Modern Couture

AnOther Magazine A/W12 celebrates modern couture in a film by Ruth Hogben and Katie Shillingford

This season, AnOther Magazine celebrates a new age of couture. The autumn/winter 2012 issue features an extraordinary fashion story shot by Ruth Hogben and styled by Katie Shillingford, while Susannah Frankel talks to the inner circle of designers, including Raf Simons, Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier. Here, AnOthermag.com exclusively premieres an accompanying film by Hogben, starring model Saskia de Brauw.

"We wanted to create something that made people smile" says Shillingford, the newly appointed fashion director of AnOther Magazine. "We were thinking about couture in a new and modern light. I was especially excited by the fact Raf Simons was presenting his debut couture collection and felt that this breath of fresh air would bring a new spark to the traditional world of couture."

"We wanted to create something that made people smile" — Katie Shillingford

The exquisitely rendered garments range from a swirling red Valentino gown and a Maison Martin Margiela jacket fashioned from vintage baseball mitts, to beaded organza by Givenchy and a hand-sequinned silver dress by Chanel, with neon pink paint daubed on the neck and hem. The garments are extraordinary both in their craftsmanship and in their infinite range and variety, with film and fashion story working as a demonstration of couture’s evolving position in the fashion world today. Where once couture was reserved for only the loftiest of occasions, now, while the pool of clientele remains small and exclusive, customers are looking for clothes that live and breathe, that can be incorporated with ease into 21st century life.

Starring (in order of appearance): Atelier Versace, Givenchy Haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci, Valentino Haute Couture, Iris Van Herpen, Maison Martin Margiela Artisinal, Gaultier Paris, Giorgio Armani Privé, Dior Haute Couture and Chanel Haute Couture.

The autumn/winter 2012 issue of AnOther Magazine is on newsstands September 13.