:08The public have no idea who they are, how they look.
16:11And they don't want people to know how they look and who they are and where the money comes from,
16:14you see.
16:15So, don't ask me too many questions in that area.
16:18Because it's like a doctor. It's a miracle secret.
16:23Not all the haute couture designers are based in Paris full time.
16:28Twice a year, the Italian fashion house Valentino comes over with its staff and rents rooms across from the Ritz.
16:36Mr Valentino, as I was asked to call him, is putting the final touches to his collection at rehearsals.
16:43He's been showing haute couture in Paris for nearly 20 years.
16:47I asked how it had changed over those two decades, as his models practice their catwalks, or exits as they're
16:55called.
16:56I remember in the 80s, I used to make every collection under the 80, under the 90 exits.
17:05Now the haute couture collection is 40 exits.
17:08Everything is changed, of course, because, because of the cost, because it's ridiculous to make so many dresses.
17:16Time has changed. Costume, they are changed. An haute couture coat today, a lady, she's wearing maybe with a pair
17:23of blue jeans sometime, with a man's shirt and very casual.
17:28The elegant world Valentino remembers was definitely the heyday of haute couture.
17:34I couldn't imagine this lot in jeans.
17:39People generally were people who were private, established, who did it because that was the only way of living.
17:48I mean, you lived in a certain way and you dressed in a certain way, and there was no other
17:54way of doing it, and they could afford it.
17:56It had nothing to do with status symbol. It was more a habit.
18:04The club members who'd agreed to speak so far were all Americans with new money, but I knew there were
18:10old families involved in haute couture.
18:12I tracked down one of them, a British club member, Daphne Guinness.
18:17She was reticent at first. It took me three months to persuade her to talk.
18:21What are you wearing down?
18:23I'm wearing a combination, which is normal for me, because I tend to throw things together.
18:29But this is a couture jacket, ancient. This is a sort of woolly Rick Owens thing.
18:35And then these trousers are sort of jeans from somewhere. I put some crosses on them.
18:42But nothing really special, just normal.
18:45Daphne's descended from the Mitford sisters. Her grandmother was Diana Moseley, wife of the famous fascist.
18:51She showed me how her pieces were made.
18:53Slightly different construction of Givenchy. They all got a different way of working and different sort of people that work
19:01there.
19:02But again, you've got the shoulders. You know, if you see the difference between a shoulder that looks like this
19:07with a seam across here,
19:09And then this one here, the whole arm is, it's of a piece.
19:15Well, my grandmother was very close to Mr. Givenchy Hubert.
19:21And her sisters, too, were very keen on fashion and clothes.
19:28And then when I got married, I had my, you know, wedding dress made.
19:34And that was where the bug began, you know.
19:37And I still wear that. I still wear the suit. It still fits perfectly. It still looks wonderful.
19:43And you can't really say that about most things that you buy over 20 years ago now.
19:49Look at the sleeve on that. That's beautiful.
19:52So Daphne is a living embodiment of haute couture from times past, when the key membership requirement was to have
19:58bona fide family connections.
20:03Back in Paris, Daphne's talk of Hubert Givenchy had aroused my curiosity.
20:09I discovered a museum, the exhibits curated by Monsieur Givenchy himself, stuffed with haute couture from the immediate post-war
20:17period.
20:18This was a boom time, when rich Americans connected with haute couture in a big way.
20:24Keen to throw off wartime austerity, they'd go out partying and get married in the most beautiful dresses Paris had
20:30to offer.
20:33Whilst I was researching, I found rare archive of the legendary Christian Dior himself, from 1947, soon after he'd started
20:41his famous haute couture salon.
20:44There he is, unapologetically showing off real leopard skin.
20:49I wanted to meet a club elder who might have met him.
20:53I found one living in New York. I'd located her through her charitable foundations.
20:59After discreetly checking references, she agreed to talk to me.
21:04The doors to this secret world really were opening up.
21:08Multi-millionairess Mrs Carol Petrie was a famous beauty and a model in her youth.
21:14A southerner, she was part of a landowning family.
21:17And by marrying a baron, she became the Baroness of Patargo.
21:22Looks can take you anywhere.
21:24And her first trip to Paris was by ocean liner.
21:28She's been married several times and is now heiress to the colossal Toys R Us fortune.
21:34Mrs Petrie's Fifth Avenue apartment block is like a stately home.
21:40Upstairs, club member Susan Goodfriend also has an apartment.
21:44Round the corner, there's a whole wing of the Metropolitan Museum named the Petrie Court.
21:50Mrs Petrie didn't want me to film in her wardrobes.
21:53She has a maid who takes care of all her haute couture.
21:57So she wheeled in a small sample to show me at about two dozen pieces.
22:02This was a pretty impressive haul.
22:05Is that Chanel or is that... Look, there's lovely buttons on it.
22:09During the war, no one made any new clothes to speak of
22:15because that would not have been patriotic.
22:19Well, when I got to Paris, immediately after the war,
22:24that was when Dior appeared on the scene.
22:28This is a Dior.
22:29Dior, yes.
22:30This is a Dior.
22:32Yes.
22:33All this, Mrs Petrie, is Dior.
22:36And I saw his collection.
22:40I really thought I died and gone to heaven.
22:47What about this one here?
22:50What sort of date would that be?
22:52Which one?
22:52This one?
22:53Yes, the red one.
22:54You want another date?
22:55Yes, I'd be interested.
22:56I couldn't believe what he had done with fabric.
23:02It was so extraordinary.
23:05Did he make your wedding dress?
23:06Yes.
23:07Yes.
23:09Yes, he did.
23:11He did.
23:12And there was somebody else there at the time
23:14who I know that you used to go to shows with was Mrs Simpson.
23:19Can you tell me a little bit about her and her appreciation of haute couture?
23:25I'm smiling because you refer to her as Mrs Simpson.
23:31When I knew her, she was the Dutchess already.
23:36Because she liked haute couture, didn't she?
23:39Oh, yes.
23:41Very much.
23:42Very much.
23:43She was always in the haute couture.
23:46What was her taste like?
23:48Exquisite.
23:50I've never seen her in anything.
23:53It overpowered her in any way.
23:57She was always in control.
24:06Over the years, Mrs Petrie's wardrobe standards haven't slipped one iota.
24:12I'd learned another key club rule.
24:14Maintain sartorial elegance all your life.
24:18I couldn't imagine Mrs Petrie donning a sweatshirt.
24:22She's an example of the old school.
24:24Wear haute couture 24 hours a day, every day.
24:29Down the road from Mrs Petrie's New York pad,
24:32I checked out a fashion house.
24:35US club members were urging me to visit.
24:38They said it was haute couture, but how could it be?
24:41Ralph Rucci is the only American allowed to show in Paris
24:44by the haute couture trade body, the Fédération Syndicale.
24:49I'm convinced that's because they know that haute couture is shrinking,
24:52that it's really under threat.
24:55Five years ago, when I decided to take the step to show in Paris,
24:59I sent a letter to Champa requesting that I could be permitted to show in Paris.
25:04And the eleven houses had a formal vote at two o'clock in the afternoon,
25:09a number of weeks later, and we were unanimously voted to be accepted.
25:12So Ralph Rucci can call his collection haute couture.
25:17This collection's an homage to another American, the abstract expressionist, Cy Tombly.
25:23His images appear on the hems of the evening dresses,
25:27each one inspired by a different season of the year.
25:31The Americans rave about him.
25:33This was so magical. I've never seen anything like it.
25:37And the women were just, like, they were so elegant.
25:41and the pieces and the colours, your palette. Oh my God.
25:47For Ralph Rucci, acceptance into the Paris God Designer Club
25:51has brought him nearer those established French names he's revered all his life.
25:56It's very important to show in Paris because it is the church and you need to be there.
26:03You know, it's the Vatican of it all.
26:04To participate with the reverence and the sincerity that's necessary.
26:10And it's almost a focus and a religious type of movement that creates the couture.
26:16And this is why unconsciously we're all in reverence for the couture.
26:21Back in Paris, it's two days to go before the January haute couture shows.
26:26The launch pad for the spring and summer collections.
26:29At Chanel, I waited four hours before I was allowed a sneak preview
26:32in the presence of Kaiser Karl. That's his nickname.
26:36He's got red gloves on. That means business.
26:40In the antechamber, the outfits await his final approval.
26:44The atmosphere is tense.
26:50I wondered how a feather dress had turned out.
26:52It didn't disappoint. Straight out of a fairy tale.
26:57In front of Karl, everything feels scary.
27:00As the model offered the feather dress for his approval,
27:04I could smell the whiff of oat anxiety.
27:07I thought of the many hands that had created this,
27:10and just how few people could ever afford to buy a dress like this.
27:15Oops, Cinderella broke her shoe.
27:18Bad moment.
27:19We're ushered out.
27:20My slot with Karl was up.
27:26It's the mega-busy week of the shows.
27:33Paris is like a big party.
27:35I got back to my hotel to find flowers.
27:41I've been making films for over 20 years,
27:44and I've never received so much of the dandelion.
27:52I hope the feather dress might come in the next delivery.
27:55But could treatment like this be why the fashion press is so famously uncritical?
28:09It's showtime.
28:11First out of the gate is Christian Dior.
28:132.30 Monday in the Bois de Boulogne.
28:16And here come the club members.
28:19Now I've got the chance to find out what these shows really mean to them,
28:23and whether they're going to buy anything.
28:29There's Becca.
28:40I've managed to get backstage.
28:42There's an army preparing for battle.
28:45No club members ever get in here before the show.
28:51They'll be kept waiting for over an hour,
28:53while designer John Galliano prepares an outrageous spectacle for them.
28:58The theme is top secret.
29:04Even looking at the model's wacky hair and makeup,
29:07I had no idea what the subject is.
29:13club members held their breath.
29:24They were treated to a sort of homage to the French Revolution.
29:29carnage couture with fake blood embroideries.
29:35It was high melodrama.
29:38But I couldn't imagine any club members wearing this lot in a million years.
29:47So what a deal, and everybody getting out of this.
29:51I asked Becca to explain this haute couture mystery to me.
29:56Well, I thought it was a dream.
29:58Very wearable once you extract pieces, and cut them down, and rework them.
30:05Because what you see on the runway is never ultimately what goes on the customer's body.
30:11It's done for you.
30:13So once you get in the fitting room, and you get in the atelier,
30:17and you say maybe less sleeve, and drop the hip, and whatever,
30:20it really becomes a very wearable piece of art.
30:23It is a piece of art.
30:27Then, Galliano himself appeared, to the club's thunderous applause.
30:38Afterwards, club members, banned from going backstage before the show,
30:42rushed there to adore him.
30:48I tried too.
30:50There's no hope for John Galliano, it's just not going to happen.
30:56Dior themselves are delighted with the lads.
30:59Can I talk to you a little, did you enjoy the show, did you?
31:02Oh, very much, very much.
31:03I love it, as usual.
31:05With John, it's always, even for me, it's a big surprise.
31:09He's like a painter, and you get all these very strong images.
31:14Obviously, this is not the volume business.
31:16We talk to very specific customers who are going to take ideas from,
31:20you know, part of it, a jacket, an embroidery,
31:23and from that, John will develop a customized couture for some customers,
31:29and then we develop the business.
31:31This is my duty.
31:33So what's becoming clear is that it doesn't matter if anyone's going to buy a dress from the catwalk or
31:37not.
31:38It's just a huge marketing push for all the other products from Dior.
31:43These fashion houses are so clever.
31:45Just by opening a bottle of perfume, we can all join the club.
31:51Just for a nanosecond, every woman, whatever her income, can feel she's part of this world.
31:58With the perfume behind your ears, you can smell a legend.
32:06It had taken me over six months to get access to Galliano.
32:10He rarely gives interviews.
32:13Like Chanel, Dior is very protective of its chief designer.
32:17But he agreed to tell me the secrets of his collection.
32:20If you look closely, it's a take on a classic toile de jouet, which has been embroidered on what's known
32:31as crâne,
32:33which is horse hair, which is normally what you use for the underscurs of the more magnificent ball dresses.
32:40But it has this amazing structure.
32:43And here you can see a whole lot that's done with darting, but on the outside.
32:48And these blown away pockets that gives this amazing structure.
32:52And it's super light.
33:05If you try and think of it almost like a pyramid, the haute couture is the parfum.
33:13And it has a huge influence on the ready-to-wear and accessories.
33:17So we could call them the eau de parfum or the eau de toilette.
33:22Everything takes its inspiration from the haute couture, which is a showcase for everything that I can do,
33:32which eventually has a trickle-down effect on everything that we create at the House of Dior today.
33:44Like Carl, when it comes to the clients, Galliano is just as tight-lipped.
33:49I have a kind of doctor-like relationship with my clients.
33:54I don't like to talk too much about them because that's part of the mystery.
34:01Book couture, too.
34:10Club members barely have time to throw off their stilettos before it's the next show.
34:16Valentino's at L'Ecole des Musées Beaux-Arts at 8.30 Monday night.
34:26Susan's here.
34:27And there's Daphne.
34:29This show is late, so plenty of time for club members to meet each other yet again.
34:37I've tried to work it out.
34:38What's the appeal of these outfits to club members?
34:41So different from the eccentric Mr Galliano's.
34:45I'd heard that Mr Valentino's collection is very reliable for those stocking up on evening wear for corporate functions,
34:52in the far and Middle East in particular.
34:54There are few husbands in the audience at these shows, but I could still feel their wallets opening.
35:04I thought it was sheer genius. It was just beautiful.
35:06All the dresses were so light and airy and young-looking and made one want to forget dinner and lose
35:14ten pounds.
35:15But they were just glorious and it was such a pleasure to be here and see all the wonderful people.
35:20How are you?
35:21Oh, hi, how are you?
35:23Glamorous people like this, you see.
35:25So how does it feel to wear a couture?
35:27It's like the difference between wearing a real piece of jewellery and a fake,
35:33although the other is fun too, but there's a different feeling to it.
35:38That same afternoon, I'd gone back to Carl's.
35:42His show's tomorrow.
35:44I watched the feather dress come down Chanel's famous staircase with the rest of the collection on a production line.
35:50The whole lot is photographed and videoed for hours.
35:59These images will go into the stores, into magazines and be sent round the world.
36:06Videos, DVDs and a website are a club bonus for members who cannot make it to Paris.
36:19Members like Betsy Bloomingdale, who lives 5,000 miles away in Los Angeles.
36:24Yes, Bloomingdale, as in the world famous store her husband owned, along with Diners Club credit cards, which he set
36:32up.
36:34She and Mrs. Petrie are in the same social circles, and that's how I got an entree to her.
36:41Back in the 50s, the fashion houses would send Betsy things called crocky in the post.
36:47Hand painted sketches of the collections, with samples of material attached.
36:52When I first started, this is what they would send.
36:55They would send all the croquis, and I would spread them all out on the floor,
36:59and I would think this one and this one, and I'd hold, you could hold the colour up to see
37:03if you like this colour,
37:04or this nice red colour. Do I like the colour?
37:07And later, you got a tape.
37:09But it wasn't as much fun as getting all these wonderful fabric samples, you know.
37:15It was just different.
37:20Betsy showed me her collection, carefully stored in a series of wardrobes.
37:24Over 80 pieces. That must be over half a million dollars worth at today's prices.
37:30Yeah, all of this. And this is a wonderful dress.
37:33This is a party dress, and this is something she would wear a dinner dress, maybe.
37:37Every single piece is labelled to show where she wore it.
37:41New Year's Eve at the Annenbergs in Palm Springs, and he was once ambassador in London.
37:48MoMA, that Museum of Metropolitan Art in New York City in the spring.
37:53Dinner for Jean-Franco Ferret.
37:55The Davis Christmas Party.
37:56The Assembly Ball in Los Angeles.
37:58The Kluge Party.
37:59To the Reagan inauguration.
38:01Looking at Betsy's wardrobe, it's clear the history of her haute couture is the history of her social life.
38:08Made for Earl Spencer's birthday party at Alltrip.
38:13And I wore it at the Dallas Country Club, and I wore it at dinner at home here.
38:18So it's been out three times.
38:22I was astonished to see how few times she'd worn some of these dresses.
38:27When I buy something really special, I hope I'll wear it a lot to justify the expense.
38:33But here, it's exactly the opposite.
38:36So I'd learned another club rule.
38:38Don't wear the clothes too often.
38:40And for certain club members, there's a bonus.
38:43If the frocks are in good nick, after a few years you can donate them to a museum, and write
38:49them off as a tax loss.
38:52Betsy, tell me about your first haute couture experience.
38:55Well, my first haute couture experience was a lady called Madame Jeannette Spanier, who was with Balmain.
39:02And she met my husband at some place, and she said, oh, she said, you must send your wife here.
39:07We want to dress her at Balmain.
39:09And I thought, well, I don't really, why would I live in Los Angeles, I'm going to Paris.
39:14But I did, and I found it absolutely amazing.
39:18So I had one or two things made there.
39:20Then at that time, my husband started a business called Diner's Club.
39:24And no one in Paris understood credit cards, except Jack Rouette, who was the head of Christian Dior.
39:32And because he signed up with Diner's Club, my husband said, Betsy, you're going to buy everything at Dior.
39:38So that's why I started at Dior.
39:40Besides, I loved Paris.
39:44Paris was always beautiful, and it was my first really falling in love with Paris.
39:49Everything about it was beautiful, the museums, the food, the beds, the clothes, everything.
39:54So Paris was always my favorite city.
39:58It was so different than it is today.
40:01You sat on little chairs, and it was very quiet.
40:04And the ladies came through, and they would announce the number, or whatever it was.
40:12This was always very straight and very perfect.
40:15And the clothes were beautiful, the models came out quietly.
40:19It was a whole different world, really.
40:23So, I don't know how it's changed.
40:26I mean, they don't do that anymore.
40:27It's more...
40:29It's a different way.
40:33In fact, it's very different, as I saw at the rehearsal for the Chanel show.
40:38If Dior was like the opera, Chanel was like a musical.
40:41One of the bonuses for the designers is they've got the pick of Paris' public buildings to stage their shows.
40:49Karl decked out the newly restored Grand Palais in white.
40:54I was immediately reminded of Chanel's concerns.
40:57Not to be seen as elitist.
41:00Never to mention money.
41:02And most importantly, to be associated with youth.
41:06The models are certainly young.
41:08Very young.
41:10They're a very different generation from the club members I've met so far.
41:15Karl had thoughtfully organised hot tea and blankets for them.
41:18Because the Grand Palais can get a little chilly.
41:22The Chanel PR people are facing a tricky problem.
41:25Front row.
41:26They want celebs to sit there for the photo opportunity.
41:30But what about the club members who are actually going to buy the stuff?
41:34Do you expect any celebrities?
41:37Uh, yes, sorry.
41:40Véronique, celebrities for the BBC.
41:43Qu'est-ce que je peux dire?
41:44J'ai coupé, là.
41:47Qu'est-ce qu'on attend aujourd'hui?
41:49Qu'est-ce qu'on attend aujourd'hui?
41:50Qu'est-ce qu'on attend aujourd'hui?
41:50Uh, so put your question again.
41:54And who are you expecting to play prominence?
41:56Uh, we didn't invite many celebrities this time because of this front row problem.
42:04If we invite celebrities, we have to sit them front row.
42:07Uh, so apart the officials like Madame Chirac and Madame Pompidou,
42:12we have some French actresses like Virginie Ledoyen,
42:17but we have also a Canadian singer who is called Avril Lavigne.
42:32Uh, who else do we have?
42:38We have Victoria Beckham who has to come, so she's come.
42:43I hope you can take it on your images.
42:47Good as gold, posh does turn up.
42:51Hundreds of photographers make sure it's in the papers.
42:56I realise they've added a new membership category.
43:00Famous thin people.
43:02Some of the real members are none too happy about it.
43:06To get your clothes onto a movie star is going to be advertising in one form or another.
43:14And if I see something in advertising, I don't want it anymore, that's for sure.
43:19If I see it on a movie star, I don't want it anymore. It's done.
43:24Still, it is the Chanel show, and attendance is compulsory, I've been told.
43:30There's Becca.
43:32Susan Goodfriend introduces me to another senior club member I'd seen at Dior yesterday, called Dida Blair.
43:39She was wearing full club uniform from top to toe, sunglasses and an immaculately tailored suit.
43:47Apparently she used to go shopping with club member Jackie Kennedy.
43:50She even knew club saint Coco Chanel herself.
44:03We were all enjoying ourselves so much just sitting around looking at each other, that I hardly noticed the show
44:09starting.
44:10Ah, the little black dress.
44:13Chanel's trademark.
44:15The club members are being treated to 62 of Carl's dreams.
44:20Chanel is the only fashion house which claims to make decent money out of its haute couture.
44:25I'm not surprised.
44:27I'd seen inside enough club members' wardrobes by now to know they're addicted to the Chanel look.
44:35Suddenly I spotted the feather dress.
44:38It's a club rule.
44:40Concentrate on the outfits, not the celebrities sitting near you.
44:44They walk past terribly quickly.
44:47Some of these things are so sort of complicated that you have to be able to break them down very,
44:52very quickly in your head and figure out what is going to work for you.
44:58How do you know if it's going to suit you or not?
45:03I know absolutely what will work and what won't work and I know precisely what I like and what I
45:11don't like.
45:12There's absolutely no question in my mind ever.
45:17I suppose you can't afford to go wrong at $100,000 a throw.
45:22There's Carl.
45:24I'd heard he had to shed six stone a few years back to comply with club rules on fatties.
45:33He's mobbed at the end of course.
45:42Everything came together in such a light, young, feminine way and I think we were all just, you know, in
45:52ecstasy over it because to see that kind of beauty and we all felt the same way.
45:57It was finally, I guess in a word it would be ethereal.
46:03Susan qualifies to kiss him because she's a club member.
46:07But I was kept outside the inner circle, even though he'd sent me flowers.
46:13The press is ecstatic.
46:15They're all crazy about Carl.
46:17He's constantly reinventing himself and the whole Chanel image.
46:24For me, the collection is over, the minute is shown.
46:27Not that I don't like it anymore, but I have to think about the next one.
46:31I have always the feeling there is a glass wall I cannot cross completely and my whole life consists of
46:36trying to cross this glass wall to get to what I want.
46:40I followed the club members over to Ecole des Beaux-Arts, to the Christian Lacroix show.
46:46After the war, there were over a hundred couture shows in a season.
46:50Now it's down to barely a dozen.
46:52There's a buzz here today, even though not long ago Christian Lacroix hit a rocky patch with his haute couture.
46:59There's Daphne Guinness, taking her place in the front row with Lucy Ferry.
47:04Becker's here too with one of her very famous friends.
47:06The only standing ovation you see over here.
47:15So would you actually find one of those outfits?
47:18I know that if you strip it down and if you take this and that and that, there are some
47:22beautiful, beautiful dresses.
47:23No, this is how you do it. This is why it is a couture that you can do anything you
47:27want.
47:27You take this thing and say, look, I have small hips, maybe we can make them a little bigger with
47:32the poof or something.
47:33Or maybe I have to move too much of the poof, so this is why it is a couture that
47:39it is done for you.
47:40You get the idea, then you can do anything you want.
47:43If Dior's operatic and Chanel's musical, this one's poetic. The collection has been inspired by a poem entitled No Denying
47:54A Heart That's True.
47:55The club members go mad about these dresses. I could only imagine the bun fight between them to be the
48:02only woman in the world to be seen wearing one of them.
48:07Watching this lot, I wondered how many more years decadent haute couture shows like this could continue.
48:18The day after the show, it's time for club members to go shopping.
48:23It's not like any clothes shop I've been in before. You can't just walk in. You have to make an
48:29appointment.
48:30And there are no price tags. That seems to be a club rule.
48:40Daphne's going through the Chanel stuff with the Honourable Amanda Harlick. She's employed by Karl as part of his team.
48:50They spend most of the time extolling the virtues of the spectacular workmanship.
48:55It's a really great jacket. That is so beautiful, Maria Carla.
49:04That is so beautiful. Isn't that beautiful?
49:06And there's the feather dress. I wonder if she'll go for it.
49:11Feathers into feathery tulle.
49:14Beautiful.
49:16Doesn't it concern people how much something's going to cost?
49:18Oh, yes, it does. They ask, but they know that the form that a blouse is about $10,000. They
49:27know it.
49:28So the minute they come to order, they have a budget maybe. Some have budgets.
49:32And they know they can afford such an amount of money.
49:34Or they can afford to buy three or four pieces that season.
49:41Over at La Croix, Becca is getting her individual look at the collection.
49:46Right, but it has a jacket, no?
49:49I'm sure it does.
49:50Being a club member means being on a non-stop diet.
49:54Because if you're thin enough to get into the dress the model wore, you can have it at a 30
49:58% discount.
50:00If you're a normal shape, a dress has to be made for you from scratch, and you have to pay
50:05the full haute couture whack.
50:06I like to accentuate my hips and my legs because that's where I'm thin. And this right here is where
50:12I'm the biggest.
50:13So I love the blue fond with the, you know, the tide underneath. But this is fantastic for someone really
50:20thin.
50:23La Croix's chief saleswoman, Marie Martinez, the directrice, is helping Becca pick something for one of her philanthropic fundraising events.
50:32Oh, it's the gold from the show. That's exactly right. It's on the floor.
50:38Let's have it as a scissor pack.
50:40Oh, look at that.
50:41Then I was thinking to upgrade my pants that I got the first time you and I met.
50:47I saw a little jacket that might work.
50:51In the end, she didn't buy anything.
50:53Women can never stop.
50:54It's a special club service for overseas members. The haute couture garments are flown to the clients to be actually
51:01fitted to their bodies.
51:03The clothes are accompanied by key staff, including Rosaline Delaplace, the chief seamstress, or premier as she is known.
51:12The dresses clock up quite a few air miles. This time, the La Croix collection is heading for New York.
51:18I flew there too, to watch the famous fittings in action.
51:22It's difficult to imagine that a premier goes to New York or to LA only to fit three dresses.
51:28Imagine the price it would cost in a private jet to cross the ocean, to cross all America only for
51:34three dresses, four or five dresses for a lady.
51:35But that's the way it is today. The premier, in the rest of the time, spent their life in private
51:41jets feeding all around the globe.
51:45Initially, no one would let me in on this bit of the haute couture process.
51:49But finally, I found a willing club member.
51:53Judith Corenti is an art collector and the wife of a Dutch banker.
51:57Her daughter's with her. Judith has bought a dress to wear at the Oxford and Cambridge boat race ball.
52:04Along with her daughter, she's bought her stylist.
52:07A lengthy discussion ensues.
52:10You want us to add a little more lace under?
52:14Well, it could, but isn't this enough? I mean, I don't think she really needs it.
52:18You mean just a touch here?
52:20Yeah, it's just very light.
52:24It's not this lace.
52:25I know I understand, not the guipure.
52:27I asked Judith to explain the allure of haute couture.
52:30It's a bit of an extension of my painting collection.
52:35I view it as that, as that way.
52:39And it's something that I feel very privileged to be able to participate in.
52:46And it just adds another dimension.
52:50And she likes the exclusivity.
52:53One of the reasons she does it is to be the only one.
52:58I don't like to think that I'm wearing something that, you know, half of America has, too.
53:04I love the way it keeps its shape. It has its own shape.
53:09You can try it on if you like.
53:12I'd waited weeks for this, but I'm finally going to get to try on some haute couture.
53:16It just feels fabulous.
53:19It does feel quite unique.
53:22And you look quite unique.
53:25I sounded like all the women I've met so far.
53:30Isn't it beautiful?
53:35I wonder if I could pass for a club member. If I could, would I want to?
53:46Suddenly, I could understand what they'd all been going on about.
53:52You always feel comfortable in it.
53:54And once you put it on the first time, on your back, you have the impression you've had it there
54:00all your lives.
54:04Back in Paris, the haute couture season has ended.
54:08The party's over.
54:09The fashion houses have moved on to their ready-to-wear collections.
54:13And my guest membership to this anachronistic fashion club has expired.
54:17If I've discovered one thing, it's that club members are united in their belief that haute couture is a collectible
54:24form of art.
54:25From their point of view, and with their money, it's a sensible purchase.
54:31An investment.
54:32If you look at it as an investment, like you would a piece of contemporary art, something that you buy
54:40and you have forever, towards the end of your life, you give it to a museum.
54:46Very much like you would a Jackson Pollock or a de Kooning or a Magritte or, you know, whatever.
54:52And that's how I look at it.
54:54People don't think anything of spending masses of money on decoration or pictures or, and there's just as much work
55:06that goes into a handmade piece of clothing as it does into many, many works of art.
55:16I definitely think it's an art form. Absolutely. I never thought it years ago, but I think it definitely is
55:22an art form. Absolutely.
55:25And, putting the money to one side, it's as important or unimportant as drinking the best wine or driving the
55:32best car.
55:34As important or unimportant as being the most beautifully attired woman at the party.
55:40So, what of my club members? I'd read about my new friends a few weeks later in the magazines. Several
55:47had gone to the ball.
55:49I came across Daphne appearing at a National Gallery fundraising event in London.
55:54She settled for an old haute couture favourite by Chanel, but not from this latest collection.
56:01The minute she walked in, she was photographed for a society magazine.
56:07Judith Corrente watched her son's team lose in the Oxford reserve team at the boat race.
56:13Still, she was able to console herself at the after-race party.
56:17She and her daughter topped the toe in that haute couture from La Croix.
56:24Becker went to the Anglomania Ball in New York and scored major club points by wearing Ralph Rucci both on
56:31her body and on her arm too.
56:38Betsy Bloomingdale went to the Vanity Fair Oscar party.
56:42Disappointingly, she chose not to wear one of her 80 pieces of haute couture.
56:49Susan's still out and about in Paris and never did find out how many pieces of haute couture she had.
56:55Mrs. Petrie dines at her favourite French restaurant most days. It's always Chanel for lunch.
57:05As for the feather dress, well here it is. A full page feature in Vogue.
57:11Still no mention of an owner.
57:15So, would I buy it if I won the lottery? You bet I would.
57:19The sun went, and I singing your song.
57:28The loneliness is due to all emotion.
57:35Forgive me.
57:39If the fear broke the illusion.
57:42No, you came to me.
57:45No, you came to me.
57:46No, you came to me.
57:47And I just left this song.
57:49Now, you done.
57:49I can't stand that off out.
57:50There is a wedding song.
57:50It's about, you came to me.
57:52And your ink from a wall...
57:53Here I can go.
57:53Obrigado.