DALLAS & PARIS, Jun 7, 2010 / FW/ — With the release of the Fall 2010 haute couture calendar, four names from the official members are missing – Anne Valerie Hash, Dominique Sirop, Frank Sorbier and Maurizio Galante.

Four is a not a lot, but considering that there are only 10 official members, that is actually 40% who are not showing. Of course, if we include the Correspondent members, then it is 14 on the official list and the percentage of those not showing is better at 28%.

But before you star thinking that this is another one of those articles saying that haute couture is dead, erase that thought from your mind. Haute couture is not dying; it just needs a little re-calibration for it to become relevant as it was 45 years ago.

Why am I saying that? According to the “The New Face of Affluence,” an in-depth study from Dwell Strategy and Research, San Francisco, the “new affluents”, an emerging class of wealthy Americans sees innovation, design, authenticity and sustainability as important factors in their brand choices and purchasing patterns.

Interestingly enough, this new affluents, whose median age is 45 use technology a lot – 84% texts from cell phones; 78% use social networking; 66% use the mobile web and 57% use mobile apps.

This means that even the traditional haute couture clientele are changing with the times. If the venerable sci-fi series Star Trek which started its life during the 1960s benefited from a 2009 reboot of the franchise, haute couture can learn from sci-fi albeit Star Trek is pedestrian compared to haute couture.

MONDAY, July 5, 2010

1100 CHRISTOPHE JOSSE To be confirmed
1230 BOUCHRA JARRAR Musée des Arts Décoratifs
1430 CHRISTIAN DIOR To be confirmed
1600 ATELIER GUSTAVO LINS rue du Perche
1800 ADELINE ANDRÉ JTM Gallery – 40 rue de Richelieu – Paris 1er
2000 ALEXIS MABILLE See invitation

TUESDAY, July 6, 2010

1100 GIORGIO ARMANI PRIVÉ Espace Vendôme – 7 place Vendôme – Paris 1er
1230 LEFRANC.FERRANT Palais de Tokyo
1430 STÉPHANE ROLLAND Théâtre National de Chaillot – 1 place du Trocadéro – Paris 16e
1600 GIVENCHY See invitation
2000 CHANEL Grand Palais – avenue Winston Churchill

WEDNESDAY, Jul 7, 2010

1000 ON AURA TOUT VU To be confirmed
1100 FRANCK SORBIER See invitation
1200 ELIE SAAB Théâtre National de Chaillot – 1 place du Trocadéro – Paris 16e
1430 JEAN PAUL GAULTIER 325 rue Saint-Martin – Paris 3e
1700 MAISON RABIH KAYROUZ To be confirmed
1830 VALENTINO Couvent des Cordeliers – 15 rue de l’Ecole de Médecine – Paris 6e

Paris Haute Couture Fall 2010