| Fashion is an art that reflects life. Now and then we hear the names of Valentino, Paco Rabanne, Dungaree Paul Gautier, Versace etc. There designers have a great impact upon our hair styles, what we wear, the way we put on make-up and even behave. Fashion designers determine our choice of clothing every season.
A fashion calendar includes several very significant events known as fashion weeks. Fashion weeks are held every season for fashion designers to demonstrate their latest collections in runway shows and for buyers to see the latest fashions. Most importantly, they display 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 known as haute couture) are displayed.
Haute Couture is a French phrase for expensive and fashionable clothes designed for ladies. Couture means dressmaking, sewing, or needlework and haute means refined. Haute couture garments are made for a specific client from high-quality, expensive fabrics and sewn by hand often deploying time-consuming techniques. Therefore, couture clothes are luxurious and chic.
Depending on the haute couturier and the garment, the cost of a couture item ranges from $10, 000 for a blouse to $40, 000 and commonly beyond that sum. The price is so high because of service, work, originality of an exclusive design and first-class fabrics of the highest quality.
Moreover, every customer will get a garment to fit them ideally. It takes about 100-150 hours to produce a handmade luxuty suit and up to 1000 hours for an evening dress embellished with thousands of beads sewed by hand. A fashion house like Chanel, for instance, will have approximately 150 regular customers purchasing luxury items, and a couture house like Dior will make approximately 20 couture wedding dresses yearly
Fashion houses use only expensive luxurious materials, including expensive silks, fine wools, cashmeres, cottons, linens, leather, suede and furs.
Along with clothes, well-renowned fashion houses make luxury accessories, such as hats, buttons, belts, jewelry, shoes, handbags. Those who can afford couture garments are glad to pay for exclusivity and the privacy offered by the system. |
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