Haute Couture

Simply put, haute couture is fashion that has been specifically designed one piece at a time and is frequently exhibited as artistic examples of the upper reaches of a fashion designer's artistic vision and aesthetic vision for clothing. Translated literally from the original French, the term means high dressmaking, and it is exemplified by the most innovative and frequently downright bizarre creations to be strutted down the catwalk.

While outsiders of the fashion world often view haute couture as representing the pinnacle of self indulgence and vanity in the fashion world, it is actually the true playground of the fashion industry where designers are encouraged to show off what they can really do without worrying about the opinions of a small minded public. Today,haute couture is seen as the hallmark icon of all that is avant garde in the fashion world, but it is a relatively recent phenomenon that finds its origins amongst the rapid cultural changes of the mid 20th century.

While true haute couture is entirely a feature of modern fashion, it finds its roots in the glamorous age of the court at Versailles in the France of the 18th century. As the center of the fashion world for Europe during that time, nobles and other elites who traveled from elsewhere to France would return home with the latest of French fashion. The would then show of the new designs at home through the use of dolls or hired models. This tradition evolved slowly over the following two centuries but the same basic idea was there until the cultural revolution of the West that is typically attributed to having climaxed during the late 1960's. New young designers such Dior and Balenciaga began establishing couture houses with the intent of creating collections of single pieces that were not meant to be models for clothes to be worn by the public. Following in the footsteps of modern artists who were creating "art for art's sake," this new breed of designers were creating fashion for fashion's sake: pieces that simply exemplified the aesthetic values that the designer wished to express through the form of clothing.

Today, haute couture is at the center of the artistic side of the fashion industry. Following in the footsteps of those revolutionary early designers of the 1960's, new fashion designers are continually appearing eager to challenge the status quo of fashion. Haute couture in the modern world serves as a kind of zeitgeist, a sounding board that reveals the nuances of modern values as they present themselves in the physical forms of ever changing and evolving fashion aesthetics.