HAUTE COUTURE. Starring: Nathalie Baye and Lyna Khoudri. Also, Pascale Arbillot, Claude Perron, Soumaye Bocoum and Adam Bessa. Directed by Sylvie Ohayon. Rated M (Coarse language). 101 min.
The head seamstress at Maison Dior in Paris, Esther (Baye), is putting the finishing touches to her final collection before retiring, and has her handbag stolen in the Metro by Jade (Khoudri), a young, strong-willed, disadvantaged teenager. Jade decides to return the handbag to Esther, remorseful that she and her accomplice have stolen it. When they meet, Jade and Ester spar with each other rudely, but Esther notices the delicacy of the teenager’s hands and senses her potential for skilled sewing. Esther does not contact the police, but decides to care for the girl herself, and pass on her skills to her. Under Esther’s training, Jade becomes a respected new intern at Maison Dior, and especially skilled in the craft of haute couture.
Haute couture is the creation of exclusive, custom-fitted high-end fashion, constructed by hand from beginning to end by experienced sewers on highly unusual fabrics, using time-consuming handwork. Haute couture garments are always made for individual clients, and for specific body measurements, and they have no price tag – a budget is never relevant to them. They are exclusively reserved for clothing houses that meet highly protected, rigorously defined standards of quality dressing, and the nature of such rules is always visibly apparent in this film. In France, the term Haute Couture is protected by law, and few are permitted to use it to signify a true haute couture house of dressing. Over time, the term has been loosened to refer to fashion designers, who create exclusive fashions, suited more to trend-setting. Trend-setting is not a relevant issue in Esther’s tightly-run workshop.
A film about haute couture, as this one, has to be respectful of the meaning of the term, and this movie respects the term well. The film reveals the culture of haute couture, but first and foremost it is a moving tale of a young disadvantaged girl being guided through tough times by a caring, older woman to realise her potential. Esther accepts and trains Jade as a daughter, and, in so doing, the film’s director, Sylvie Ohayon, looks thoughtfully at class, race, mother-daughter relationships, as well as cultural expectations and social mobility in France. Jade is of Arabic background, strong-willed and under-privileged, and Esther is white, educated, independent, and aspiring-middle class. ‘With those hands’, Esther caringly tells Jade, ‘you could make beautiful things’, and under the guidance of Esther, Jade does that.
The ‘dramatic’ impact of this movie resides in the quality of the film’s direction, and the acting of Baye and Khoudri. The roles they play are well suited to family culture, and the subtle features of mother-daughter alienation are delivered with great sensitivity. The aesthetic impact of the film is reserved for its portrayal of the detailed craft of fine sewing, reminding one of Phantom Thread (2017). Under Ohayon’s skilful direction, a great deal of tenderness is portrayed. It shows complete respect for the formal meaning of haute couture, and projects a humane understanding of those who exercise the craft. The movie downplays the superficial glamour of completed fine garments. It chooses instead to focus on the private and professional world of those working, industriously and creatively, behind the scenes, to produce the garments that others admire so much.
This is a much more socially oriented film than House of Gucci, which also exhibited haute couture garments. This is a small gem of a movie that celebrates sensitively and warmly, who, and what, lies behind the rigorous and demanding craft of haute couture.
Vendetta Films
Released 30 June 2022