Although all royal and aristocratic households had custom-made clothes, and competed for the creation of fashion trends, the term haute couture is associated retrospectively with fashion designer’s Rose Bertin’s gowns for Queen Marie-Antoinette. The garments were illustrated and printed in fashion magazines, invented the previous century, and were then copied by local dressmakers, therefore creating a faster-paced fashion. However, haute couture as we now know it has appeared only around the late 1850s.
Charles Fredrick Worth (1825-1895) has helped define this luxury industry, as we currently know it. He was the first to present his new collections one season in advance, to hire models to present his garments, to sell them as either exclusives or copies, as well as introduce a sewn label inside each garment. It is also funny to note that his wife was the first paid model in history, in the 1850s.
His Paris boutique dressed Empress Eugenie of France and Empress Elisabeth of Austria among others, but his real legacy could be his participation in the creation of the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture, a reform from the outdated medieval professional guilds.
The term haute couture comes from “haute” meaning “elevated” or “elegant,” and “couture” translating to “sewing” or “garment making.” In order to qualify to the term, garments must be made to the client’s individual measurements, the atelier must be located in Paris employing at least 15 full-time staff members and at least 20 technical employees, full-time or part-time, and present two yearly collections of at least 50 original designs per season.
Nowadays, the term also refers to similar practices in other fashion capitals of the world.
References:
Fashion, the ultimate book of costume and style, 2012, Dorling Kindersley Limited, London
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute_couture
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Bertin
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Frederick_Worth
Image source:
https://blog.arte.deascuola.it/articoli/rose-bertin-la-prima-stilista
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