RUNWAY REPORT.....Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week: Giambattista Valli Couture A/W 2014

Giambattista Valli Haute Couture Fall 2014

Haute Couture Fall 2014 Fashion Week began in Paris on Sunday. In case you need a "refresher course" of Haute Couture:

*Haute Couture are one-of-a-kind fashions made for very few clients (less than 1,000 people in the entire world are actual clients.)

*Only few design houses have the stamp of approval from the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to create Haute Couture designs.

*These designs are almost-but-not-entirely hand made (sewing machines are rare in the Haute Couture design houses and most seams are done by hand).

*Most designs can take hundreds if not thousands of hours to make and garments can cost from $50,000 for a suit to $500,000+ for a gown. In the past, these exquisite three-digit costing garments were only reserved for paying clients from the Texas millionaires to Russian oligarch wives and Gulf States Sheikhas, but now Haute Couture creations have also been featured more and more on the red carpet and especially high-profile award shows as well. Actresses borrow the creations and not pay for them obviously, as a way to promote the brand.

So now that we have that out of the way, let's get to one of the first collections shown, Giambattista Valli Haute Couture:

Giambattista Valli Haute Couture Fall 2014

Theme: A "Valli gal" who has just gotten up from her stay at the Ritz, grabbed her billionaire's pajamas, a bed sheet to wrap her undone hair, put her sunglasses on for a Couture walk through Giambattista Valli's flower-garden morning, cocktail hour and a Gala much later.

Trends: 1940's styling and silhouettes; 50's full dresses; fitted shifts; pajama tops and bottoms; stripes; front poufs and folded drapes; ombre shadings; exquisitely appliqued hand-sewn sequined flowers.

Colors: Black and white, pink, yellow, lilacs