Haute Couture Week is the dizzying pinnacle of Parisian fashion, where a rareified handful of houses and designers – each one meticulously vetted by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode – are allowed to show on schedule, abiding by a strict set of rules. At heart, these centre around haute couture’s raison d’être: that each garment is made-to-measure to a client’s proportions, using labour-intensive processes which can see a single gown take hundreds of hours to complete.
The rules state that to retain a haute couture designation, a house must keep a Parisian atelier – the workshop at the centre of a couture house – employ at least 15 full-time staff, and present a collection of at least 25 designs each fashion season. It means an equally exclusive client base – there are an estimated 4,000 couture active buyers in the world, a minuscule number compared to those purchasing ready-to-wear.
