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" Lesage Lagerfeld 1983-2020: "
Potter, Rachel
Font, Lourdes
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1114569
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| Doc. No
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TLpq2409183056
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| Main Entry
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Font, Lourdes
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Potter, Rachel
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| Title & Author
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Lesage Lagerfeld 1983-2020:\ Potter, RachelFont, Lourdes
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| College
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Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York
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| Date
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2020
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| student score
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2020
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| Degree
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M.A.
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| Page No
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124
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| Abstract
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Scholarly definitions of Western “fashion” describe a fundamentally future-oriented phenomenon driven by the design, production, and consumption of novel commodities, a system challenged in the “post-fashion” era.1 Alongside the emergence of 1980s global luxury conglomerates that sought to revitalize Parisian haute couture houses, the design heritage of these houses emerged as assets of accumulated value, evidenced in part by the rise in private archiving as a fashion industry practice and the emphasis on specialized craftmanship in brand-sponsored exhibitions and demonstrations at promotional events.2 In this paper I detail how Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel pioneered the strategy of leveraging the cultural capital of traditional couture craftsmanship as a brand asset through his collaboration with the Maison Lesage, which was eventually purchased through the Chanel subsidiary Paraffection. The idea for this paper was sparked by the report that, in October 2018, Chanel bought the entirety of a sale offered by the Paris auction house Leclere Maison de Ventes before it was openly offered on the market for an undisclosed sum.3 The catalog lists 453 embroidery samples attributed to Michonet and Lesage dated from the late nineteenth century to 1989, sources more suited to a museum collection rather than a private archive. However, catalog photography of twelve incomplete designs purportedly made for Chanel from 1983 to 1989 provide a rare opportunity to evaluate the methods of the house. In this paper I match the embroidery samples to completed looks seen on the runway and covered in the fashion press, within the context of 1980s consumer culture, and trace the evolution of Maison Lesage’s role within Chanel from the material realm into the symbolic sphere, where couture embroidery represents unobtainable luxury and impossible fashion — fashion beyond commerce.
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Contemporary fashion
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Fashion
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Lagerfeld, Karl
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Les métiers d'art
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Lesage, Maison
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Paraffection
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