Haute couture

Haute couture is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design. The term haute couture generally refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the upper portion of a modern dress to distinguish it from the skirt and sleeves. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became the centre of a growing industry that focused on making outfits from high-quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable of sewers—often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Couture is also commonly used on its own as an abbreviation of haute couture, referring to the same concept in spirit.

The English term haute couture was borrowed from French, where it literally means 'high sewing' or 'high dressmaking'. Its first recorded use in English was in 1908, in the Arnold Bennett novel The Old Wives' Tale.

In France, the term haute couture is protected by law and is defined by the Paris Chamber of Commerce based in Paris. The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode is defined as "the regulating commission that determines which fashion houses are eligible to be true haute couture houses". Their rules state that only "those companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves" of the label haute couture. The Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne is an association of Parisian couturiers founded in 1868 as an outgrowth of medieval guilds that regulate its members with regard to counterfeiting of styles, dates of openings for collections, number of models presented, relations with press, questions of law and taxes, and promotional activities. Formation of the organisation was brought about by Charles Frederick Worth. An affiliated school was organized in 1930 called L'Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture. The school helps bring new designers to help the "couture" houses that are still present today. Since 1975, this organization has worked within the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.

In response to the Nazi occupation of Paris, more rigorous criteria for the term haute couture were established in 1945. To earn the right to call itself a couture house and to use the term haute couture in its advertising and any other way, members of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture must follow specific rules:

The term is also used loosely to describe all high-fashion, custom-fitted clothing, whether it is produced in the fashion capitals of London, New York City, Paris, and Milan. In either case, the term can refer to the fashion houses or fashion designers that create exclusive and often trend-setting fashions or to the fashions created. The term haute couture has also taken on further popular meanings referring to non-dressmaking activities, such as production of fine art and music.

Haute couture can be referenced back as early as the 17th century. Industry and consumption were legally protected through guild statutes that required strict adherence to quality, quantity, etc. Women dressmakers, known as couturières, attained guild privileges in 1675. Their guild statutes made it so these women acquired the rights to make clothing for women and children, while male tailors retained the right to make clothing for men and boys over the age of 8. Within this empire, the couturières' work ranged from simple mending, to modes (fashions). They performed darning and alterations, and also made fine dresses of luxurious fabric for members of the royal family and aristocracy. Seamstresses were only one part of this complex network and process, and included domestic manufacture, imported products, and work alongside guilds such as the lacemakers, ribbonmakers, fashion merchants, embroiderers, pin and needle peddlers, etc. Seamstresses did not operate public shops, unlike tailors, but instead relied on word of mouth and connections to procure high-end clientele.

18th century France witnessed a dramatic rise in clothing consumption, and scholars have documented a "clothing revolution" that occurred between 1700 and 1789. This was characterised by the increased size and value of wardrobes across the country, even among the middling and working classes. The fashion industry sprang to life to meet increasing demand.

Rose Bertin, the French fashion designer to Queen Marie Antoinette, can be credited for bringing fashion and haute couture to French culture. Visitors to Paris brought back clothing that was then copied by local dressmakers. Stylish women also ordered dresses in the latest Parisian fashion to serve as models.