A history of Haute Couture

A history of Haute Couture

Haute Couture is the making of unique fashion pieces, especially when it comes to clothing. The main characteristics include costly and exclusive fabrics, hand-sewing, meticulousness using manual techniques under the watch of the most capable designers and tailors. The French words literally mean ‘high dressmaking’ and imply high fashion clothing customized particularly for the wearer’s estimations and body size.

Legally speaking, an haute couture fashion house has to meet the standards that the French Federation of Couture and the Industry Ministry of France set. These include having a designer who makes tailor-made garments for private clients and conducts individual fittings. The designer should also maintain a workshop in Paris consisting of at least 20 tailors and present 2 collections every year in January (spring collection) and July (fall collection). The fashion house can launch the other collections without major formal events.

Today the world of haute couture has expanded to include items such as jewelry and accessories, and other items of clothing for both men and women. While the fashion sector is a billion dollar global business, the industry as we know it did not start to come to fruition until around 1850. Two things happened simultaneously to birth the industry now called high fashion: the innovation of the sewing machine by Isaac Singer and the gradual popularity of a designer named Charles Frederick Worth who worked in Paris (Martin et al 1995). Before 1850, almost all garments were hand sewn by the individuals who wore them. This means that only the ability of the tailor determined the quality of clothing and its perfection hinged on who made it.

Whether it was public officials, scientists, lawyers, clergymen, laborers, farmers or  housewives, each styled their garments according to their station in life and society, such that everybody from the same locale wore almost the same type of garments. Isolated from external influence, garments styles could remain the same for centuries, giving birth to some of the national and ethnic costumes now common during cultural festivals around the world. Since transport and communication was uncertain and unsafe, and trade and exchange of materials limited and expensive, people only relied on the materials accessible to them locally. Jewelry became the distinguishing feature to show how wealthy or important a person was because clothing was typically the same within certain regions. The few garments that came from elsewhere were often the products of tailors who made them exclusively for affluent clients who could afford transporting apparel from distant places.

All this started to change in the 1850s through the works of Singer and Worth combined with the improved transport in railways and steamships that made European journeys less demanding, enabling clients to travel to Worth in Paris in search of the latest designs. The public considered French designers as the best in Europe because of the pioneering work of Worth and this created the idea that genuine Parisian garments were superior. Consequently, Paris became the fashion capital of the Old World as more young tailors and designers started training and working for these early fashion houses.

Worth transformed the industry to the extent that the public and his clients now considered the designer into a creative and artists, rather than a tailor sewing clothes like an untrained artisan would do.  He was among the first designers to utilize live models rather than dolls to display his designs at the House of Worth. His clients would then identify the garment they wanted from the models, select their preferred fabrics, have their measurements taken and have the clothing carefully tailor-made in Worth’s workshop.

Alice Vanderbilt’s Electric Light gown that Charles Frederick Worth designed in 1883.

(Frantz 2012)

This standardization was the precursor to the ready to wear designs that now dominate global fashion and is one of the reasons he remains an icon in the industry. Soon, many other designers started imitating Worth’s methods and creating their own fashion lines out of Paris. They included Vionnet, Chanel, Mainbocher, Poiret, Dior, Fortuny, etc with some of these lines still operational under present day designers.

This new approach characterized high-end fashion and became the norm across Europe and the United States, with fashion houses catering for the rich and their tastes and constantly developing new designs for each season to keep clients coming. At the same time, the industrial revolution, which was approaching its nadir, inspired the fashion sector to mass produce clothing items. Isaac Singer’s sewing machines soon became industrial sized devices that could produce thousands of clothes, creating the opportunity for huge clothing companies that dealt in ready to wear garments that catered for the low-end market and other clients who couldn’t afford the exclusivity if haute couture (Sterlacci & Arbuckle 2007).

The beginning of the 20^th century found these two elements of the fashion industry developing together and inspiring each other.  The two world wars and economic depressions considerably slowed down developments in both segments and reconstruction across the world in the 1950s diverted attention to more pressing needs. However, by the 1960s, a new crop of youthful designers taught under pioneers like Dior left these haute couture houses and opened their own lines. Among them were the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro, Pierre Cardin, etc. That period also heralded the emergence of a rebellion against existing fashion trends as music and culture exerted its influence on fashion and clothing.

Role of haute couture in the fashion industry

The 1960s also became the period when haute couture fashion houses started expanding their low-end productivity while retaining their flagship brands for the sake of reputation, flair and licensing deals. Haute couture clothing is today serving two purposes for fashion lines; first is maintaining the brand name as a player among the best designers and second is marketing the brand to attract ordinary buyers who do not patronize high-end products. Thus, haute couture is still serving the elites of society by building unique and expensive garments that only the very rich can afford, and this serves the purpose of marketing the brand as a preferred product among the world’s most sophisticated consumers. This attracts the interest of ordinary consumers who then buy the ready to wear versions of these high-end brands that are available across the world in theme fashion stores and luxury goods stores. The spectrum today goes beyond clothes, accessories and jewelry into fragrances, shoes, watches, bags, wallets, eyewear, etc.

Haute couture still retains its attention grabbing power with various fashion weeks happening around the world in all the continents and seasonal showcases also taking place several times each year. Some haute couture brands participate in several fashion shows across the world promoting both their high-end designs and their ready to wear offers. Some of the locations that have these shows include;  Africa (Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa); Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, United States); Asia (China, India , Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, UAE); Europe (Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Monaco Spain, United Kingdom) Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). During such occasions, the local designers also bring out their latest original designs to compete against others and to promote their fashion house. Often, rich patrons buy these new pieces at after-show auctions then the fashion houses tailor them to clients’ specifications. The amount of publicity that this generates in the public domains often acts as a powerful marketing tool that attracts ready to wear clients to the brand and its products.

The major clients of Parisian haute couture today come from the Middle East, China and Russia, which are all riding on fossil fuel booms, creating a class of elites who have huge disposable incomes. Most of these clients however, do not buy the creations for personal use but as collector’s items expected to appreciate over time. The decline in haute couture over the last 30 years is also a sign that it could become obsolete and precipitate a rise in values of collector items. With this in view, fashion lines hardly rely on their haute couture collections for business profits as was the case before the 1950s because the clientele is too small to sustain the segment. Indeed, many fashion houses often lose money on their haute couture garments that could take as much as 1000 hours to design and involve as many as 20 tailors and several supplier companies. However, the average price of haute couture clothing is anything starting from $10,000 for day clothing and $50,000 for eveningwear and business clothing. If the garment consists of unique, rare or exceptional garments the price rises higher and when it has embellishments such as pearls, diamonds, etc it can reach the millions.

A couturier as an example of the growth and development of fashion industry

One of the oldest couturiers in the fashion industry is luxury brand Louis Vuitton that was launched in 1854 in Paris under the leadership of businessman and designer Louis Vuitton, who specialized in making leather suitcases and luggage for French politicians, business elite and high-ranking public officials. Today the brand has diversified into other product lines including shoes, watches, belts, bags, suitcases, eyewear, etc.

His original designs for watertight and stackable luggage was an improvement on round-topped trunks designed to enable water and rain runoff but prone to soaking. The revolutionary style earned Vuitton an instant market among sophisticated clients who became loyal customers as he churned out more and more innovative products and competitors copied his style. From the onset, Vuitton maintained stand-alone stores that had only his products, a practice that remains to this day, maximizing on the brand experience and history to immerse customers in his diverse product line.

Vuitton derived his inspirations for unique designs from a love for travel and a desire for convenience during journeys. He inculcated a spirit of liberty and triumph over the outdoors in his team of design assistants, developing different products for transportation in trains, cars, buses, ships, cruise ships, planes and even hot air balloons. Stores came up quickly in European capitals and elsewhere like London, New York, Mumbai, Washington DC, Alexandria, etc. His son George took over after his death in 1892 and started the global expansion in the 1900s that has taken the brand to more than 50 countries to date.

Louis Vuitton’s Fall 2012 Campaignshowcasing both clothes and bags (Girl 2012)

Subsequent leaders in the organization have kept up the tradition of launching avant-garde products and designs on a regular basis, for elite haute couture clients as well as for the public. Among them was grandson Gaston who oversaw the launch of the iconic Noé, Keepall, Steamer and Speedy bags that are still in production today.  In 1896, he also created the iconic monogram logo that became synonymous with outdoor adventures and journey delights. The brand also dared to diversify at a time when specialization was the byword of fashion and haute couture, designing and launching branded canvass luggage promoted as luxurious and excellent.  However, it has retained its status as the leading luxury leather goods manufacturer in the world and has 12 leather items workshops spread across France. Louis Vuitton boasts that to make one of its hand-made leather bags requires more than 200 processes under the meticulous watch of well-trained craftsmen.

Louis Vuitton was one of the first couturiers to spot the coming changes in the fashion sector and to create a division devoted to haute couture and another for ready to use products that the public could buy. The distinction was probably a consequence of its reliance on bags and accessories rather than clothing and jewelry that enabled it to spot changing market trends many decades before other players in the fashion industry. Today the Louis Vuitton brand has a value of $28.8 billion on revenues of $9.9 billion, serving a clientele in excess of 100 million clients (Forbes 2017).

References

Martin, Richard, and Harold Koda. Haute Couture. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. pp 15

Sterlacci, Francesca, and Joanne Arbuckle. Historical Dictionary of the Fashion Industry. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. pp xliii

“Louis Vuitton on the Forbes World’s Most Valuable Brands List.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 2017, www.forbes.com/companies/louis-vuitton/.

Images

Frantz, Laura. “Exquisite History of Fashion.” Pinterest, 7 Nov. 2012, www.pinterest.com/pin/174021973072963951/.

Girl, Nancy. “Girl Friday; Louis Vuitton’s Fall 2012 Campaign.” Nancy Girl, 2012, nancyfashionfancy.blogspot.co.ke/2012/11/girl-friday-louis-vuittons-fall-2012.html.