History Of Haute Couture

From point A to point B, do you know how your favourite haute couture look is created? Do you know if it is created sustainably? Let’s follow the design process behind the scenes of the average haute couture garment. There will be a few unfamiliar terms to the beginner fashion design student that will be defined in order to further their understanding of this research paper. An introduction to haute couture fashion, we will explore a brief history of haute couture, what haute couture is, and the design process behind creating a couture garment. Following the introduction to haute couture we will have a short insight into the philosophy of local industry professional Don Fabian Lee, the owner of Trend Customs Tailors, a couture atelier located

As defined by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, haute couture is “the houses or designers that create exclusive and often trend-setting fashions for women [and other consumers]; also: the fashions created”. The exclusivity of haute couture became divided during World War II by social differences and a new fashion hierarchy. Fashion was now divided into four sections based on apparel and designers: haute couture, ordinary custom-made, prêt-à-porter, and mass-produced ready-to-wear (Kawamura, 2010), although we will only examine haute couture in this paper. Haute couture has its origins in Paris, France and became a unique fashion system, validating a fashion designer as an artist of luxurious, original clothing with international authority (Palmer, 2010). It has been said that Charles Frederick Worth, who was a tailor and dressmaker, is the “father” of haute couture and created the system of luxurious dressmaking production as well as the Parisian High Fashion Syndicate (Chambre syndicate de la couture parisienne) that controls the use of the term haute couture. (Shaeffer, 2011). Haute couture fashion has strictly enforced rules in order to qualify as haute couture and very few designers today can legitimately claim the

The slow fashion concept is discussed by design historian Hazel Clark and Kate Fletcher as an approach to fashion that celebrates local, small-scale, artisanal, and long-lasting clothing (Black, 2015). In doing so, it also “challenges [fast] fashion’s obsession with mass-production and globalized style [to become] a guardian of diversity”, as stated by Kate Fletcher (2010). They explain what slow fashion is, but not how it relates to haute couture specifically. Artisanal, as defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, means “produced in limited quantities by an artisan through the use of traditional methods”. If that is the case, then the fashion designer or couturier of a haute couture house is the artisan. Couture uses traditional hand sewing techniques to produce their exclusive haute couture collections. The techniques used and the exclusivity are what relate the concept of slow fashion to haute couture as a whole. It relates to both large haute couture houses, but also to the smaller ateliers located around the world, including the atelier of Don Fabian