Designer Meiling Esau, with Meiling Men's designer, Anthony Reid
Cleaning out my closet the other day, I came upon my pearl embroidered, eyelet cotton & voile wedding dress, which brought back sweet, romantic memories of the actual day and other, fashion filled memories of fitting for the gown with Trinidadian designer, Meiling.
I recall stepping into the tiny, whitewashed Meiling atelier, to discuss having the designer create a wedding gown for me. She leaned against her work table, peering at me over her black frames and scratching notes & sketches on a sheet as I described my ideal, easy-breezy fantasy gown.
I remember almost feeling like some fancy lady having a consultation with a Couturier, which got me to thinking about the 'Meiling' setup. She's got that private studio with a mini showroom, a standalone store that sells her seasonal collections (which she shows at Caribbean fashion week, FWTT, and at her own independent events,) and now, an offshoot, youth oriented line with a mass-market, local store.
And the more I thought about it, I began to realize that Meiling was actually operating just like a Coutourier did! Indeed, the other notable Caribbean designers manage their businesses in a fairly similar fashion; I sincerely think they see themselves as following in the steps of the traditional Couturiers - Dior, Balenciaga, Vionnet, Schiapparelli, Chanel, et al - in their approach to fashion design.
From the designer/client model and the fittings, to the focus on doing business out of a personal studio (as opposed to forming the wholesale business); its all there. Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that, but in this day and age, I wonder if designers - especially the upcoming ones - are looking at the different aspects of the fashion industry as a whole, apart from simply romanticizing the Couture aspect.
The Couture houses that still exist, no longer solely depend on that aspect of their fashion business for economic stability; they ALL have some kind of pret-a-porter line that rakes in the real bucks for the brand. Think about it, what woman can still purchase those frothy, oft impractical pieces of Couture confection on a regular basis?
So when I think of my regional designers who are still depending on that original Couturier model as the backbone of their business, I wonder if their doing so for their own ego; because of circumstances and a lack of designer support from the buying public; or because its the only model they know of.
If so, they should consider this: Since the initial reign of the Couture houses, there have been numerous individual designers and collectives who've launched enormously successful wholesale/mass-produced brands; think about Ferragamo, Fendi, Gucci, Versace, Balmain, and the like. Nowadays, you really don't need to be kissing cousins with a designer in order to get their creations; just walk into any major upscale boutique, and you can walk out with a piece of Versace to call your own.
By extension, legendary regional designers like Meiling have been around for ages, and has made the Couturier approach work for them by having small, independently-run operations, but I hope younger designers will realize that there are options, and will also be able to discern which model is more practical in these times...
LMN Harris
Lovely Piece and Read!