Haute Couture

What is the 'true' definition of "Haute Couture?" Haute Couture is the designing and making of high-quality fashionable clothes by leading fashion houses. For a fashion house to be considered a Haute Couture, the fashion house must meet the four criteria

Design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more fittings.
Have a workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least 15 staff members full-time.
Must have 20, full-time technical people in at least one workshop (atelier).
Every season, present a collection of at least 50 original designs to the public, both day and evening garments, in January and July of each year

Based on these four criteria, it’s easy to see that having the label "Haute Couture" on your fashion house is not easy, it also does not help that most fashion houses spend anywhere from 100 to 700 hours to create one couture dress.

Due to the insane amount of time a fashion house puts into creating a haute couture piece, it should come as no surprise that a garment like that is going to cost you a hell of a lot of money.The cheapest of couture pieces will cost you $10,000, but evening gowns start at $60,000 and can cost upwards of $100,000.

With a price tag like that, the market for haute couture isn’t that big. It is reported that about 2,000 women worldwide purchase haute couture and of those 2,000, only 200 are regular buyers.

Now that you know all about haute couture, you’ll have people thinking you’re one of the fashion experts!