As many journalists will tell you, listening to one’s recorded voice can be notoriously embarrassing, and I’ve never been as mortified as I was when I heard the transcription of my midsummer visit with Ralph & Russo in London.
“Oh là là” (I’m not even French). “Oh, wow.” “Oh my goodness gracious.” “What pure gorgeousness” (is that even a word?), were among the exclamations I came across. Sure, their silhouettes are ravishing – a dance with vintage yet so viciously modern but it is the embroidery, the beadwork and the breathing volumes that have raised Ralph & Russo’s gowns into the storied, Parisian-certified ranks of Haute Couture (and to the point that they make people act all silly around them, myself included.)
Tamara Ralph, the creative force in the duo, is beside me while the business brain (and her other half) Michael Russo, watches over us a little further off. The designer elaborates details and techniques to me as she caresses and looks lovingly upon the craftwork.
Vermicelli embroidery, which amplifies the threading to greater 3D effect; lines of the finest fabric edging in the world; four metres of blue chiffon for a dress, with yet a further three metres of yellow chiffon just for the artful flowers upon it; or, a wedding dress with a six-metre train comprising 4,000 hours of hand-embroidered embellishment. There is the legendary Lesage embroidery of course, but look to the latest autumn/winter 2015-16 collection and there are embroidery patterns reworked from the House of Hurel’s 1960s archives, or a fine feather arch hand-dyed on the tip, amongst thousands of pieces of equal length.
Taking a step back though from these mandala-like details, here I am in the company of about a hundred haute couture dresses and couture’s coolest couple. Their studio (where they hold client appointments) is located in a pristine, seven-storey London townhouse in the heart of Mayfair and it brings a new sense to the word maison. “We alter the setting for every client visit so that it becomes like home for them. We want them to feel comfortable,” says Michael Russo. “They really appreciate that. Sometimes their kids run around. They should never want to leave.” With fresh flowers on the table, ornate mirrors and that calm opulence that is so quintessentially haute couture, one can rapidly empathise.
As the first British fashion house to be invited into the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture since it was established in 1858, the Australian-born duo Ralph & Russo are the darlings of the British press. They dressed Angelina Jolie in a demure dove grey suit to accept her honorary damehood from the Queen for her humanitarian work and of course they regularly rule the red carpet with some of the most bold and beautiful gowns. But this is just the megawatt resonance of a brand that, at its core, holds true to the haute couture tradition: an affluent and loyal client list willing to pay up to 500,000 USD sometimes, on fantastical, entirely handmade one-of-a-kind wearable works of art.
Their 1,100 square metre atelier, which is located on the 22nd floor of a 1960s office block, has sweeping 360-degree views over some of London’s most recognisable landmarks, like the London Eye, the gardens of Buckingham Palace and the Thames. It is here that fantasies become a handmade reality thanks to a more than 100-strong team of skilled women – embroiderers, tailors, fitters, designers and people who specialise in toile, chiffon, velvet and silk.
“Yes, that is for her highness,” instructs Tamara, referring to a generously sized mannequin that an artisan is working on. She then shuffles to another dress-in-the-making, to kneel before double swathes of luscious duchesse satin, eyeing the proportions with a sixth sense that speaks of the long matriarchal line of dressmakers before her. Her mother, who attends every single show, and grandmother, who passed away just before Ralph & Russo’s Paris debut on the haute couture line-up, were both couturiers for society ladies in Sydney, and when Ralph was about 10, they began to teach her everything they knew.
The institution of haute couture at large, has maintained an aura of mystery around its clientele, imagined to be princesses, heiresses or wealthy ‘wives-of’ willing to spend the equivalent of a house’s down payment on a single dress, and with all the time in the world to attend their fittings. These criteria may still hold true but in the case of the latest generation, we can add others: cosmopolitan, personally accomplished, articulate, and busy. This is why haute couture went through an awkward growth phase, because old world traditions struggled to meet the lives of modern women. Ralph & Russo directly sets out to address this, modernising to be in line with the 21st century. How? “We like to do things differently,” says Russo with a smile. “Because we started seven years ago we had to go with a more modern way of thinking. For us, it was always about understanding the client and making it easy for them.”
For example, haute couture orders typically take a minimum of six weeks to deliver and some customers simply can’t wait that long. So Ralph & Russo have opened boutiques, such as the one in Harrods, which stock readymade couture pieces that can be custom-altered and bought on a whim. Curcuially it is not ready to wear though for it remains haute couture in the techniques of its construction, the quality and the detail of craft. “We found there’s such a huge market for this.”
And this market is slated to grow, given the six Ralph & Russo retail boutiques in the works worldwide, including Malaysia and Singapore before the end of the year. But at the heart of their great expansion and success is their product: an exaltation of nature, a transportation to the poetry of embroidery and movement in cloth.
