Chanel Haute Couture Ateliers, rue Cambon
T: The New York Times Style Magazine
It Took 800 Hours to Make This Chanel Dress
Capturing one incredible piece in the middle of its creation.
This month: a silk tulle sheath.
A ready-to-wear sheath often takes mere minutes to make, the cutting, sewing and finishing — right down to attaching the label — all done by machine. But such an operation bears virtually no resemblance to the arcane process of couture dressmaking: painstaking, hand-wrought and largely unchanged since the late 19th century.
Words by Nancy Hass