While designers are trying to target Western customers with affordable fashion chain collaborations or diffusion lines, their haute couture branches are almost single-handedly being kept alive by clients in the wealthy Gulf countries.

“I want to be different from others,” a buyer explains. “What I want is unique pieces, extravagant and chic. I do not want to pay 6,000 euros for a dress, as it happened to me with a Pucci outfit recently, and see it on somebody else the same evening.”

After Paris, the eagerly awaited retrospective of late French designer Yves Saint Laurent will open in Madrid in October.

The public will discover 40 years of the work of the designer who changed the face of French and international fashion during the 20th century.

The collection will display over 300 pieces like haute-couture and prêt à porter creations, drawings, personal objects, films, photographs and sketches.

Paris will be hosting the first combined culinary and couture show next week in which some iconic fashion and pastry houses collaborate for an outdoor, sensory exhibit.

In the grandeur of the city’s Palais Royal, fashion houses like Christian Dior and French celebrity chefs like Jean-Francois Piège and Jean-Georges Vongerichten will exhibit their interpretations of how haute cuisine and haute couture merge.

Artisans in both trades must master techniques, a “savoir-faire” and possess a vision to reach the height of their craft, organizers point out.

Giambattista Valli has just been elected as guest of the French Chambre Syndicale, the organization in charge of the haute couture shows.

In what is an unusual move for the notoriously exclusive committee consisting of design houses such as Armani, Valentino and Elie Saab, a young and independent designer has been granted a spot on the official schedule for the July shows.

According to the calendar, his show will take place at the Galerie de la Madeleine where his new store and atelier are based.

French fashion label Givenchy showed its haute couture collection exclusively on Asian models, demonstrating to what extent Asia has moved to fashion’s forefront.

Inspired by Japanese Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohn, the lightweight dresses featured clear Asian style elements such as structural shapes, warrior-inspired headgear by Philip Treacy, and folding techniques.

Declared “works of art” by the likes of fashion journalist Suzy Menkes, the dresses took an accumulated 6,000 hours to create.

The sound of whinnying horses and thundering hooves set the scene for Christian Dior‘s haute couture show for next summer on Monday, with its opening sequence of riding habits, a personal favourite of Monsieur Dior.