Haute Couture Analysis

Introduction

Haute couture is, quite rightly, regarded as other-worldly; it maintains a glamour and mystery no celebrity has yet managed to ruin. This is largely because only lack of interest can kill haute couture: no technological advance can dilute it, as it can with ready-to-wear fashion. Designers had to custom fit their clients and are required to show a small number of designs twice a year in a private show.

Born in Granville, France in 1907 Christian Dior is a world recognized name when talking about the premier world of French haute couture. Dior apprenticed under Lucien Lelong for the first half of this career, before taking control of his ‘personal ambition’ (Dior, 2007) and under the wing of textile heavyweight Marcel Boussac he opened his own fashion house. Although initially apprehensive about

In Dior’s ‘Bar suit’, the skirt featured spread down until mid-calf length and was about 85 centimeters long and took up an excessive amount of fabric. It was voluptuous, in an A-line shape, achieved through the use of deep knife pleats, gathering ( drawing and holding together, fabric or a part of the garment, by running thread through it), and paneling (sewing vertical sections of fabric known as gores) on the fabric cut in a circular pattern. The waist was fitted but the bottom was flared adding drama to the silhouette of the garment, but still allowing movement of the legs. According to Dior, the use of these the long skits were to ‘emphasized a women’s waist’ (Dior, 2007).The corolla flower was the inspiration behind the long skirts, its aesthetic and more specifically the way in which its petals bloomed, creating a fan-like silhouette. The length of the skirt offered a mysterious feature to the women’s legs, while allowing them to move as they wanted. ‘Totting on high heels, women rediscovered a sort of dancing step, a gliding walk’, said