Fashion pundits have been predicting its demise for decades, but Sarah Shard disocvers that there are always new names willing to try their hand at the arcane art of made-to-measure

Haute couture simply refuses to lie down and die.

   Fashion pundits have been predicting its demise for decades, but come the
next round of collections, there are always new names willing to try their
hand at the arcane art of made-to-measure.

   France's Marcel Marongiu unveiled his first couture collection for Guy Laroche on Monday, the latest in a long succession of designers who have been brought in to attempt to resuscitate this once famous fashion house.

   Because he is not showing in the ready-to-wear round in March, he opted to jump the gun and show couture for next autumn-winter, out of synch with
everybody else this week who are all unveiling their lines for the summer.

   Predominantly in black, navy, teal and slate blue, he went for sober tailoring, closely fitted to the body, with pointed shoulders for a sharp
silhouette, often with exaggerated leg-of-mutton sleeves tapering into the
wrist.

   He opened with a cossack style mini double-breasted military coat and
followed it with a blouse styled with the same high collar and rows of buttons
and soft black leather gauntlets to the elbow.

   The couture feel came from the attention to detail - a cape-collar and
sleeves in Mongolian lamb, or mini-cape and trumpet sleeves embroidered with
feathers, waist-cinching belts which looked like strands of liquorice, a wavy
band of rhinestones peeping out from a hem or a broad swathe of shiny sequins
on a matt midnight blue crepe dress - beautiful clothes shown without the
usual razzamatazz.

   But Marongiu - like many other would-be couturiers showing this week - does
not meet the stringent criteria laid down by the French fashion body to have
the right to designate their production haute couture.

   That is the highest ambition of Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad, and one of
the reasons why he has set up a showroom and workrooms in the heart of Paris'
chic fashion district off the Champs-Elysees as part of his bid to enter the
charmed circle.

   "One day I hope to be on the official programme. We can't live without
couture. Haute couture for me is a real art, like a painter with a canvas. You
can do what you want. And the customers still want it."

   For next summer he looked to the goddesses of the silver screen in the 1940s and 1950s - Hollywood heroines Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Marilyn
Monroe, Grace Kelly, Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor - and recreated grand
gowns in a range of appropriately rich gemstone colours, from ruby red and
emerald to topaz and amethyst.

   Murad, who counts Ivana Trump among his loyal customers, feels he is also
struggling against a certain prejudice in France that Lebanese designers draw
all their clientele from the Gulf, while his ready-to-wear line is based in
Milan and his business is expanding fast in the United States, Russia and Asia.

   Fellow Lebanese designer Georges Chakra has also recently opened a showroom in Paris so he can welcome customers away from the political turmoil in Beirut, where he still employs 90 staff in his workrooms.

   Despite such high-profile customers as British actress Helen Mirren and
Marcia Cross (of Desperate Housewives) and the admiration of Christian
Lacroix, no less, he has not yet succeeded in gaining the coveted haute
couture designation, but has not given up trying.

   His collection for next summer includes ravishing ballgowns handpainted in
Italy with giant stylised flowers - exotic orchids or chrysanthemums - picked
out in pale pink ostrich feathers, with sleeves emerging from layers of petals
like upturned roses. As well as fluorescent pinks and acid yellows, there are
frocks in softer sorbet shades or neutrals, cream and ivory, sprinkled with
cubes of iridescent crystals.

AFP