02 08 2008

Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

On Friday evening, we had the pleasure of meeting Pam Ptak and hearing her stories of working in the Haute Couture world. Pam was speaking as a guest of the Portland Chapter of Association of Sewing and Design Professionals. Her musings were of her experiences working for Chado Ralph Rucci for about three years including a slide show of some of the work they created during that time.

Pamela is a graduate of Pratt and FIT and knew she wanted to work for one of the grand houses of Haute Couture. She believed she would have to move to Paris, but then learned that Ralph Rucci had productions in New York. She drove through an insane blizzard to NYC and chatted Ralph up after one of his lectures. Flat out, she told Ralph that she wanted to be one of his la mains…his hands. In Haute Couture, everything is made by hand by an extremely skilled set of individuals. Pam wanted to be one of those hands and Ralph hired. (Side note – everyone who works in the studio works in silence. Other than the pattern makers, no one speaks.) Most of the work in the slide show were of collections she had worked on during her tenure there. They only make so many pieces but each is a work of art and is created to show on the runway. The intricate design was stunning but the mechanics of it were beyond me at times. Pam was talking the talk of a sewing professional and I just don’t have that vocabulary. That said, I could appreciate the passion she and the rest of the room had. Pam would talk about a certain type of stitch or fabric and the room would erupt in oohs and ahhs. One of the pieces she spoke about with reverence had leather sequins. Yup, leather sequins. She relayed the hilarious story of how an intern would head out to the stairwell with a hammer and hole punch to make leather sequins…one at a time. Now that is dedication.

Another story she relayed was of shopping at Neiman Marcus and seeing a Chado Ralph Rucci dress on sale. It was marked down from $55,000 to $8,000. She was so enamored by the piece she weighed selling her car in order to get it. I was just plain shocked by the price and wondered if every piece is that expensive. If each piece is made of the best fabric by hand, the cost could be explained. During the Q&A session, someone actually asked if each and every piece for sale at boutiques are indeed made by hand. Pam stated that no, that isn’t the case. There are high end “factories,” some in New York, that specialize in taking the intricate designs and making multiple copies. It isn’t like they are making 10,000, more like 10-30. An interesting piece if information.

I want to thank the association for inviting us to the event and giving me a chance to experience a world I have no insight into other than watching Project Runway. It was great to meat Pamela Ptak and I wish her luck in her new adventure of designing a product line and auditioning for Project Runway.