Expatriate Magazine (13)

FA S H I O N
Left Top to Bottom: Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel in 1910. Grand Couturier Valentino speaks to the Press at a fashion show in the documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor.
Dress designed by Charles Frederick Worth for Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria, 1865, Hofburg, Vienna; Painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805 - 1873)
Above: Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel in Coco before Chanel (Sony Pictures) (see page 21).
Some of these fashion houses still exist today under the couture world is more like a private club. Members are
leadership of modern designers. very rich, extremely discreet and their clothes are the
Today, the term haute couture is protected by law most expensive in the entire world. One Texan client
and is deﬁ ned by the Paris Chamber of Commerce. earned her front-row seat by organising a fundraiser in
To earn the right to call itself a couture house and to Paris for a charity which the couture house wanted to
use the term haute couture in its advertising, haute help. Her event raised over £100,000. She now has
couture houses must design made-to-order clothing for front row seats.
private clients, have a workshop in Paris and present a Needless to say, haute couture clothing does not
collection each season to the Press. In addition to the come cheap as the price for a haute couture model dress
French Houses, there are three foreign Correspondent can range from £10,000 - £15,000, with a grand evening
ASSIC PICTURES.
Members approved by the Paris Chamber of Commerce: dress costing up to £60,000 or more. The garments
Elie Saab, Giorgio Armani and Valentino. are usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric
SONY CL
While we often associate haute couture with and sewn with extreme attention to detail and ﬁ nish,
TURES;
international ﬁ lm stars, princesses and celebrities, some often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques.
of which get their dresses loaned to them for special About 100-150 hours of manual work go into the making
televised events like the Oscars, it is in fact the ultimate of a day suit with an embroidered evening dress requiring
indulgence of a few thousand wealthy woman worldwide. several thousand hours of work. Clients and fashion
OLLECTION/REX FEA
T C
The grand houses prefer to keep their paying client’s aﬁ cionados the world over consider haute couture an
VERET identify a closely guarded secret. art form.
E
OM; Of course, being a paying haute couture client has its Paying clients usually get to view sample dresses
.C
privileges. They receive invitations to the Paris fashion after a show and then have them altered to ﬁ t their
shows and have a chance to meet the designer in person. unique style. These one-of-a-kind creations can be very
However, just buying dresses will not necessarily get valuable such as the dresses which belonged to Princess
ALENTINOMOVIE
you on the front row of fashion show, to be there you Diana and Audrey Hepburn.
PRESS@V must do much more or be a real star. In fact, the haute Since its heyday after World War II, the number of
EX P A T R I A T E 19
Haute.indd 19 09/06/2009 16:28:41
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