Paris Haute Couture: Flora Miranda FW19
[x_section style=”margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px; padding: 45px 0px 45px 0px; “][x_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” bg_color=”” style=”margin: 0px auto 0px auto; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_column bg_color=”” type=”1/4″ style=”padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px; “][x_text class=”center-text “]by Mabel Gago
Photo credit: Flora Miranda[/x_text][/x_column][x_column bg_color=”” type=”3/4″ style=”padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_text]I think it is quite interesting to stop in the midst of the Paris Haute Couture shows and think about what’s going on. Changes have been flourishing during the last three years so that couture means something more beyond the image of a princess.
This is the case from designer Flora Miranda–a brave, young talented woman who always make us stop and think while creating her rare couture.
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Special thanks to my beloved people of Totem Fashion for helping me connect and dive deeper into Flora’s world.
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Mabel Gago: When someone asks you what is couture, what do you say?
Flora Miranda: I like to go back in history to look at what Parisian haute couture was originally, 100 years ago: The field where ideas were started to trickle down and set the tone for ready-to-wear, tailors and people who made their own clothes. Today, we can see haute couture as a mainly traditional field, where ball gowns and cocktail dresses are made to please, to fit in. Traditional techniques, traditional images of beauty. Couture is not the main space where fresh ideas come from.
Mabel: For someone to understand your brand, what are your list of values to engage people?
Flora: The key value is ‘open up your mind!’ We inspire, humans who want to be inspired or want to inspire others. With inspiration I mean that we can play with what ‘reality’ is. We can discover that there are many rules in our minds that are not actually written down anywhere. For example, the watch that the Swiss brand Rado just released together with me. We are used to a watch to have hands in the same old way. This watch shows the time through a graphical pattern that changes constantly. It is a jewel as much as an artwork and a watch all at the same time. People who like a little mind twist will get a lot of joy from such design pieces.
Mabel: It is amazing how you get an idea, a concept, and then how you manage all processes and materials so as to talk about the same concept. For example, sexy. Can you tell us more about it?
Flora: What we create is really a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’. When starting a collection, we do not design clothes, but a whole world. Garments and their surroundings are always linked to each other. Who wears a certain dress in which situation is ‘fashion’ to me. Clothes adapt to all sorts of external influences. As a fashion designer I give the audience an experience of style and identity.
Mabel: Your voice disrupts the haute couture atmosphere and in every show you make us think about many relevant issues. How you deal with this conversation?
Flora: Firstly I have to say that this comes very naturally. I do not see the point in creating garments or fashion shows that others are already creating, and probably better than me. I do what I have to do and am glad to hear that you feel I can make a difference by that.
Mabel: Let’s talk about sustainability and how much you are pushing your boundaries in this.
Flora: What I do with IT Pieces (the commercial line of Flora Miranda), is automated design specifically for a customer, which only is produced once it is ordered. One of the main factors of this new work flow is to solve overproduction within the fashion industry.
Mabel: You design, you create unique performances and art for the public, and you also create films. Am I wrong if I state that I see Flora Miranda doing more and more things beyond fashion?
Flora: You could formulate it this way, what we aim to do however is to enrich fashion itself. With our interdisciplinary approach we keep fashion moving forward. Whatever we do, it is for the sake of fashion. When our work looks like art, it is still fashion: Fashion as a form of refined art. When our concepts sound like we are a software company, we still focus on the garments and show the fashion industry in which ways we can use technology to our advantage.
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