In France, the term haute couture is protected by law and is defined by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris based in Paris. The Dapifer notes that Worth would allow his clients to select colors, fabrics, and other details before ever beginning his design process, which was unheard of at the time. The term haute couture originally referred to Englishman Charles Frederick Worth's work, produced in Paris in the mid-19th century. The annual Met Gala, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and organized by Vogue high-fashion magazine, hosts the largest haute couture fashion night annually. In modern France, Haute Couture is utilized as a marketing tool to drive sales of the other, more accessible offerings of a given house, especially make-up and fragrances which have mass accessibility and cater to a market that is built on the fantasy offered by Haute Couture concoctions. “Haute Couture,” like “champagne,” is a protected French designation that may not be used except by firms that meet certain well-defined standards. While there is a misnomer that budget is not relevant to Haute Couture clients, it is in fact true that evening gowns and wedding dresses have no ceiling to the amount that maybe spent achieving a clients desired outcome. The manner in which they are made and the fabrics from which they are constructed combine to create clothing pieces whose lifespans are enduring. Many of the designers, for almost two centuries, prided themselves in creating clothing that was not just covetable but also timeless in their wearability. Haute Couture once lead the conversation every season, as ready to wear was not yet the norm, and luxury ready to wear had not yet bridged a gap.

Considering the amount of time, money, and skill allotted to each completed piece, haute couture garments were until very recently designed to be part of a person’s wardrobe for their whole lives, even to extend into their heir’s lives and beyond. Haute translates literally to 'high'.Īn haute couture garment is always made for an individual client, tailored specifically for the wearer's measurements and body stance, their personal tastes and with regards to their needs in a piece of clothing.

Couture translates literally from French as 'dressmaking', sewing, or needlework and is also used as a common abbreviation of haute couture and can often refer to the same thing in spirit. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Charles Frederick Worth made a name for himself dressing the then French Empress Eugenie (wife of Napoleon III) and placed himself at the centre of an industry that grew out of traditional French dressmaking whose focus on making outfits from high-quality, expensive, 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) were best solidified in the 17th and 18th Centuries at the courts of Louis XIV, XV, and XVI. Haute couture ( / ˌ oʊ t k uː ˈ tj ʊər/ ( listen) French pronunciation: French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of impeccable, custom-fitted high-end fashion design that today is partially constructed by hand and often utilizes other handmade, one-of-a-kind embellishments, notions and trimmings. Pierre Balmain adjusting a dress on model Ruth Ford in 1947 (photographed by Carl Van Vechten)

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