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speakfashion: Stéphanie, what encouraged you to enter the glitzy and glamorous world of fashion?

BURKHALTER couture: Well, I’ve already developed a special interest for classic drawing and oil painting in my earliest childhood. Being a very reserved and solitary child, I spent entire days in my room for drawing, contained in my world of fantasy. At the age of 16 I began an international Model career which made me travel in every corner of the world. With this experience I decided to unite fashion with drawing and I attended the prestigious fashion school ‘Marangoni’ in Milan. I obtained my diploma in 2005 and worked with many Italian fashion companies ever since. During this time I started to draw my own collection. In 2008 BURKHALTER couture was born.

speakfashion: How would you describe your label and what’s the basic style of ‘BURKHALTER Couture’?

BURKHALTER couture: BURKHALTER couture proposes a sensual timeless line, handmade in Italy. We understand ourselves as no season Haute Couture label with juvenile tendencies maintaining nevertheless some classical and luxurious style. Within this understanding I mainly design cocktail and red carpet dresses using typical high quality fabrics like satin, silk, taffeta stretch, and cadi revers. Our intense Haute Couture style addresses especially women who are sensual and sure of themselves. Although my collections are not limited I mostly create dresses since I love the fact that woman only look perfectly feminine in a dress.

speakfashion: For you personally, what’s the biggest challenge in designing couture?

BURKHALTER couture: The biggest challenge is always the transformation of my ideas. It is sometimes slightly tricky to get these crazy and nonspecific thoughts into an actual dress. After I have an idea in mind I usually start to work with materials, touch them, feel them and try to get them to work on the mannequin. Then I have to draw some sketches that are similar to the original but a little less crazy but more wearable.

speakfashion: Is Haute Couture truly wearable for average people with an average lifestyle or is it still kind of an artsy hobby for wealthy women?

BURKHALTER couture: I would say that basically everybody could wear Haute Couture. However, the haut couture approach is very expensive and requires a very wealthy target group for this reason. That means that the actual Haute Couture target groups are jet set women between 25 and 65 who are living literally in the high societies around the world. And that’s the good news though: Haute Couture won’t die because there always will be very wealthy people around.

speakfashion: Ok, let’s talk about the budget then. What’s the price range of your actual collection?

BURKHALTER couture: My collection starts with pieces for 1.500 Euros and can go up to 4.200 Euros depending on the actual piece, fabric and sewing. My best seller is actually this beautiful dress in gray cadi revers which I gave the name ‘Purity’ because of its clear line. My customers love the clarity of the line that gives them the opportunity to wear this dress for different occasions.

speakfashion: Compared with ready to wear fashion what would you say: Is Haute Couture the true trendsetter that dictates the rules for upcoming Ready to Wear styles?

BURKHALTER couture: Haute Couture is high end of sewing, high research and therefore the high end of a Ready to Wear. Haute Couture is the one and only trendsetter particularly because it comes out earlier than ready to wear and works as sort of the genesis for new collections. Both of them are working with the same base but the craziness and the ideas are truly pushed by Haute Couture designs. Although Ready to Wear is certainly the trendsetter for Fast Fashion.

speakfashion: Well, that sounds obvious. Thanks for sharing with us. Would you let us finally know what’s next for ‘BURKHALTER Couture’?

BURKHALTER couture: I’m thinking of moving into another country right now. I’ll probably go to the U.S. sometime soon since there are still a lot of opportunities to promote and evolve my label. We’ll see.

speakfashion: Well, good luck then if you really going to hop over the pond and thank you for this interesting chat.

Wanna touch base with ‘Stéphanie Burkhalter’?

BURKHALTER couture – Geneva Headquater BURKHALTER couture // 129, Rue de Lausanne // 1202 Geneva P: + 41 (0) 22 732 47 85 // Email to Stéphanie Burkhalter W: www.burkhaltercouture.com // View it on google maps. Catch up with BURKHALTER couture on Facebook or Twitter

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Tags: BURKHALTER couture, Cocktail Dresses, Fashion Backstage, Fashion behind the Scene, fashion designer interview, Fashion Interview, Fashion Interviews, Haute Couture, High Dressmaking, High Fashion, speak fashion, speakfashion, speaking fashion, Stephanie Burkhalter

This entry was posted on Dienstag, Oktober 26th, 2010 at 4:11 PM and is filed under Fashion Backstage, Fashion Tips Women, Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.