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 Fashion and Style
What’s In A Name
By Ann Turner
Almost everyone has heard the term Haute Couture. To those in the know, Haute Couture is a reference to custom-made garments conforming to explicit guidelines that only a few design studios within the fashion collective actually meet. To classify as a couture house, a couturier must produce at least 50 new and original designs of day and evening wear for each collection. They must show 2 collections a year. They must employ a minimum of at least twenty full-time technical people in at least one atelier or workshop. As you might expect, few design houses can honestly use the exclusive Haute Couture trademark.
Haute couture is characterized by exquisite handwork and achieves a standard that mere machines can never hope to duplicate. In France, the term is regulated by the Chambre Syndicale, which is the supervising commission that determines which fashion design studios are eligible to call themselves true haute couture houses. Elsewhere on the planet, many people have commandeered that designation and applied it to labels and garments made to lesser standards. Some apply it to any made to order or custom-fitted fashion. Some labels go even further down that slope. Though the fabrics used, the sewing skill and attention to detail are implied to adhere to the highest standards, many houses and designers who refer to their garments as Haute Couture are egregiously inaccurate if not intentionally misleading.
Today, the tag Haute Couture has become something manufacturers add to just about any higher priced fashion label to enhance its appeal (even to bathroom accessories)! In fact, some fashion houses use the word for some of their mass-produced ready-to-wear collections though they do not conform to any criteria the term implies. There is nothing handcrafted about these garments and accessories. Then, to add to the confusion created by the murky waters of marketing, you have companies like “Juicy Couture”; whose name and casual, mass-produced product is an obvious parody of the standard it refers to.
Some observers say that we consumers are a pretty gullible group. I mention this because there is a current upsurge in the purchase of so-called “luxury goods” by middle and lower income people. If the articles in question were indeed luxuries, few among us would be able to afford them. Evidently, this trend toward diminishment of the established standards of Haute couture extends into and beyond the realm of “Luxury goods”, which have adopted lower standards as well. This season’s merchandising trends place heavy emphasis on quality of luxury though few high-end manufactured goods meet that standard either. Maybe they should call it “allusions to luxury.”
Whether one is referring to accessories, fashionable garments, or services, the nature of luxury is defined as inessential desirable items that symbolize comfort, opulence and extravagant living. In other words, the label “luxury” has encompassed profligate pretense and the delusion of grandeur, which have become fashionable values within our society and culture. As our popular culture is a reflection of who we are and what we value, it is interesting to consider what those values say about our society today. When did indulgence, extravagance and splendor join our pantheon of democratic values? At the risk of sounding elitist myself, I have to say that all this is appalling to me. Nothing should be called couture unless it meets the established standards of handwork, time, expertise and attention to detail. As Peter Lord Taylor (one of my apparel design instructors at FIT), once told us, “it isn’t couture unless 200 nuns went blind making it” Cost & prestige may be conceptually linked to Haute Couture, but clearly, they do not define it.
As it is within all modes of creative expression, standards and criteria for excellence must hold if we want to evaluate or compare creative output in any meaningful way. Excellence is not an ordinary achievement, so why do manufacturers who mass-produce ready to wear garments use this misleading label? They do it because they can. Outside of France, there is no regulation of the term Haute Couture. It has become meaningless in the context of our fashionable society. The “snob value” associated with labels like “Haute Couture” and “Luxury” appeals to consumers who cannot afford the real thing. In this context, it appears that we have become a society of poseurs. Labels have become more important than reality. Ordinary people cloak themselves in the illusion of prestige as they flaunt labels that have been rendered devoid of meaning through misapplication. How can anyone or thing attain a “cut above”, when everything pretends to be so?
As beaders and artisans, we all have undoubtedly seen costly items in shops that are inferior to our own handiwork. I think it is important to remember that the value of an item is not only reflected in its price. An artisan engages in the creative process and the pursuit of excellence. We strive to exceed the highest standard of our own accomplishments whenever possible. As such, there is no comparison between our creative and labor-intensive production and the mass-produced item it may resemble. We are the keepers of the flame, so-to-speak. Handwork, like couture, is a dying art; so our practice is increasingly important. Handcrafted objects are powerful artifacts because they transcend the growing miasma of mediocrity within our society and establish a higher standard. That is why I am so vehement about the bastardization of the standards set for the label Haute Couture. It is a sign of our time and violation of what I hold as sacred.
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About The Author
I was born in New York, and grew up on the North shore of Long Island.. My first degree, from FIT, is in fashion design. I eventually earned another degree in art education and a third in fine arts, with minors in anthropology, art history, and psychology.
I’ve had the opportunity to travel extensively and have lived many places in the world; settling for about 10 years in a remote Catskill mountain cabin with no utilities or running water. I made sweaters, shawls, clothing, soap, and jewelry to barter for the “extras” we couldn’t afford, such as the midwife who delivered my children. When my youngest was a little over a year old, I took on full-time employment as a counselor in a psychiatric day-treatment program. I led a handcrafts group and provided supportive counseling to deinstitutionalized people.
Since 1997, I have worked as a therapeutic art teacher in a residential facility for court adjudicated boys. I never seem to teach the same project twice, though every year I do teach ceramics and some form of jewelry making – metal work, glass fusing, wirework, beading, copper enamel, and more. My boys (aged 12-18), really enjoy combining macramé and beading! I love teaching and working with these special guys, but in an attempt to make more money, occupy my mind productively, and enjoy more creative gratification, I began designing jewelry on my two-hour commute.
Soon I was spending time combing the internet for suppliers. When I had an inventory of only ten pieces, Backwoods Beadery was born. We sell from our Website and at craft fairs and home parties. My husband John is our Webmaster and takes care of the business end in addition to being a great bead designer. I do the buying, more of the design, and the new product end of things. We both contribute to the newsletter.
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