IN VOGUE

PARTICIPANTS

Jolanta Rimkutė & Ieva Ševiakovaitė (guests), Lithuania

Eugene Chokhloff & Julia Bunakova, Russia
(“Bunakova & Hokhloff Studio”)

Larisa Kuchalskienė, Lithuania, "Cold Summer of 2000"

Marina Iskandarova, Kazakhstan, "Metamorphosis"
(Fashion Salon “Andree”)

Sotera Norvilaite,
Hungary, "Last Spring of this Millenium" (Fashion House “Kalaka”)

Julian Fedo,
Lithuania, "Mirage of Frescos" (G.Fledžinskienė`s Higher Art School)

Vita Černiauskaitė & Jurga Kasperavičiūtė,
Lithuania, "Night Fishing" (Vilnius Art Academy)

Natalija Natkevičiūtė & Vaida Radvilaitė,
Lithuania, "Fragile Touch"

Elena Starceva,
Russia, "Without Title"

Olga Rink,
Lithuania, "Coans"

Ekaterina Kostrikova,
Russia, "Glitter"

Rita Plioplienė,
Lithuania, "On the Border" (Salon “Kristijonas and Karolina”)

Neolina Matkerimova
Russia, "Persian Lilac"

Olga Brovkina,
Russia, "Feeling"

Liubovė Čaplikienė,
Lithuania, "Storm"

Dmitryi Butyrskyi,
Russia, "Couturiosy"

Greta Dargevičiūtė & Alena Makarova,
Russia, "Harmony of Contradictions"

Indrė Pavilonytė,
Lithuania, "Sarasvati"

Marje Mottus,
Estonia, "Look`99 "

Rasa Urbonaitė,
Lithuania, "Desire and Play "

Julija Potupa,
Russia, "Pret-a-potu-porte"

Viktor Anisimov,
Ukraine

Jolanta Vazalinskienė,
Lithuania, "Summer Rain"

Elena Badmaeva,
Russia, "A Bit of Sun in Cold Water"

Issey Miyake – Fashion House collection "Pleats Please" Autumn-Winter 1999-2000, France

Rochas – Fashion House collection Autumn-Winter 1999-2000, France

Lecoanet & Hemant – Fashion House collection of Haute Couture Springs-Summer 1999, France.

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International Fashion Festival “IN VOGUE Vilnius`99”

GUESTS

LECOANET & HEMANT
Haute Couture

CREATIVE BIOGRAPHY:
The turning point in the lives of Didier Lecoanet and Hemant Sagar was the birth of their fashion house in 1984. The heady optimism of the occasion was reflected in the daring, if somewhat unusual, name and logo that welded together an L and an H:
L – for Lecoanet, for Liberty and Luxury. H – for Hemant, for Humor and for Habit, the French word for dress.
Lecoanet was born in 1955 in Chaumont, a town in Eastern France. After studying the fine arts he did a stint in advertising but convinced it was his calling to become a couturier, enrolled to train in fashion design at the Ecoles de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture.
Hemant was born in 1957 of a German mother from Berlin and an Indian father from Delhi. He spent his childhood in Delhi, went to Germany to study design and dressmaking, learned the ropes of the ready-to-wear business with a major German firm and, like Lecoanet, came to Paris to learn fashion design. And it was here, in the world’s fashion capital, that the two of them met in 1978 and that their complementary talents would grow from strength to strength.
Their story is one of shared feelings, interests and passions. The growth of their tiny workshop on the rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré opened in 1981 into a salon, then into a boutique and finally into a fully-fledged fashion house is like a well-composed duet for piano. The watershed was 1984, when they were joined by Roy Gonzales, who had worked with Cardin and Patou, and Juliette Cambursano – former head forewoman at Cristobal Balenciaga and Mila Schon – who took over the workshop. From then on Lecoanet and Hemant really came into their own. They put up an Haute Couture and Ready-to-Wear collection every season. Their dream had come true; the “house” was acquiring a name. In 1988 they introduced a line of accessories in Japan, and in 1991 moved to smart new premises at the Hotel d`Argenson in the Heart of the Marais and in 1994 enjoyed their crowning success, winning the Golden Thimble fashion award (le dé d`oe).
Lecoanet has his paint and brush out when he is not designing exquisite clothes. Hemant, for his part, divides his time between managing the business and listening to music from round the globe. Both have a passion for travel, cosmopolitan places, new sensations and adventure. There lies the source of inspiration behind each amazingly original collection. Their travels to distant lands and chance encounters with extraordinary people infuse their collections with energy and life. Haute Couture for Lecoanet & Hemant is in fact rather like their own partnership: the weaving together of different styles and cultures.

LECOANET & HEMANT
Haute Couture
Spring-Summer`99

Haute Couture has lately fallen from those dizzy heights that fed the frenzy in the 80s. In this minimalist environment do those grandiose visions make any commercial sense or does it exist just to feed the self-gratification of the couturiers. Lecoanet & Hemant have the answer ready: “Yes the clients have reduced, and even those with money are judicious about how much they spend on clothes. Before there were 3000 buyers, now there are only 300 on the entire planet. But couture existed and will continue to do so because it gives style to fashion. We design clothes for style not for fashion. Our work could be defined as more style than fashion; our pieces – timeless. People should be able to wear our collection even a decade later with the minimum of alterations. We never design clothes from the view of commerce. It has to be beautiful and has to make the viewer beautiful.”
Lecoanet & Hemant are contemptuous of rumor that Paris is living on past glories, that fashion is dying there and that Paris does not rule the ramp as much as say Milan any more: It is a 50-year-old rumor and it is still going on. It is all the result of advertising. There is no fashion in Milan, London or New York. They just make “kapda” – cloths – there. For fashion you need imagination and creativity which is here in Paris. Hemant is maybe the only semi-Indian couturier in Paris, for India though rich in culture and diversity is unable to produce an international designer because of the attitude of people. There is still a desire to build a bridge between traditional Indian wear and international fashion by opening a couture house there and promoting the Indian inspired part of the collections.
Hemant has been known to use a lot of hand woven cloth from India including brocade. His Indian background is reflected in his work. His collections are classic with the judicious use of intricate embroidery, lace and sari. The depth of necklines, the tightness of the clothing varies to suit the tastes of different consumers and cultural contexts. Haute Couture is not just beautiful, expensive clothing. It is a craft; it is a skill that is used to create images. Traditionally, this image is built through a daughter’s wedding and her wedding gown, which is why the gown is an integral feature of any show. Lecoanet & Hemant break with tradition in the crafting of these gowns. They do not seek to reproduce traditional notions of chastity, honor and purity through the dress, but are flexible in their representation. It can range from simple lace to flamboyant embroidery. The dress represents the flexibility and adaptability of Lecoanet & Hemant designs, without rupturing their signature of cultural communion.
The cultural authenticity and preservation of traditional patterns, while savoring the fluidity of design that is shaped and reshaped through each sway of the hip – that is what makes Lecoanet & Hemant one of 15 world’s haute couturiers.