Is Balenciaga haute couture on the way?

François-Henri Pinault, the CEO of Balenciaga's parent company, has hinted that couture could be on the cards under the leadership of new creative director Alexander Wang.

A look from Balenciaga's spring/summer 2011 ready-to-wear collection

Now that the speculation as to who will fill Nicolas Ghesquière's shoes at Balenciaga is over, rumours can begin as to what exactly Alexander Wang will bring to the storied French fashion house.

Speaking to WWD , François-Henri Pinault, the CEO of Balenciaga's parent company PPR, has given us this tasty little fashion morsel: Balenciaga could be about to move into couture once again.

Does this mean we could be seeing Balenciaga on the couture schedule in the next few seasons, courtesy of Wang? Or is it just simply a turn of phrase? Balenciaga is, after all, one of the original couture houses from the golden age of haute couture.

London Fashion Week: Tom Ford spring/summer 2013

Chastity and perversity are the twin themes of Tom Ford's spring/summer 2013 collection.

Tom Ford's style certainly polarises opinion these days, between those who find it backward looking and those who regard it as classic. The vote splits as soon as you're ushered through Ford HQ in Victoria and into the lifts by the same breed of chisel-jawed, side parted, uncannily smooth haired flunkies as the ones who used to line the route to the Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent shows a decade ago. All of them, it turns out, hired for the day from a model agency.

Some like the intimacy and the wink to the past (or maybe it's more of a mugging). Others, not so much. "A good journalist friend told me to quit talking at these things," Ford confessed, as he tapped away on his iPad, cueing up the models and controlling the soundtrack.

Naturally being Ford, it wasn't an entirely wordless affair, which is a good thing. The banter is what personalises these presentations. Two words in particular couldn't be dispensed with. "Chastity and perversity," he explained, were the twin themes of this collection.

Chastity came in the guise of camel cashmere sweaters, taupe skirts and long high necked black paper taffeta column dresses; perversity showed up in the form of black patent zip pencil skirts, caped backs, and the multi buckled leather strap, bondage sandal-boots.

There were plenty of what have become classic Ford tropes: backless black fitted chiffon dresses with cupped breasts (very 50 Shades of Grey ) and long, slashed, beaded skirts and skinny pants, updated this time thanks to an injection of sportiness.

Get tomorrow's 'vintage' today at Chanel couture

With elongated silhouettes, skirts cut "a hand above the knee" and slender dresses slashed open or cut low at the back, Karl Lagerfeld dubbed the look "New Vintage" in a nod to the fashionista appetite for collector Chanel.

Models walk the runway during the Chanel Haute-Couture show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall / Winter 2012/13 at the Grand Palais on July 3, 2012 in Paris, France.

Bohemian belles in feathers and sparkling faux-tweed glided past the white wicker tables of an old world spa as Chanel put its own spin on the vintage craze at the Paris haute couture shows on Tuesday.

Chanel's designer Karl Lagerfeld took over a disused wing of Paris' Grand Palais exhibition hall -- his venue of choice -- with a decor of black-and-white sketched doors and a giant fresco meant to suggest a genteel thermal resort.

British style icon Alexa Chung and top model Laetitia Casta were among the famous faces at the early morning show, with the director Sofia Coppola and the actress Diane Kruger due at a second seating.

Bejewelled crochet snoods on their hair, Chanel's women stepped out in daysuits of glittering faux tweed -- virtuoso creations each some 3,000 hours in the making, crafted from wool, tulle and pearls.

With elongated silhouettes, skirts cut "a hand above the knee" and slender dresses slashed open or cut low at the back, Lagerfeld dubbed the look "New Vintage" in a nod to the fashionista appetite for collector Chanel.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

"My own suits from 30 years ago, you can buy them like vintage now," the German designer told reporters after the show, white hair in his trademark ponytail, black suit and shades, and clutching his iPhone in one hand.

"'New Vintage' is a proposition for something that could last -- at least I hope so," he said. "This is the same attitude, the same spirit, the same name, same concept -- but something for our time."

"Vintage -- but it's not vintage yet. You can have it before it's vintage!" quipped the spirited designer. "Plus, 'New Vintage' has a nice ring to it!"

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

So tomorrow's collector, Tuesday's show suggested, would pair his Chanel suits and gowns with glittery silver tights, metal-tipped heels, leather-like sheaths covering the wrist and cupping the hand by way of gloves.

For the day, Lagerfeld played with shades of grey lifted by touches of pink "but never 'shocking', I leave that to other houses".

Come cocktail time, his palette turned darker, introducing glossy blacks and flashes of mat silver, like on a metallic-looking gown with fuchsia pink highlights at the neck, waist and hem.

Wispy ostrich feathers adorned a sheer white blouse, tucked into wide-leg white pants, the feather embroidery repeated on a full length cape over a black-and-white dress.

The skill of Chanel's craft ateliers was on ample display in feather-light pastel evening gowns, embroidered with fluttering feathers, cupped flowers or in one case dozens of little rabbit-tail pom-poms.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

And for the finale, the bride -- as per the couture custom -- stepped out in a fully feathered gown, a pale pink bow at the back of its sweeping skirts, and a ruff of feathers softly framing her face.

So how long before the new collection can be stamped as vintage, with the prestige and premium that applies? Ten years?

"In fashion the future is six months," Lagerfeld mused.

He also let slip a few comments on the debut collection of Dior's new designer Raf Simons on Monday, which itself mined a retro seam inspired by the "architecture" of Christian Dior's iconic 1950s silhouettes.

While the look "could have done with incubating a little longer," Lagerfeld said Simons was, in his view, the best candidate for the top design job, where he succeeded the disgraced John Galliano.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

"There is simply no one else out there," he said. "So it's a good thing."

Catering to no more than 200 of the world's richest women, haute couture is a protected appellation in France, awarded based on strict criteria such as the amount of work carried out by hand and in-house.

Dolce & Gabbana Autumn/Winter 2012 Collection Revealed!

Lisa Armstrong: 'If you had to re-invent a definition of luxury, one of the most overused sells of modern times, then a double-sided cashmere-tweed with devastating curves over the hips is a good start.'

Photo: Telegraph

After 27 years, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce have achieved a level of commercial and creative success with their ready-to-wear lines, perfumes, cosmetics, sunglasses, bags and shoes that means they can do what they want. And having been everywhere, seen it all and bought the yachts, what they want now is their own couture line, Alta Moda.

Not the modern version of a couture line, which is essentially another branding tool in which far more couture-show pictures are beamed around the world than outfits are actually ordered. This was not about following fashion's 21st-century business procedure - this was about the clients and the clothes (and maybe creating an old-fashioned mystique: the blogosphere had been a-throb with speculation about this show ever since news of it first emerged).

Photo: Telegraph

One by one, the duo's favourite tropes emerged: the idealised Sicilian black-widow silhouette, the embellished silk and velvet kitten heels, the voluptuous floral prints and appliquéd roses, the romantic full skirts and the slinky lace ones.

But the point, as Stefano Gabbana said, "was not to do new, new, new. It was to craft something beautiful, special and unique." What would happen if more than one client fell in love with the same pink lace dress? "First come, first served," he replied firmly.

Photo: Telegraph

Guaranteed exclusivity, a degree of secrecy and the time (and zen-like patience) to wait for these beautiful pieces to be made, are three further definitions of luxury. The irony is that in a saturated-celebrity-and-fast-fashion culture, Dolce & Gabbana's bid for slow-fashion, for artistry and for not having to think too hard about bottom lines or the endless churn of ready-to-wear shows, can only benefit their brand.

A Couture Feast- Harpers Bazaar US

Karl Lagerfeld takes over the camera for Harpers Bazaar US October issue. Couture heaven for model Candie Swanepoel who posed for Lagerfeld. A black & white fairytale of couture gowns from Givenchy, Valentino, Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, Chanel and more.

images sourced from frontrowview