I´ve started to photograph the backstage of the Haute Couture in Paris by the beginning of the Millennium, before Internet and communication obsession, when it was still a place of peace and concentration. We were only five photographers, always the same five, dancing like butterflies around the models dressed in utopic costumes, trying to be as invisible as we could.
 
The silence prior to the show, the slow movements, and suddenly that cry "line up!" (in a row). Then is when serious things start: models in a row, the last touch-up, outputs, and the rush to change clothes. But all without stridency, but with the calm that allows the extreme training.

Haute Couture is a place of disciplined madness. Hundreds of hours of work to turn a sketch into a real dream, by thousands of pleats, sequins, appliqués and so many stitches given strictly by hand, in order to create a dress that can be worn only once. Fashion photography in these conditions has to be fantasy, also a fruit of a discipline imposed by the narrowness of the space. We must tell a story. Fashionable, but a story. Each image shall enlarge the vision of the designer and transmit the gaze of the photographer.

Passion comes together at that unique moment. Hope you enjoy.

Joséphine Douet