The foundation of haute couture rests on the luxury of original design and perfect fit. However, this industry represents far more than fine clothing. Ever since its initial conception, haute couture has been a symbol of privilege and prestige -- offering an exclusivity that only the wealthiest individuals could afford.
Today, haute couture -- a French term which literally means "high dressmaking" -- occupies the highest tier of the fashion industry; attainable only by a select few, envied and copied by everyone else. Yet, behind the glamorous fa?§ade, there lies a carefully executed business strategy that successful designers have used to capitalize on consumers' fascination with status and recognition.
The concept of haute couture as it is now known was created by Englishman Charles Fredrick Worth in the mid-1800s. Up until the time of Worth, fashion design was a collaboration between those buying the clothing and those constructing it.
Wealthy ladies would purchase fine fabrics from prestigious textile manufactures and then bring the cloth to a seamstress. The seamstress would then fabricate the garment according to the lady's specifications. Trends were dictated by the Royal Court, where empresses and countesses would commission lavish gowns for various appearances. Worth changed all this by taking the position of the final authority in dress, regardless of his clients' wishes.
Worth also changed the level of importance behind who constructed one's clothing. Previously, the position of seamstress or tailor, although respected, did not carry much prestige in privileged circles. As news of Worth's exceptional gowns spread, his name became synonymous with quality and refinement that only the highest levels of society could partake in. Thus, the first designer label was born.
Worth cultivated this fashionable reputation by associating himself with newsworthy celebrities -- most notably Empress Eugenie of France. This strategy is still employed by couture houses today, as evidenced by the Oscar night "red carpet" parade. The fact that the richest and most glamorous people of the day were wearing what Worth told them to wear soon had elite women scrambling from across France, England, and America to purchase their own Worth gowns. He came to be seen as an artist in his own right, and, therefore, anything he said became a fashion trend.
With his revolutionary approach to clothing design and construction, Worth set many standards for haute couture that have remained intact to this day. With his obsessive attention to detail and high standard of perfection, Worth's clothing required hours upon hours of skilled labor to create and, consequently, commanded a staggering price.
The same holds true for contemporary couture fashion houses (although some critics argue that one pays mostly for an exclusive name). Today, one can expect to pay from $16,000 to about $20,000 for a woman's tailored suit and in excess of $60,000 for an evening gown. At such prices, it is not surprising that the current market for couture clothing is extremely specialized, to say the least.
It is estimated that presently fewer than 1,000 women worldwide buy couture clothing regularly. This is not surprising when one considers that there are only 3,000 women in the world who posses the financial resources to purchase such items. The French haute couture industry reported in 1994 that the made-to-measure business represented only 6% of turnover in the big-name fashion world. Given these figures, one might question how these fashion houses are able to sustain any profit at all. The answer is pr??t-a-porter, or "ready to wear."
Unlike couture garments, which are custom fitted to each client's body through multiple, painstaking fit sessions, pr??t-a-porter garments are mass-produced in standard sizes. Although these garments are still of a very high quality, they do not require the same time commitment needed for couture items. Consequently, pr??t-a-porter clothing is offered at a lower, but still prohibitively high cost -- making it out of reach for a large portion of the population. Nevertheless, the market for such items is much broader than the 1,000 or so women who partake in haute couture.
One might wonder why fashion houses even bother with couture clothing lines at all when they bring such low returns. This is where the clever business strategy comes into play. Essentially, couture clothing is a marketing tool for the more profitable pr??t-a-porter industry. Without the extravagant, and often outrageous, couture shows to attract media attention, consumers might not be as infatuated with the mystique of designer labels. It is this mystique that couture houses depend upon to drive high international pr??t-a-porter and accessories sales to gain substantial profits.
Thus, haute couture has as much to do with human psychology as it does fashion. The quest for perfection in dress speaks not only to the desire to be clothed in the most luxurious attire money can buy but also the urge to look better than anyone else. Haute couture embodies the romance, expense, and excess that is fashion.
