| Haute couture is a French phrase that means high fashion – or, in other words, "Are you high? How much did you pay for that dress?!" The term represents exclusive, custom-made fashions of the highest quality, which come with a big price tag. Originally, the term was so exclusive in the fashion world that it only referred to fashions coming out of Paris, but now includes those from New York, London and Milan as well.
The craft has been around for about 150 years, the original couture houses being Worth, Poiret, Lanvin, Chanel, Balenciaga and Dior. To be considered a haute couture designer, a business must be a member of the Syndical Chamber for Haute Couture in Paris, which is regulated by the French Department of Industry. Members must employ 15 or more workers and present their collections twice a year, with at least 35 separate outfits for day and evening wear. Today’s official haute couture houses include: Chanel, Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani, Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace, Givenchy, Valentino, Christian Lacroix, Elie Saab, Revillion and Anne Valerie Hash.
Although the qualifications of registering as a haute couture fashion house are relatively easy, there are only 12, serving a very small market – about 2,000 women in the world today purchase fashions of this high calibre, of which 60 percent are American and only 10 percent regular customers. A typical item takes from 100 to 400 hours to create, with at least three fittings. This custom tailoring, with hand-executed techniques, quality fabrics and exceptional attention to detail, create fashion pieces that can range from $16,000 to more than $100,000 each.
How does a haute couture house stay afloat with such a small market? It doesn’t – the fashions seen on runways are often never sold. But by using the prestigious label name, the profits are easily made up by marketing the idea of exclusivity through the house’s more accessible products, including their prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) lines, shoes, perfumes and accessories. The ordinary purchasers of these items perceive themselves to be as exclusive as the elite customers who regularly wear the haute couture. This mass volume of sales is worth billions of dollars. Over the years, many couture houses have abandoned their prestigious but less profitable couture divisions to concentrate solely on their prêt-a-porter lines.
Today, although the haute couture houses have less of an impact on the fashion industry as when they first emerged, they’re still significant. The fashion trends that trickle down from them to the prêt-a-porter lines often continue down to the mainstream fashion houses, like Gap, Club Monaco, American Apparel and eventually Walmart and Zellers. By the time it reaches the mass market, everyone has access to these trends and it all becomes passé – the haute couture designers have started a new fashion trend, Versace et al laughing all the way to the bank. |
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