MEASURING UP
Take a tour of Chanel’s haute couture ateliers with Olivia Douchez, the youngest ever studio head.
Tour Chanel’s haute couture ateliers with Olivia Douchez, the youngest ever studio head.
The faceted mirrored staircase of 31 rue Cambon famously leads up to the inner sanctum of Coco Chanel’s private apartment. She would sit there, hidden and peering from the corner, to watch the reactions to her fashion shows. But keep on going – a few more flights, a few more twists and turns – and the all-white couture ateliers will be revealed. And there stands Olivia Douchez, the youngest première, or head, of one of Chanel’s haute couture ateliers.
“It was my childhood dream to work with Karl [Lagerfeld],” gushes Douchez, who as a child would watch her mother sew and create garments, instilling a love and understanding of the craftsmanship it took to create couture. In charge of an atelier flou, one of the two ateliers that work with soft fabrics for garments like blouses, flowing skirts and diaphanous gowns, she oversees the seamstresses called petites mains, the fairytale-esque name that translates to ‘little hands’.
I’m told later on that she has a particular sartorial affinity with the Chanel creative director, rising quickly through the ranks to become an atelier head. It is even all the more remarkable that she is only 36 years of age. “For me, Chanel is the real reference for all couture and readyto-wear in the world,” says Douchez, who previously worked at Givenchy for 10 years. And as she points out, it is rare nowadays too for a house to have its couture ateliers and ready-to-wear ateliers all under one roof, as Chanel has done.
Douchez remembers how nervous she was before her first interview: “I was stressed for weeks, but Karl really made it comfortable and easy for me, and we talked immediately and for a long time – it’s the best memory for me, because it was so emotional.”
Six weeks before the show, Douchez tells me, she will sit with Lagerfeld to understand his vision for the collection. Translating his detailed sketches into a toile, it is Douchez’s hands that are the “first to put the pins on the toile – to give the shape of the silhouette”, before her team joins to build the entire toile with her. “But, the first hand is mine,” she repeats as emphasis.
She excitedly takes me through the atelier, introducing me to her team, who proudly show off garments they are working on. There are sewn-on jewels that mimic the tessellations of Parisian cobblestones, and other embellishments that Douchez interprets independently from Lagerfeld as other elements taken from the City of Lights. Geometric patterns to her mimic the grilled ironwork of the Eiffel Tower, and an ornamentation to
Douchez looks like the padlocks that lovers attach to bridges, like uneven, jagged scales. The pale green of some of the looks, including the finale wedding gown worn by Australian model Adut Akech, reminds Douchez of the green colour of oxidized bronze Parisian roofs. “Paris was the inspiration, so you see a lot of symbols and references to the city.”
In a brief detour to atelier tailleur, presided by another head, a petites mains moves aside to show me a gloriously embroidered jacket he is working on, pointing out the toile next to him, where sketches of embroidered floral are carefully placed by Lagerfeld. The tailleur is where tailored pieces like jackets and other pieces with firmer fabrics are made, and traditionally were manned by men. Now in this atelier it is a mix of men and women.
With less than 24 hours left until the haute couture show, the atelier is startlingly calm. I ask her how her team is tracking for this season. “It depends on the season. I’m very confident on the timing; it’s pretty comfortable,” she says, undaunted. “This one is under control.”