History Haute Couture
The History of Haute Couture Houses
See also "The Haute Couture Houses"
Since the great age of Louis XIV and his extravagant court, France has been the yardstick for fashion.
Haute Couture is a craft that has endured and evolved for more than one hundred and fifty years.
It is a gentleman named Charles Frédéric Worth who holds the honour of being the originator of Haute Couture. In 1858 he founded the first true house of haute couture at 7, rue de la Paix, in Paris.
He created original items of fashion each distinct and possessing its own personality for individual clients. The essence of haute couture is underpinned by a sense of craft that each season dazzles with its creativity and virtuosity.
The phrase haute couture is itself the French term for high fashion. Couture itself relates to dressmaking, sewing, or needlework while haute means elegant or high.
To own a haute couture model garment is to possess a hand customised fashion design by a couture design house that is of the highest possible level of quality. A hand made model haute couture garment takes into consideration both the wearer's measurements and body stance ensuring an exquisite fit.
The actual term haute couture is protected by law and according to the Syndical Chamber for Haute Couture "only those companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves thereof". The criteria to which a fashion house must adhere in order to be categorised haute couture were laid down in 1945 and updated in 1992.
These rules are simple, to be designated as haute couture a minimum of fifteen people must be employed at the workshops and must present to the press in Paris each season (spring/summer and autumn/winter) a collection of at least thirty-five runs consisting of models for daytime wear and evening wear.
The golden age of haute couture dates back to the fifties, but today there are only 10 houses of haute couture in France: Adeline Andre : Emanuel Ungaro: : Chanel: : Christian Dior : Frank Sorbier : Givenchy : Christian Lacroix : Dominique Sirop : Jean Louis Scherrer : Jean Paul Gaultier :
In January 2005, seven more couture houses were invited to show there collections:
Elie Saab: On Aura Tout VU : Laurent Mercier :
Ralph Rucci :Marc Le Bihan : Ste Phane Saunier : Maurizio Galante :
The labels that remain and are most successful regularly belong to large groups for whom haute couture is the driving force that sells perfumes, cosmetics, and other products.
Why the cost?
Haute couture is deliciously expensive, depending on the design house and the garment, the cost of a couture item may run to a cost in excess of £50,000.
Haute couture developed in an era when social niceties involved the theatre premiers, gala balls and dinners where societies elite mingled, in essence a craft borne out of necessity.
For those who are not extremely wealthy it is difficult to understand the reasons for these high prices. It is the level of service; expert workmanship, originality of design and the quality of materials that combined that justify these costs.
An additional consideration is the manual labour required to produce a model haute couture garment. A fit of such exquisite perfection is only achieved through painstaking cutting and fitting.
A suit may take well in excess of 100 hours of labour to complete, this is miniscule compared to an embellished evening dress where 1000 hours of labour is normal.
The Process
Any customer intending to order a Haute Couture garment needs to first make an appointment with the design house prior to visiting Paris. Once an appointment has been set up the client is attended to by a vendeuse. The vendeuse is an essential part of the process and is responsible for customers, their orders and supervision of their fittings.
The vendeuse has a portfolio of clients and earns commission based on sales to these people. In their capacity to manage the relationship with clients each vendeuse essentially hand holds the client through the all stages of fitting ensuring the process is smooth and without difficulty. Each and every ensemble ordered is made to thespecific requirements of each individual client. Having selected the model haute couture garment she wants a customer is measured and must be prepared for 3 fittings regularly more. After each fitting adjustments to the garment are noted and it is laid mis à plat. This means that the garment is laid flat on the table, taken apart, adjusted and put reassembled for the next fitting.
Eventually following the approval of the vendeuse a garment fits like a glove, it highlights a client's good figure points and deflects attention from bad figure flaws. As noted a model of haute couture garment is the result of many hours of painstaking craftsmanship.
The first stage is the drawing of the model garment. A couturier makes a number of sketches, which are passed to the workshop and used as the basis for the "canvasses". Lines are traced and "bolducs" which are red tape ribbons are placed onto the canvass to define the structure of the garment. These initial designs are usually created using muslin, which drapes well for flowing designs or linen canvas or calico for more structured garments such as Tailored garments.
These sample model garments are called toiles it, following this process makes sense and is cheaper than using the luxurious often latest novelty fabrics expensive silks, fine wools, cashmeres, cottons, linens, leather, suede, other skins or furs that can cost a £100 or more a metre. This toile can then be manipulated and adjusted to fit a particular live model's measurements.
The final toile of a design idea is the exact interpretation of the line or cut that the designer is seeking. The designer once happy with the toile instructs his staff to make up the garment using the exclusive materials selected. One seamstress or Tailor oversees the completion of the garment. A workroom manager oversees one room in which the cutting and finishing is completed. Haute couture is a precise science and deals in millimeters. Measurements are exact to ensure that the fabric "hangs" correctly and follows the contours of the body perfectly without hugging it.
In haute couture there are essentially two types of workshop. The "suit" workshops, which create daytime, wear the emphasis here is on structure with model garments being more padded. The "dressmaking" workshops, which tend to focus onevening wear.
The workshops hum with activity with head seamstresses, seconds and the "arpettes" or apprentices busily engaged in their assigned tasks. Haute couture is not without its superstitions and some more susceptible to the fear of hexes refuse to use green thread which is an omen of bad luck. Industry Structure Haute couture employs in excess of 4,500 people and is a huge contributes billions to the French economy each year. Designers often work for their own label and sometimes they work for a famous Haute Couture house.
The number of couture model sales made in any given year is low with a haute couture houses rarely exceeding a total of more than about 1500 sales. This market consists of about only 3000 women worldwide who have the financial clout to buy clothes at this highest level. It is estimated that fewer than 1000 of these women buy regularly. Despite its huge contributions to the French economy Haute Couture actually runs at a loss.
Each year multi-million pound fashion shows are held with couture houses selling a limited percentage of Haute Couture model garments to a small number of customers. Surprising as it seems profits from this activity are low amounting to less than 10% of gross profits of the couture name or even sometimes a loss. The publicity is however enormous.
In January and July each year over 1,000 journalists from all over the world converge on Paris to see the haute couture collections. Traditionally these are held in some the most prestigious hotels such as the Intercontinental, the Ritz and the Grand Hôtel.
If not profitable why do couture houses exert such effort and attract such media hubris? Fashion shows attract huge media attention and generate huge swathes of publicity for the couture houses.
They sell a dream of beauty, desirability and exclusivity that the ordinary person for the most part can only aspire to. However the consumer can buy into a part of this dream by choosing the more affordable bottle of perfume, an item of jewellery, cosmetics or a ready to wear item of clothing. In this way a perceived ownership of a dream that in reality is the preserve of a select crew of extremely wealthy women and supermodels exists. Needless to say the perfumes, clothing jewellery, cosmetics and ready to wear are of an extremely high quality very high quality. Obviously Haute Couture as an expressive front French creative fashion and original design is very successful in its ability to achieve publicity.
It is however the less costly designer labels known as Prêt-à- Porter or ready to wear and their associated lower level sales of perfume and accessories that make the huge profits for couture design houses.
