| Fashion is an art reflecting life. Every now and then we hear the names of Valentino, Pierre Cardin, Dungaree Paul Gautier, Giorgio Armani etc. There designers have a great influence on our hair styles, how we dress up, the way we put on makeup and even our habits. Fashion designers determine our choice of clothing every season.
A fashion calendar includes several very significant events called fashion weeks. Fashion weeks are held every season for designers to show their latest collections in runway shows and for fashion to have a look at the latest fashions. The most significant thing is that they show the industry what is in fashion and what is out of fashion for the season. The most prominent fashion weeks are arranged in the fashion capitals, such as Milan, London, New York and Paris where luxury clothes (also called haute couture) are demonstrated.
Haute Couture is a French word combination for expensive and fashionable clothes. Couture means dressmaking, sewing, or needlework and haute stands for refined. Haute couture clothes are made for a particular customer from high-quality, expensive fabrics and sewed by hand normally deploying time-consuming techniques. This is why, couture garments are luxurious and exclusive.
Dependent on the haute couture fashion house and the garment, the cost of a couture item ranges from $10, 000 for a blouse to $40, 000 and usually beyond that amount. The cost includes payments for the service, work, an exclusive design and splendid fabrics of the highest quality.
Besides, every client will receive a garment to fit them well. It takes about 100-150 hours to make a handmade luxuty suit and up to 1000 hours for an evening dress adorned with thousands of beads sewed by hand. A fashion house like Chanel, for example, will have approximately 150 regular customers ordering luxury items, and a couture house like Dior will make around twenty luxury wedding dresses annually.
Apart from clothes, famous couture houses make chic luxurious accessories, such as hats, buttons, belts, gems, shoes, handbags. Those who can afford luxury items are glad to pay for exclusivity and the privacy offered by the system. |
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