Haute couture

Haute couture is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design. The term haute couture generally refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century or to the upper portion of a modern dress to distinguish it from the skirt and sleeves. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became the centre of a growing industry that focused on making outfits from high-quality, expensive, and often unusual fabric, sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable of sewers, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Couture is also commonly used on its own as an abbreviation of haute couture, referring to the same concept in spirit.

Terminology

Etymology

The English term haute couture was borrowed from French, where it literally means 'high sewing' or 'high dressmaking'. Its first recorded use in English was in 1908, in the Arnold Bennett novel The Old Wives' Tale.

History

The term haute couture is protected by French law and defined by the Paris Chamber of Commerce. The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode is defined as "the regulating commission that determines which fashion houses are eligible to be true haute couture houses". Their rules state that 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" of the label haute couture. The Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne is an association of Parisian couturiers founded in 1868 as an outgrowth of medieval guilds that regulate its members with regard to counterfeiting of styles, dates of openings for collections, number of models presented, relations with press, questions of law and taxes, and promotional activities.