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September 29, 2026

The Purists: Where Less Truly is More

I divide the pure designers into two halves, day, and night. I believe this will be abundantly clear as I explain the two attitudes and approaches to designing clothes.

The first group of designers I wish to talk about rely on day clothes for their signature, for many of them it is also urban life with only minimal referencing to the country. The clothes they create are for working life, be that in an office, within a huge corporate company, lunching in town, the opening of a business, charity fund raising, meetings for education, or politics. It’s not a “working wardrobe” but it’s efficient, from  a neat t shirt to a warm winter coat from resort pants to a simple cocktail dress it’s chic, its elegant it’s practical, it’s not trendy or instantly recognisable except to the cognoscenti. It has been established within the fashion business since long before stealth wealth, quiet chic, or any of the other recent tags. However, in demanding economic and political times its place in “trends” or talked about areas of fashion has increased in profile.

I’d offer the following as examples, starting with Lutz whose clothes are collected by his clients, whose cutting and construction is one hundred percent superb, who can offer a brilliant pair of pants or a neat coat, or something with a special flare or detail that makes people in the know look twice, but never shocks or produces flash. Even sequins or satin in his hands have a discretion and sophistication that plays them down. At his shows models stride confidently past wearing each look and the audience mentally shops, its real fashion, but also slightly outside. It’s for connoisseurs. The Row operate at a slightly different level in that it is minimal and purist, the appeal is its luxury fabrics, its hidden detail and its restraint that means it actually is almost invisible but clever at the same time. It is always easy to think with the purists that it is easy to find a cheap version of their pieces, and the truth is it’s not. Brunello Cuccinelli and Lora Piano both excel at offering both the key elements of the collection as simple pieces re-examined each season alongside some stand out extra things to lure the big spender to purchase because they are limited edition.

Words by Tony Glenville

Back in the day Giorgio Armani Collezioni, Claude Montana, Helmut Lang and Calvin Klein in separate ways removed the excess, edited out the fuss, and offered clothes, then added a sprinkle of stardust and magic with seasonal extras. The core of Yves Saint Laurent was tailoring like Le Smoking, Chanel relied on the suit and the little black dress even under Karl, and today it’s interesting how Matthieu Bally is severely cutting back on the evening wear by comparison with Karl Lagerfeld’s time.

There have always been purists, which to a degree Chanel was, saving her romantic flourishes for her evening wear. obviously the 1920’s and Art Deco was a very linear epoch, so Jean Patou was great at editing the lines of his clothes, as was Edward Molyneux in the following decades. Then Givenchy and Balenciaga really investigated this pure attention to line and shape. Every suit and coat in Charade on Audrey Hepburn demonstrates less is more. We are looking at designers to whom the greatest interest is in the lines of each piece, how it might work on the clients and how it functions in the wardrobe and this all takes precedence over fashion for fashion’s sake.

Balenciaga does not belong anywhere except amongst the purists. A visit to the Balenciaga Museum in Sant Sébastien is a pilgrimage to the source. He represents the cardinal rules for a garment or piece at the highest level, fabric, cut, construction, line, proportion, balance, finish and finally client. Sadly, nothing at Givenchy or Balenciaga today links to their founders. 

Of course, American designers are past masters at all this from Claire McCardell and Bonnie Cashin to Donna Karan or Michael Kors. One might say it also started with Mainbocher at haute couture in Paris from 1930-1940. When we observe his work at its most rigorous it is no surprise that during the war years and after he designed military uniforms with enormous success. America’s designers such as Norman Norell or Bill Blass, and Geoffrey Beene may be superbly talented, but their work is characterised by the wearability of much of their work, great pieces for great clients. Even the avant garde such as Rudi Gernreich or Stephen Sprouse, two geniuses in fashion terms, next to anyone else, both edited sharply and stayed away from fuss. Zoran, during his most successful years, took luxury minimalism to a special level whilst today Ralph Rucci stands in a class of his own amongst designers in America. His attention to line, to construction and to investigation into making each piece puts him next to a handful of names across the world working in this way. Like many purists Rucci is as much interested in solving the problem of the design and achieving the idea in reality as he is just making up a design. Purists tend to see the early part of the process in the atelier, and during fittings in the classic sense of haute couture, as a laboratory.

I would finish by mentioning two wildly contrasted pure views of pure fashion and clothes, firstly the simple and minimal COS whose achievements in bringing pure lines and architectural styles to a wider audience has been remarkably successful and Adeline Andre at Paris haute couture. Adeline Andre cuts shapes as though a mathematical and a fashion designer were working with a pattern cutter who trained with Brancusi. Then her colours sense is amongst the most fabulous anywhere and her mixing of fabrics is simply delicious. Her clothes are strong, but quiet and this extraordinary balance is truly magical. Each season as I watch her models step under the trees in the dappled sunlight, I count myself extremely fortunate to experience such expertise and beauty.

The second set of purists are about night time, the day barely exists for them, the soirée or the glam the opening night, the gala or the awards ceremony are their natural habitat. Be it Venice or Rio the women thus dressed require gorgeous gowns. It is that simple.

I call them the Glamouratti and they are not locked into a season or a trend, only about beautiful desirable looks. It is about flattering options for a wide range of figures; it is about investment dressing and a certain focus on the timeless luxury that spans the decades of leading ladies. Rita Hayworth to Nicole Kidman it’s about the centre stage spotlight.

Zuhair Murad makes beautiful gowns, and he understands perfectly in the balance of each collection the fluid and the draped, the structured and the grand, the pretty and the ruffled, offering a cohesive statement flowing through silhouette and colour options, offering glittering or flower embroideries. He also does superb cover up options from floor length evening coats to tiny filigree capelets. It is an absolute and total demonstration of how to balance and edit a couture evening wear collection and also how to work within a signature. Georges Hobeika has a different signature and, now his son Jad is also working in the atelier, the romance and beauty is emphasised with slender siren shapes as well as bell like crinolines, swaying beading, and floating layers shimmering like a mirage over each other are evident. It’s the movement and the surprises that characterise each collection, a filigree pattern which is ombre, beading which is looped, fringe swaying as the model walks, or a draped and bugle beaded 1930’s style look in palest mother of pearl. I would note that with both Murad and Hobeika if you think the clothes are beautiful in pictures they are even more lovely when you see the real thing.

Tony Ward, Georges Chakra, and Elie Saab are also part of this group, but Rami Al Ali is different. His rigour and sharpness of editorial eye is extraordinary. The pieces are often based around a single technique, perhaps the interfolding of origami like layers of organza. Then he will make the piece in moonlight white, create a neat beaded strapless bodice, and that is it. A dress might be overlapping petals, but he adds no excess or extras, it is perfect as it is. It might be an inspiration of his own cultural patterns or crafts but then it is used as just a breath, or a wisp of mist in the final usage. His collections are about distilling haute couture evening wear to its essential essence.

No longer showing at Paris couture is Rabih Kayrouz, one of my personal favourite designers. He in fact does do a complete wardrobe from coats to evening wear but it is always perfect, always minimal, and always one hundred percent Rabih Kayrouz.

I would like to finish with one possible surprise. It is evening wear, it is not entirely purist in one sense, but in what it achieves its outstanding. Jenny Packham offers glamour from golden glitter to brilliant flowing silk mousseline. Her latest creation for HRH The Princess of Wales in deep violet was a masterpiece of pure lines and appropriateness for the client. Time and again Jenny must create with a million considerations for her client, and time and again she does it perfectly.

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