61.

The last of the haute couturists still knows how to put on a show
Costing tens of thousands of pounds, stitched by hand and destined to be worn by a clientele thought not to exceed 1,000 of the world's wealthiest women, haute couture fashion is surviving against all odds.

In the past five years, the number of designers on the couture schedule has steadily shrunk to just eight big names, and the doomsayers point to the ageing client base. However, on the first day of the spring/summer 2007 season it seems that, for the few houses still able to participate in this anachronistic craft form, there is more mileage to be got from hand-made and hand-embellished clothing.
23-Jan-2007 - Details

62.

Fashion: Rare buyer of haute couture
Becca Cason Thrash is one of a handful of women worldwide who still buy haute couture. Chrissie Iley meets her - and has a sneak look at part of her wardrobe

In the first half of the last century there were 100 fashion houses that made haute couture. Now there are only eight. To qualify as haute couture the garment has to be hand-stitched and tailored uniquely for each individual customer. It has to be created by the officially elected elite French fashion houses. And it will be very, very expensive.
02-Apr-2007 - Details

63.

Haute Couture In The Online World
Haute couture, the crème de la crème of fashion, where luxury is at its zenith and where dreams come true for the ultimate fashionista.

Still, fashion observers had been predicting its demise for the past several years, saying that haute couture is past its prime and no longer viable in this fast-paced high-tech world. But, its supporters refuse to give up, saying that haute couture is still relevant; that it continues to be the laboratory of fashion, where innovations begins and trends are started.
16-Apr-2007 - Details

64.

Paris to see Ukrainian couture
This summer, Ukrainian designer Veronika Jeanvie will present her collection alongside legendary designer names during the haute couture Paris Fashion Week. This is happening not without the help of her new business partner and patron, renowned fashion designer Paco Rabanne. A little while ago, Rabanne announced that he and Jeanvie were collaborating on a clothing line. According to the official story, the two met in Paris through mutual acquaintances, and later Rabanne came to Kyiv to see the presentation of Jeanvie’s new collection, “Ethnomania,” and was greatly impressed with her works
18-Jun-2007 - Details

65.

Haute Couture and Eating Disorders
Everytime I flip through the pages of Vogue or Elle I see skinny models the likes of Daria Werbowy, Gemma Ward, Jessica Stam, and Lily Cole. I look at them and think "Yeah, they are thin, but really they are too thin". I look at haute couture runway photographs after going "Ugh, those clothes are weird," I think for some shows to myself "Wow, she is unnaturally thin/all skin and bone". Then there are other shows though were the girls are thin but they look like they are suppose to be that size. The girls tend to be a little odd looking, but I relate to that.
23-Jul-2007 - Details

66.

The rebirth of Haute Couture
PARIS WAS cold on the morning of February 12, 1947. The temperature had dropped to -6˚C overnight and, though France's journalists were on strike, the shivering capital woke to the news that the government had reduced the daily bread ration from 350g to 200g. Earlier generations had revolted over less but no heads rolled this day. Eyes did, however - in particular those set into the exquisitely composed faces of Carmel Snow, editor of Harper's Bazaar, and Bettina Ballard, of American Vogue.

They and their colleagues from the international fashion press were in Paris to report on the new haute couture collections, that handful of dresses and ballgowns created seasonally by the city's top designers and whose provenance - hand-made and exquisitely tailored one-offs - meant only the world's richest women could afford them.
26-Sep-2007 - Details

67.

The grand master of couture comes to London
Chanel showed its first catwalk show in London last week, sprinkling some of its exquisite magic over the city, while, as always, boosting the profile of the brand. Coco Chanel famously declared that "fashion is not an art, it is a business". In her successor Karl Lagerfeld, the two disciplines meet in perfect unison.
10-Dec-2007 - Details

68.

Haute couture flower power
With only days to go before the haute couture collections for summer 2008, the workrooms of Marcelle Guillet tucked behind the Bastille opera house in Paris are a hive of activity putting the finishing touches to orders for the house's unique speciality: artificial flowers.
21-Jan-2008 - Details

69.

French Lessons: Couture shows in Paris
And so, farewell, Valentino Garavani. When Le Chic came out to take his bows for the last time in Paris on Wednesday, flanked by more than 30 models each dressed in the same, long, red gown, he left the fashion world as he entered it – all in the best possible taste.
28-Jan-2008 - Details

70.

Haute couture: Class of 2008
They are hardly your archetypal big fashion spenders. Many are barely out of university and would make more normal targets for chains such as Topshop and Hennes & Mauritz. But that is not deterring a new generation of designer addicts who have thrown an unlikely lifeline to some of the biggest names in the rarefied world of haute couture.
28-Jan-2008 - Details