The Haute Couture Bathrobe (Okay, It’s A Chanel Coat, But Still)

Being the workhorse that he is, one wouldn't expect Karl Lagerfeld to create eight soup-to-nuts haute couture looks and call it a day; for Chanel's "new-vintage" spring 2013 couture collection, Karl churned out 64 hand-crafted looks that included enough embroidery, beading, and tricky dye-jobs to even pull Cathy Horyn in a trance. Pointing out a fuzzy, high-neck coat among her favorite looks ("[it] had the solid well-being of a bathrobe"), Cathy got us thinking about what exactly qualifies as haute couture. After all, it's rumored that the customer base for couture hovers around 200, and those that can afford fashion at such a high and luxurious level wouldn't blink at the sight of a hand-sewn, gazillion-dollar bathrobe. For the rest of us? Our own tried-and-true robes work fine, thankyouverymuch, but we can't wear ours out to go diamond picking in the Alps (or whatever it is that the couture elite do in their spare time). (NYT)