Haute Couture Clothing
There are probably two things that would really annoy a Haute Couture dresser - coming across someone wearing an exact and much cheaper copy of their exclusive dress, and coming across a clueless, fashion-challenged being who goes, "Oh, so it's a 'hot cotter' dress - that's supposed to mean something? - hell, what does it even mean?"
To start with, it is 'Haute Couture'. Haute is French for High/Excellent/Elegant and Couture refers to sewing or making clothes/dresses. So Haute Couture means High/Excellent Dressmaking/Sewing. It is concerned with the creation of exclusive, handmade clothes made to the specific measurements of a particular client, using the best fabrics and paying the utmost attention to the dress details and finishing.
History
Haute Couture, as might be guessed, began in France, in Paris. It was started, surprising enough, by an Englishman from Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. Charles Frederick Worth (October 13, 1826-March 10, 1895) lived and worked in Paris, which, by the mid-nineteenth century, had become the mecca of fashion. The French aristocrats patronized dressmakers and accessory-makers, and the demand for beautiful clothes in turn encouraged and fostered much innovation and creativity. French dressmakers, hat makers, lace-makers, shoe-makers and other artisans were very skilled at their work and soon it became a matter of prestige for stylish women around Europe to be dressed in clothes made by the very best - that is, made by the French. Initially clothes bought over from France were copied all around Europe by local dressmakers, but, with the coming of modern transportation modes, it became very easy to go over to Paris for your fittings. So that's what the rich women did. Sometimes they went to Paris just to order their clothes. The Baronness Bismarck ordered everything she wore from Balenciaga. It is said that when he retired, she went into a huff and sulked in her room for several days.
But to return to Charles Worth, he established the House of Worth in 1858 and began the practice of having live models display his exclusive designs to his rich and titled clients. His clients could then choose the dress model they liked and have the dress made according to their individual measurements as well as their personal taste in color and fabric. His clients loved this idea and soon other designers in Paris, like Chanel, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, Dior, Patou, Lanvin, Fortuny, and Poiret began following in his steps.
Charles Worth, who was an exclusive sort of guy, founded an exclusive association of all the exclusive fashion houses in 1868. The Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, as it was known, decided who could call themselves a Haute Couture house. You couldn't just set up a fashion house, start selling dresses and say they were Haute Couture. You had to be first approved by the exclusive coterie.
You had to meet the following criteria -
- Must make made-to-order, individually tailored clothes for private clients.
- Must have a workshop in Paris and must employ at least fifteen, full-time dressmakers.
- Must present two seasonal collections a year to the Paris Press, showing both daytime and evening clothes.
To create a Haute Couture dress, the designer first makes sketches or may even build up a dress by draping or cutting a toile. A toile is a sample garment made from inexpensive fabrics like muslin, calico and linen. This is to avoid wasting or risking spoiling the final fabrics of cotton, linen, silk, cashmere, suede, leather, fur and so on, which are usually very expensive and sometimes even exclusively created for the fashion house.
Once the toile has been made to the designer's standard, the final version of the dress is made - most of the time to the measurements of the house model, who will be modeling it for the clients. To order a Haute Couture dress, the client must make an appointment to visit the fashion house to view their designs. These days, designs can also be viewed online. After a design has been selected, there will be a discussion about colors and fabrics and accessories. The client will be asked to give two or more fittings. If it is a regular client, the fashion house will probably have a dummy of the client's measurements and many visits for fittings may not be required. The cutting and sewing is then undertaken, each step of it carefully supervised by an experienced manager. Dress embellishments and appliqus can be created by skilled workers in-house or by separate specialist designers.
Current Status
A great deal of time is invested in making a Haute Couture dress special and unique and, of course, all this labor does not cheap. At 500,000 pounds and upwards per dress, Haute Couture is a fad restricted strictly to the jet set.
There are currently only ten Haute Couture houses in Paris - Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Dior, Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Adeline Andre, Dominique Sirop, Givenchy, and Franck Sorbier. And three foreign ones - Giorgio Armani, Valentino and Eli Saab.
It is not possible for these fashion houses to make much profit catering only to the rich clientle, so custom clothing has now become just an aura-adding side thing. The main business of a Haute Couture house is its ready-to-wear line, its various lines of fashion accessories and luxury products, its chain of boutiques and its licensing agreements. That is, Haute Couture business is now about fleecing the commoners while making them think they are in the same league as the uncommoners. Or, selling beauty, with snobbery thrown in. Or, offering the promise be one in a million, without being put out of half a million. It's all a matter of perspective.
