The new “Galia Lahav” SS 2017 couture collection, called “Victoria Affair”, reminds us of what

beauty and elegance of the dress in haute couture really means. Being inspired by

the fashion of Victorian England and French Belle Époque, the designer makes palpable the

world of bohemian salons and boudoirs, the world of Romantic poetry, of Gothic novels and

fairy tails with all their fays and elf. In this collection the traditions and innovations,

modesty and sensibility, sexuality and dignity are composed in a solid symphony.

 

 

„Victoria Affair” is hand dyed in the gentle deep colors of warm gold and bronze, hot red,

various antique pinks and smokey purples as well as black and shades of black, what

reminds the palate of William Turner’s water colors. Constructing the collection from the

classical cuts of column, mermaid, pansil, tea gowns, skirts, bodies and shorts, the

couturier refers to the epoch by using the distinctive elements as collars, trains, corsets,

veils, medallions, vintage laces and authentic embroidery, from the 1890’s, made by

Lesage.

 

The collection expresses a splendor of the epoch, which we irretrievably lost, but the charm

of which we miss so dramatically in the times of blind commodity and utilitarian aesthetics.

After the years of permissiveness and the radical exposure of a human body, we are finally

reminded, that the clothing should be a promise of delight rather than enforcement to it.

 

At the time, fashion had a crucial impact on the fight for the right of saying over our own

bodies. Nudity was a mode of protest, a political manifest. But the role is played. We forgot,

that nudity was a tool, not a goal. By using the exquisite fabrics and the classical cuts, Galia

Lahav makes the clothing being an adornment of a body again. Nudity could be merely

guessed behind the foggy transparency of texture.

 

 

However the couturier frequently uses the noble desaturated colors, as dusty-rose or

dusty- lavender, appealing to the new technologies and contemporary materials makes the

collection breath with freshness of youth. Innovative silicon or 3D modulated ornaments

and jewels are harmoniously combined with antique elements and original Victorian floral

ornaments. Using such fabrics as silk, organza, tulle, chantilly laces creates an impression,

that the dresses are tailored of air. In the same time, denser velvet or guipure perfectly

sculpts a posture.

 

With its light melancholic spirit, «Victoria Affair» evokes the times of a modest, exalted

beauty, when ladies and gentlemen were not afraid of being sensitive, when they believed

in love and miracles. Galia Lahav’s collection is an ode to an exquisiteness, created with a

delicate workmanship and devoted personal input. It is also an ode to a magnificence of a

body, full of genuine respect to a woman, her dignity and her unique, natural glory.

 

By Maxym Teteruk

Photo Courtesy of Galia Lahav and Totem Fashion