Is Couture Relevant?

Couture is a conundrum in the world of fashion. The reason behind such a statement is that the backbone of high fashion solely depends on the personal expression of one’s creative mind. Fashion, today, has become extremely commercial that it goes without saying that couture is treading closer and closer to a premature, yet evident, death.

Consumers fail to understand the depth of Haute Couture and that it is a field that employs almost 2000 seamstresses in just one single atelier. Haute Couture demands precision, for the money it is worth. Sadly, this sense of appreciation or “savoir faire” has vanished. Excruciating eyes for detail in couture has been replaced by heightened attention to simplicity to make couture affordable by a wider audience, in order to make up for the financial constrains the industry causes.

Looking back to the history of couture gives us a clue of how and why couture had evolved to begin with. Couture posed as a method of escape for consumers during dark times. It provided a way out of the turmoil caused by war or any resulting economic crisis. Christian Dior pulled Paris out of depression with his “new look” in the 1950’s and it was all the rage. Schiaparelli indeed shocked her audience. Designers created a sense of themselves in the designs they created.

On the other hand, this was the time where the United States frowned upon the excessive use of fabrics in high fashion and instigated a “do-it-yourself” mentality to support the war times. Also, the 1950’s high fashion scene collapsed internationally when the relaxed Mod culture rose in the UK leading the youth to crave simpler clothes. These occurrences are what resulted in couture’s timeline being fixed.

Simplicity in design is not the only issue. Couture has become a stunt to create hype in branding, as opposed to self expression, in the current scenario.

An article The Business of Fashion states that Haute Couture lines of famous Parisian fashion houses are more like publicity machines and creative research & development playgrounds. For the price of a collection of hand-made, intricately designed dresses, the maisons of Paris get millions of dollars worth of media coverage that helps build the mystique and exclusiveness of their brands. In this way, couture not only communicates the individual persona of a luxury fashion brand, but also draws attention to the commercial viability of the showcased collection.

Today, we see the world under a different light. Haute Couture has ceased to be the art that women craved to buy. Fashion has typically entered a “post-modernist” phase where couture has become less about “cloth-making” and more about “image-making”. Take the Academy Awards, for example. The event is just around the corner and this is a chance for high-end designers to dress celebrities like the stars they should be. Where is the art in that?

The Business of Fashion further elaborates on the significant shift in consumer culture, by stating that original couture clients were once the wealthy women of France who bought designs by Charles Worth. Today many of the clients are from the USA, Russia, China and the Middle East, which reflects the changing powers of the global economy.

Consumers are kings, in any given economic scenario. Fashion is no match to how commercial branding works. It evidently falls in the hands of designers who responsible to sustaining their brand images, and sacrifices are made in the name of publicity. Hence, the relevance for haute couture is lost in today’s society. On a lighter note, if Maison Margeila and Karl Lagerfeld continue their amazing career, haute couture has a chance of surviving, but seeing the morbid attempts by Versace and Viktor & Rolf; branding ceases to leave high fashion a mere cliff-hanger.

SOURCES –

[1]http://www.vogue.com.au/fashion/news/couture+frivolous+or+importantr+the+guide+to+haute+couture,26098

[2] http://theschoolofstyle.com/blog/can-haute-couture-maintain-its-relevance-within-a-fast-evolving-industry/

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG10147014/Haute-Couture-fact-file.html

http://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/fashion-show-review/haute-coutures-melancholia-spring-summer-2016-chanel-dior-valentino

http://www.vogue.com/13391217/haute-couture-why-it-matters-now-more-than-ever/

https://www.cataloguemagazine.com.au/feature/is-haute-couture-still-relevant

http://www.sz-mag.com/news/2015/03/fashions-postmodernist-phase/