The fall 2004 haute couture season officially starts today, with a very slimmed down calendar of 19 official shows in three days. Usually, the season is held for 4 days, and with this cut of one day, doomsayers are predicting the demise of the made-to-measure craft in the next few years.

But they have not seen the new crop of couturier yet, if they did, they will change their minds because there are a lot of talents out there who can attract a new generation of couture clients. Let’s start with Julien Fournié, Creative Director of the House of Torrente.

Young, exuberant and barely in his 30s, Julien Fournié was given the gargantuan task of taking the young couture house of Torrente to the 21st century when its founder Rose Torrente Mett retired.

Opened in 1968, Torrente was an instant hit among the Hollywood and French glitterati, as they literally lined up for the opening on May 1968. Three years later, the young fashion house entered the starry spheres of haute couture, and had continually shown twice a year its made-to-measure gowns and dresses since then.

On January 2003, Rose Torrente Mett resigned as Creative Director of the fashion house that bears her name. In September of the same year, Julien Fournié had to follow the footsteps of a living legend, revamp the house, and attract new clientele while keeping the existing ones.

Julien might be young in years, but not with ideas, mining history and literature to come up with thought-provoking and beautiful collections. Like this morning, he said in his press notes that he was inspired by D.H. Lawrence, author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

“It’s about a woman’s sexuality,” he said after the show. “A woman can be prim and proper on the outside, but when her husband comes home, she becomes his lover.”

That would raise eyebrows all the way to the Vatican, because up to now, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is still on the list of books that Catholics should NOT read.

But in this very real world of sexual promiscuity, Julien Fournié has a point! And if a woman is going to be a lover to someone, why not her own husband? Then again, it will raise eyebrows in the Vatican because in one of the papal edicts of Pope John Paul II, a Catholic can commit adultery if a married couple look at each other with lust. Go figure!

Nevertheless, Julien Fournié’s thoughts are very stimulating and creative, translating a concept into a real object such as clothing. At this point in time in his career, he might not be attracting people the way Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier and Valentino do nowadays.

But give him sometime, and this former assistant of Jean Paul Gaultier will rise to the heights of his former mentor. With that in mind, how can anyone say that haute couture is dying? As long as there are talents like Julien Fournié and houses like Torrente, no matter how small, are willing to nurture them in their development, the made-to-measure craft will continue, even flourish.