| Fashion is an art that reflects life. Every now and then we hear the names of Nina Rici, Paco Rabanne, Givenchy, Versace etc. There designers have a great impact upon our hair styles, how we dress up, the way we put on make-up and even behave. Every season fashion designers determine our choices of clothing.
There are several very important events in the fashion calendar known as fashion weeks. Fashion weeks are arranged each season for fashion houses to exhibit their latest collections in runway shows and for fashion to view the latest trends. The most important thing is that they present the fashion industry what is in fashion and what is out of fashion for the season. The most prominent fashion weeks are held in the fashion capitals, including Milan, London, New York and Paris where luxury clothes (differently called haute couture) are displayed.
Haute Couture is a French word combination for expensive and fashionable clothes intended for ladies. Couture stands for dressmaking, sewing, or needlework and haute denotes sophisticated. Haute couture clothes are made for a particular customer from high-quality, expensive fabrics and sewed by hand often deploying time-consuming techniques. This is why, couture clothes are luxurious and exclusive.
Dependent on the haute couture fashion house and the garment, the price of a couture item ranges from $10, 000 for a blouse to $40, 000 and usually beyond that figure. The cost includes payments for the service, work, exclusivity and premium-class fabrics of the highest quality.
Furthermore, every customer will receive a garment to fit them perfectly. It takes about 100-150 hours to produce a handmade luxuty suit and up to 1000 hours for an evening dress adorned with thousands of beads sewn by hand. A couture house like Chanel, for instance, will have approximately 150 regular clients purchasing luxury items, and a couture house like Dior will make about 20 luxury wedding dresses yearly
Fashion houses use only luxurious materials, including expensive silks, fine wools, cashmeres, cottons, linens, leather, suede and furs.
Apart from clothes, renowned couture houses make luxury accessories, including hats, buttons, belts, jewelry, footwear, handbags. Those who can afford couture clothes, pay for exclusivity and the privacy guaranteed by the system. |
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