Two weeks before a collection is shown, the atmosphere in the atelier is like a beehive, say the premières, with everybody chatting and busily working. But the weekend before the show, the mood changes. “It is silence and concentration, because we know we have a deadline, so we need to work, stay quiet, silent,” says Chehet.“Maria Grazia works in a precise, deliberate way. Her vision is clear and complete. It’s all so different from the John Galliano era. Sometimes we would have a dress [to alter or start creating] at 5 in the morning for the show in the afternoon. Now it wouldn’t be possible to do that, we have different rules, we don’t work that much at night,” she continues. “It was true we had beautiful results on the outside, but when you could see the underside, it was not finished because we had a lot of last-minute work and alterations.” When she now looks at those Galliano pieces in the archive, she shudders at the memory of those hidden imperfections. The adrenaline of the Galliano days has gone, but with Chiuri, the catwalk clothes are so well finished they could be worn inside out.
When the premières started out in their careers, nearly 40 years ago, seamstresses were required to cut their nails so as not to catch the fabric. They weren’t allowed to wear make-up, for fear of spoiling the precious couture fabrics, and they had to tie their hair back. Morel wasn’t sure if this was the life for her. “It was like an old people’s home. [My colleagues] had no life, no children, no husbands. The atelier was their life.” The rules are more relaxed now. Their new recruits are not teenage school-leavers but twentysomething graduates of the LVMH craft academy. “It is really different in the atelier now, it looks fresher,” she says.
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