Couture de Haute à Paris

In case most of you don’t quite know what Haute Couture really means.

Haute means High.

Couture means Dressmaking.

High dressmaking if directly translated, but really, it means High Fashion custom made outfits for women. It is a level of sewing that has excellent workmanship, using some of the most expensive materials and is made fitted to its clientele and has only one piece in the world.

The process in creating a Haute Couture is not easy, it requires alot of time and money spent on this. A client first chooses their desired Designer label, flies over to that fashion house for fittings and measurements, and then the designing process begins according to your fantasies and preferences.

High quality materials are used, often a Haute Couture is hand sewn. So if you requested for a fully embroidered gown, every detail would be hand sewn. Some outfits could take almost 6 months to a year for completion. The price you pay is often a minimum of 40 000 to sometimes, 100 000.

In France, the term Haute Couture is protected by law and is defined by the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie de Paris.

Only companies listed in the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture has the right to avail themselves as a Couture house.

Some of these Houses are -

Givenchy

Jean Paul Gaultier

Chanel

Christian Dior

Some former members include -

Atelier Versace

Yves Saint Laurent

Emilio Pucci

to qualify this status, a label must first

• Design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more fittings.
• Have a workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least fifteen people full-time.
• Each season (twice a year), present a collection to the Paris press, comprising at least thirty-five runs with outfits for both daytime wear and evening wear.

There are more to this list which is viewable at wikipedia~

So anyway, enough of explaining the true meaning of Haute Couture. You guys can go do some more research on your own.

The reason I’m writing this post is because, in Malaysia. The term ‘Haute Couture’ is often wrongly used or sometimes, over-used. I’m sure you guys from America, England, Scotland etc etc clearly know that designers from your country like Calvin Klein, Topshop or DKNY do not simple use the term ‘Haute Couture’ in any situation to describe their works. Nor do you see random shops coming up with their label called ‘Storybook Couture’ or what-so-ever.

In Malaysia. ‘Haute Couture’ is used almost everywhere.

There is a difference between prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) and Haute Couture.

Ready-to-wear are outfits mass produced that are often wearable in the public eyes, have thousands of pieces and are often machine made.

Yes, most of the Couture houses focuses on ready-to-wear at this age to survive.

Here, you can often hear girls saying “That’s so couture!” pointing at labels like Forever 21 or Zara. Yes, and those labels are not even High Fashion, they’re High street!

And lotsa independent labels, local labels here that gets their outfits from manufacturers from China or Hong Kong or Malaysia, often self-proclaims their outfits as ‘Couture’ or naming their shop as ‘House of Couture’ Or ‘Darren’s Couture’ with very very poor workmanship in each dresses that only costs like 25 bucks.

People, here are some fine examples of Couture.

Yves Saint Laurent

Christian Dior by John Galliano

John Galliano

Chanel

Jean-Paul gaultier

Note the intricate details and craftsmanship

Now we shall take a look at some examples of ready-to-wear

These are mostly High Street Fashion.

ZARA

MNG

Some designers who also are often mistaken as Coutures by Malaysians for every collection they come up with.

Bernard Chandran

There you go. Hope that’s obvious enough.

Still there are people here who often mistaken High Fashion labels as Couture too. Despite having a couture house, High end labels stores only sells luxurious ready-to-wear items or accessories.

So, basically, being luxurious does not mean it’s couture.

I hope I made it clear. If I made any mistakes please let me know! You can read another great article about this here http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/5/18/lifeliving/21250360&sec=lifeliving

The condition of my closet is not good…

I already stuffed 100++ outfits in there and that’s not even half of it… I had to stuff the rest in my drawers and 2 levels of the drawers collapsed…

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