The History of Haute Couture

“A golden age of couture seemed to have come again’ – Christian Dior

As the haute couture fashion shows have started in Paris this week, with the glitterati gathering on the front rows to peer at these art works, we wanted to know, where exactly did haute couture begin? As we discover, its fascinating history provides a background to this beautiful spectacle of fashion.

Simply put, haute couture means ‘high fashion’ in French and refers to the artistry in fashioning garments. These designs were so intricate, due to the needlework, dressmaking and sewing skills they required, that they were considered to be at the top level of fashion. They were also designed specifically for the wearer, fitting their body measurements down to the last digit. These handmade garments were only for the wealthiest of the designer’s clientele.

Dior Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture S/S 2012

Couture, as we know it, started in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the designer Charles Frederick Worth – an English couturier who established the first haute couture house in Paris. He created an image for himself by wearing a beret and modelling his personal dress on the artist Rembrandt. While he may have dressed jovially, he was a serious man who helped turn an art into a profitable business.

The French designer, Paul Poiret, took couture to a new level by reacting to the fashion for Orientalism (a fabricated Western view of the East) and towards a grander scale of commerce.

After the Second World War there was a greater demand for couture, as a response to the adversity the country had faced. Christian Dior reacted to this demand: realising that women were fed-up with the uniforms and unadorned clothing of WWII, and were instead looking to emulate people such as Grace Kelly.

Dior: Runway - Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture S/S 2012

Dior proclaimed: “I wanted my dresses to be constructed, moulded upon the curves of the feminine body, whose sweep they would stylise.”

This concept was the Paris designer’s aim when he launched ‘The New Look’ collection in the spring of 1947. Dior called the line “Corelle”, after the botanical term for the frail petals in the centre of a flower, and it was a sensation.

Vogue described The New Look as being “from the era of Madame Bovary…wasp-waisted Gibson Girl shirtwaists, pleated or tucked…slow-sloped, easy shoulders…wrapped and bound middles–barrel (almost hobble) skirts–longer, deeply shaped shadow-box décolleté-padded hips…”

Luxurious fabrics were used, including silks, cashmeres, leather and furs, with some fabrics only available to certain design houses.

But in France, so specialised is this work, that the term haute couture is protected by law, with design houses having to meet certain requirements if they are to use the words. In other fashion capitals however, the term is used more freely to mean high-fashion fitted clothing.

To earn the right to call itself a couture house and to use the term haute couture in its advertising and any other way, members of the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture must follow these rules:

· Design made-to-order garments for private clients, with one or more fittings.

· Have a workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least fifteen people full-time.

· Each season (i.e., twice a year), present a collection to the Paris press, comprising at least 35 runs/exits with outfits for both daytime wear and evening wear.

So who’s a member?

Adeline André — Anne Valérie Hash — Atelier Gustavolins — Chanel — Christian Dior — Christophe Josse — Franck Sorbier — Givenchy — Jean Paul Gaultier — Maurizio Galante — Stéphane Rolland — Giambattista Valli [5]