Twice a year in Paris, the fashion world is blessed with illustrious displays of the most drop-dead gorgeous pieces ever created. It signals one thing: Haute couture has arrived. Literally translating to “high sewing” or “high dressmaking” in French, haute couture is often thought of to be the true test of a designer’s artistry — from labyrinthine embroidery that makes your knuckles ache at a glance to expensive gowns with Rapunzel-long trains that feel like a personal attack on your savings account.
But haute couture goes beyond the general, uninformed perception of fancy French clothes. In 1945, “haute couture” became a legally protected term under the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, a chamber within Paris’ Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, which is deeply embedded in the French government. There are specifications regarding what can be deemed haute couture and to demonstrate how precise these rules can get, here are some examples:
“Members must create made-to-order garments in an atelier of at least 15 full-time staff, as well as 20 full-time technical workers in one of their ateliers.”
“Collections must be presented with a minimum of 50 original designs, including day and evening looks, presented to the public in January and July and created for private clients, with each piece requiring more than one fitting.”
“Guest members are invited each season, and if a brand is invited four times in a row, it becomes eligible to be a member.”
The hallmarks of haute couture are in craftsmanship and individuality: Only one customer gets one piece … ever! The very nature of haute couture is expensive and time-consuming — it takes an average of 150 hours to complete a simple dress or suit, while pieces with fine embroidery or other embellishments take an average of 1,000 hours. That’s almost 42 days. If that didn’t blow your mind, the most elaborately embellished pieces can take upwards of 6,000 hours to complete.
250 straight days.
And the cost? A piece can range anywhere from 9,000 to 1 million euros (9,900 to 1.1 million dollars).
Today, the estimated customer base of haute couture is only 4,000 people. In the 1950s, that number was 20,000. However, current customers are buying more: “As Karl Lagerfeld has stated, clients in days past may have bought five couture dresses, whereas modern buyers will buy 20.” Thus, the “dying” business of haute couture doesn’t entirely derive from finances; rather, there’s an issue of timeliness and customer diversification. Haute couture customers are as loyal as Charli XCX stans, but outside of fashion fanatics, the appetite for high fashion is waning.
Since each piece is custom-made only once for each individual client — with customizations taking anywhere from two to 10 fittings — it’s safe to say haute couture is not the most lucrative industry, even though it serves as a strong advertisement for its brands. However, blinding itself to profit is exactly what makes this art form function magically.
Haute couture allows artists to showcase their intrinsic talent without worrying what will attract customers. This practice is an outlier in modern fashion, which often revolves around revenue and quick turnarounds. In contrast, haute couture is a champion of slow fashion. The key to rescuing this quality art form from the brink of extinction lies in young blood.
After feasting upon all 27 collections of the Fall/Winter 2024-25 season, some themes and critical realizations emerge that serve to define the season, and haute couture, as a whole.
Houses like Chanel and Dior will always be reputable and well-designed, but at a time when the very fabric of haute couture is at risk, new and innovative designers must lead the way. This season’s Dior collection, a touching tribute to artist and activist Faith Ringgold, honestly bored me. The pieces were mundanely draped, making me think the best course of action would have been to condense the 62-piece collection and exercise quality over quantity. Besides some standout pieces that illuminate golden vibrancies, this collection oozed mediocrity. When other houses are pushing the envelope and exploding with creativity, it is hard to feign interest in a house that hasn’t been spectacular since its tenure under John Galliano in the ’90s.
Classic does not automatically equal outdated. In fact, the renowned Schiaparelli house curated an incredible collection featuring broad-shouldered silhouettes with elusively bold fabric and embroidery choices. Creative director Daniel Roseberry wanted to invoke the past, saying “I had this dream of finding a forgotten couture collection in the basement of (founder) Elsa’s country house.” His silhouettes play off of the ’50s with slim pencil skirt effects. The show’s mascot, the phoenix, demonstrates “Schiap being so good at reinvention.”
The burden placed on established houses exceeds the pressure that weighs down on new ones. Once a budding creative director takes the reins of an already distinguished house, they both have to confirm and reinvigorate their brand’s image. In other words, they have to reconcile the past with the present, a mountainous feat.
But Roseberry has done it. Modern elements of the collection, like the human-sized metallic wings and the spiked dresses, successfully integrate with the dashing ’50s vibe he was aiming for.
However, despite this win for traditional houses, the newer houses — which don’t have to maintain their long-standing reputation — are beyond dazzling. They have single-handedly taken contemporary ideals such as sustainability, technology, abstraction and postmodernism and actualized them into fashion.
Technological advancements have allowed for the heightened interest in sustainability to blossom. Paris-based fashion house AELIS collaborated with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to produce a new environmentally conscious method for creating metal-coated textiles. With the use of nanotechnology, this process does not discharge any polluted water or chemicals. AELIS’s collection, dominated by shades of black and gray, emits a translucent, smokelike effect aided by their metallic fabrics. The pieces are reminiscent of edgy, contemporary Greek gods highlighted through dramatic eyeliner etched on the models.
Peet Dullaert, while not a particular stand out this season, interestingly used techno-pleating, “allowing garments to maintain their shape and elegance without constraining the wearer,” giving an assurance of practicality.
Lastly, Iris Van Herpen’s collection had an unconventional debut: Their five models, dressed like ethereal, otherworldly deities, were suspended like paintings. This choice was intended to emphasize looking at their pieces slowly and intimately. Unlike the current state of fashion, where speed takes precedence, this static practice allows a great reprieve for exhausted viewers.
Blending art and technology has also resulted in a fascination with the intersection of geometry and anatomy, particularly with inorganic shapes. From subtler approaches like the calculated ruffles in ArdAzAei and the clever play on identity revealed in Gaultier to the overt displays of Thom Browne’s gifted layering and Stéphane Rolland’s swooping necklines and cocoon-like structures, angles and harsh lines are a magnificent staple that will continue to belong on the runway.
Notably, Viktor&Rolf created a cartoonish, sculptural collection in which “the human body intersects with three-dimensional, abstract geometric shapes” so “a new, human yet abstract ‘body’ emerges.” This collection was truly Picasso come to life, with perky finishing touches like gravity-defying manes hair-sprayed to the nines and custom Louboutin heels in colored satin.
3D techniques and structures also shined this season. Inspired by Christie-esque murder mysteries, gothic fairytales and the horror film genre, Charles de Vilmorin showcased wired frame structures that made their garments seem more like static pieces of art than wearable clothing. Seeing an entire pitch-black rat head with curly ears, protruding teeth and vacant eyes, I jolted. With the model’s entire body enveloped in this ominous rat costume, I have finally found an outfit I would feel comfortable strutting the runway in.
Juana Martín stunned with pieces enchanted with the use of 3D objects, like metallic fish bones. One piece even looked like it was entirely built off pliable paper clips, joined together to create an almost apocalyptic effect. The collection, “Pared de Cal,” explores “good deeds against the constant earthly and carnal temptation” — a perfect opportunity to expose material objects as conduits for intangible, philosophical ideas.
In modern fashion, designs are often more conscious and aware of bodies. Thom Browne and Robert Wun even created embroidered images of the human muscular system. In reflecting upon the Schiaparelli collection, Roseberry says “There’s a real embracing of the body this time around.” 3D objects are popular because they change how the body is perceived.
Despite traditional sources of haute couture, most of the fantastic collections this year came from designers outside of France or Italy. In fact, designers of Color truly stole the show, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for others to unavailingly pursue.
Cultural diplomacy is a huge part of diversity within fashion. Imane Ayissi, the first sub-Saharan African to join the haute couture calendar in 2020, created a wearable depiction of globalization while collaborating with Wang Ying, a Paris-based Chinese artist. The rich blend of African, Western and Asian cultures made for a unique and spirited show.
“Time,” a collection by Robert Wun that reflects on his motivations for continuing fashion given his label’s 10th anniversary, along with the meaning of time, is a full-scale representation of a simple comment: “The answer is to accept that one day everything ends—and that’s okay.” Watching figures floating down the runway complemented with climactic imagery of burning nature and galactic skies in the background, my eyes actually watered. The models were beautifully transformed in a way that took them beyond humanity, beyond “just clothes.”
The three themes of the collection — nature, outer space and the human body —interact with time in differing capacities. The pop-up butterflies, eccentrically slanted headwear, gown structures and overall focus on the impermanence of nature touch on all the themes that make modern fashion so exciting: the utilization of 3D technologies, exaggerated geometric tendencies and sustainability. The first Hong Kong designer to produce a haute couture collection, Wun still has a lot left in him even after being commissioned for projects with The Royal Ballet and The Hunger Games franchise.
Similar to Wun, Rahul Mishra is another embodiment of contemporary fashion ideals. The first Indian to present at Paris haute couture week, ethical fashion is a pillar of Mishra’s label, with a company goal “to create participation and empower local artisan communities in India by stimulating the circular economy in their villages.” Through his initiative, livelihoods are created for over 1,000 artisans. “Aura,” a powerful name for an equally powerful collection, is inspired by Hinduism. Lord Brahma’s energy is interwoven throughout the entire universe, “akin to an aura that embodies and surrounds him,” Mishra explained backstage. The face profile motif was a strong allusion to Hindu gods, with the mostly black collection exuding mystique. Immaculate veils and astonishing 3D embroidery elevated the collection even higher.
Will haute couture die? Probably not anytime soon. Besides the small but loyal customer base, a number of dedicated fans enjoy just watching the haute couture shows. But amplifying this ferocious art form to the masses can take fashion to the next level. New houses are using modern tactics to change the landscape of haute couture, and our attention should pivot towards them. There will be a ginormous shift between what haute couture used to look like and what it will look like, and the key to a revival of extended interest and conclusive longevity is how major fashion houses will work through this turning point.
Daily Arts Writer Tara Wasik can be reached at tarawas@umich.edu.
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