haute couture

Pierre Balmain adjusting a dress on model Ruth Ford in 1947 (photographed by Carl Van Vechten) 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.

Terminology