Understanding Haute Couture

To fully understand fashion, you have to understand the roots from which all seasonal fashion stems. The top of the fashion food chain is Haute Couture, which is defined by Wikipedia as:

"Haute couture (French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking"; IPA: [ˌoːt kuˈtyʁ]) refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted fashions. It originally referred to French fashion and in France, is a "protected name" that can be used only by firms that meet certain well-defined standards. However, the term is also used loosely to comprise all high-fashion custom-fitted clothing, whether it is produced in Paris or in other fashion capitals such as New York, London, and Milan.

Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques." Source

Fashion houses are where fashion is designed and sewn. Fashion houses typically create a couture line (designs that appear on runways) and a prêt-à-porter (literally translated as "ready-to-wear") line for each season. The latter is what brings in the most money, as the items can be mass produced and sold to department stores.

The beauty about fashion is that it reflects the type of person you are. If you were to look into someone's closet, you could tell a lot about them. Denim, dresses, designer neckties, Wal-Mart blouses, Manolo Blahnik or Shoe Club....all ways of self-expression. Whether people like it or not, a much of how you are perceived is by the way you dress. It also allows people to be deceptive about themselves.

Many organizations and individuals criticize couture designers because there is a preference to slim bordering on sick. Couture clothing is generally made in sizes 0-2 with the largest being a size 4 for the runway. This means that the women chosen for modeling the clothing are silently pressured into decreasing their size to be competitive with those who are naturally very slim. This translates into advertising campaigns and photo spreads featuring almost unattainably slim women that creates our society's perception of what is "beautiful".

Couture was intended to be of the best fabrics with the most cutting-edge fashion designs. Despite the ups and downs of the fashion industry, one thing we can all appreciate is the effort and style that fashion houses and fashion icons create that affects the way we dress.