HAUTE COUTURE

Haute Couture Winter/Autumn

Haute couture (French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking"; pronounced: [ot kutyʁ], English pronunciation: /ˌoʊt kuˈtʊər/ refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish by the most experienced and capable seamstresses, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Couture is a common abbreviation of Haute Couture, which refers to the same thing in spirit.
It originally referred to Englishman Charles Frederick Worth's work, produced in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. In modern France, haute couture is a "protected name" that can be used only by firms that meet certain well-defined standards. However, the term is also used loosely to describe all high-fashion custom-fitted clothing, whether it is produced in Paris or in other fashion capitals such as Milan, London, New York, Tokyo and Madrid.
The term can refer to:

the fashion houses or fashion designers that create exclusive and often trend-setting fashions
the fashions created

Legal status

In France, the term haute couture is protected by law and is defined by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris based in Paris, France. Their rules state that only "those companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves" of the label haute couture. The criteria for haute couture were established in 1945 and updated in 1992.
To earn the right to call itself a couture house and to use the term haute couture in its advertising and any other way, members of the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture must follow these rules:

Design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more fittings.
Have a workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least fifteen people full-time.
Each season (i.e., twice a year), present a collection to the Paris press, comprising at least thirty-five runs/exits with outfits for both daytime wear and evening wear.

However, the term haute couture may have been misused by ready-to-wear brands since the late 1980s, so that its true meaning may have become blurred with that of prêt-à-porter (the French term for ready-to-wear fashion) in the public perception. Every haute couture house also markets prêt-à-porter collections, which typically deliver a higher return on investment than their custom clothing^{[citation needed]}. Falling revenues have forced a few couture houses to abandon their less profitable couture division and concentrate solely on the less prestigious prêt-à-porter. These houses, such as Italian designer Roberto Capucci, all of whom have their workshops in Italy, are no longer considered haute couture.
Many top designer fashion houses, such as Chanel, use the word for some of their special collections. These collections are often not for sale or they are very difficult to purchase. Sometimes, "haute couture" is inappropriately used to label non-dressmaking activities, such as fine art, music and more.

DESIGNERS

CHRISTIAN DIOR
COCO CHANEL
HUBERT DE GIVENCHY

Christian Dior

Christian Dior (21 January 1905, Granville, Manche – 24 October 1957), was an influential French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior

Life

Christian Dior was born in Granville, Manche, a seaside town on the coast of France. His family, whose fortune was derived from the manufacture of fertilizer, had hopes he would become a diplomat, but Dior only wished to be involved in mostly fashion, but sketching as well. To make money, he sold his fashion sketches outside for about 10 cents each. After leaving school he received money from his father so that in 1928 he could open a small art gallery, where he sold art by the likes of Pablo Picasso.
After a family financial disaster that resulted in his father losing his business, Dior was forced to close the gallery. From the 30's to the 40's he worked with Robert Piguet until being called up for military service. In 1942, having left the Army, Dior joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong, where he and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers. For the duration of World War II, Christian Dior dressed the wives of the Nazi officers and French collaborators. On 16 December 1946 Dior founded his own fashion house, backed by Marcel Boussac, the cotton-fabric magnate.
The actual name of the line of his first collection, presented in early 1947, was Corolle (literally the botanical term corolla or circlet of flower petals in English), but the phrase New Look was coined for it by Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar. Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles, influenced by the rations on fabric. He was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes; Dior is quoted as saying "I have designed flower women." His look employed fabrics lined predominantly with percale, boned, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving his models a very curvaceous form. The hem of the skirt was very flattering on the calves and ankles, creating a beautiful silhouette. Initially, women protested because his designs covered up their legs, which they had been unused to because of the previous limitations on fabric. There was also some backlash to Dior's designs form due to the amount of fabrics used in a single dress or suit—during one photo shoot in a Paris market, the models were attacked by female vendors over the profligacy of their dresses—but opposition ceased as the wartime shortages ended. The New Look revolutionized women's dress and reestablished Paris as the center of the fashion world after World War II.

Death

Dior died while on holiday in Montecatini, Italy on October 24, 1957. Some reports say that he died of a heart attack after choking on a fish bone. Time magazine's obituary stated that he died of a heart attack after playing a game of cards^. However, the Paris socialite and Dior acquaintance Alexis von Rosenberg, Baron de Rédé stated in his memoirs that contemporary rumor had it that the fashion designer succumbed to a heart attack after a strenuous sexual encounter. Some even think that he died because of a seizure

CHRISTIAN DIOR'S HAUTE COUTURE

GABRIELLE COCO CHANEL

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of the famous fashion brand Chanel. Her extraordinary influence on fashion was such that she was the only person in the couturier field to be named on Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century.

Personal life and entry into fashion

While she failed to get steady work as a singer, it was at Moulins that she met rich, young French textile heir Étienne Balsan, to whom she soon became an acknowledged mistress, keeping her day job in a tailoring shop. Balsan lavished on her the beauties of "the rich life": diamonds, dresses and pearls. (Note that in France, mistresses have been acknowledged for centuries among the wealthy, though the members of the occupation, such as Chanel, were disparaged in private as upper-class prostitutes.) While living with Balsan, Chanel began designing hats as a hobby, which soon became a deeper interest of hers. "After opening her eyes," as she would say, Coco left Balsan and took over his apartment in Paris.
In 1909 Chanel met and began an affair with one of Balsan's friends, Captain Arthur Edward 'Boy' Capel.^[5]
Capel financed Chanel's first shops and his own clothing style, notably his jersey blazers, inspired her creation of the Chanel look. The couple spent time together at fashionable resorts such as Deauville, but he was never faithful to Chanel.
The affair lasted nine years, but even after Capel married an aristocratic English beauty in 1918, he did not completely break off with Chanel. His death in an auto accident, in late 1919, was the single most devastating event in Chanel's life^.
According to local report a roadside memorial at the site of the accident was placed there by Chanel, who visited it in later years to place flowers there.
Chanel became a licensed modiste (hat maker) in 1910 and opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris named Chanel Modes. Chanel's modiste career boomed once theatre actress Gabrielle Dorziat modelled her hats in the F Noziere's play Bel Ami in 1912 (Subsequently, Dorizat modelled her hats again in Les Modes). In 1913, she established a boutique in Deauville, where she introduced luxe casual clothes that were suitable for leisure and sport. Chanel launched her career as fashion designer when she opened her next boutique, titled Chanel-Biarritz, in 1915 catering for the wealthy Spanish clientele who holidayed in Biarritz and were less affected by the war. Fashionable like Deauville, Chanel created loose casual clothes made out of jersey, a material typically used for men's underwear. By 1919, Chanel was registered as a couturiere and established her maison de couture at 31 rue Cambon
Later in life, she concocted an elaborate false history for her humble beginnings. Chanel would steadfastly claim that when her mother died, her father sailed for America to get rich and she was sent to live with two cold-hearted spinster aunts. She even claimed to have been born in 1893 as opposed to 1883, and that her mother had died when Coco was two instead of twelve.
In 1920, she was introduced by ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev to world-famous composer Igor Stravinsky (who composed 'The Rite of Spring'), to whom she extended an offer for him and his family to reside with her. During this temporary sojourn it was rumoured that they had an affair.
Coco dated some of the most influential men of her time, but she never married. The reason may be found in her answer, when asked why she did not marry the Duke of Westminster: "There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel.

Film depictions

Chanel Solitaire (1981), directed by George Kaczender and starring Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton and Rutger Hauer.
The American television movie Coco Chanel debuted on 13 September 2008 on Lifetime Television, starring Shirley MacLaine as a 70-year-old Chanel. Directed by Christian Duguay, the film also starred Barbora Bobulova as the young Chanel, Olivier Sitruk as Boy Capel, and Malcolm McDowell. The movie could be viewed as rewritten history for the Chanel company, as it portrayed Coco's mistress life as love stories, left out her Nazi collaboration and her use of royal connections to avoid trial. The movie also left out possible comparisons between her and Mata Hari, (the famous spy of World War I who was also a dancer and courtesan to the rich). However, any such comparison to Mata Hari may be viewed favorably today as she was said by the Gestapo to be working for the British.
There is also a film starring Audrey Tautou as the young Coco, titled Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel), which was released on 22 April 2009. Filming on the project began 15 September 2008. Audrey Tautou is the new spokeswoman of Chanel S.A.
Another film concerns the affair between Chanel and Igor Stravinsky chosen to close the Cannes Film Festival of 2009, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is directed by Jan Kounen and stars Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen. The film is based on the 2002 novel Coco & Igor by Chris Greenhalgh^.
Two more projects are said to be in the works: one directed by Daniele Thompson.

Iris Strubegger and a lion (Baptiste Giabiconi) at the Chanel Haute Couture show in Paris.

HUBERT DE GIVENCHY

Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy (born February 20, 1927) is a French fashion designer who founded The House of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the personal and professional wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn, as well as clothing for clients such as Jacqueline Kennedy

Life

The younger son of Lucien Taffin de Givenchy, Marquis de Givenchy, and his wife, the former Béatrice ("Sissi") Badin (1888–1976), Givenchy was born in Beauvais, Oise.
The Taffin family, which traces its roots to Venice, Italy (the original surname was Taffini), had been ennobled in 1713, at which time the head of the family became Marquis de Givenchy.
After his father's death from influenza in 1930, the future fashion designer and his elder brother Jean-Claude de Givenchy (1925–2009), who inherited the family's marquessate and eventually became the president of Parfums Givenchy, were raised by their mother and maternal grandmother, Marguerite Dieterle Badin (1853–1940), the widow of Jules Badin (1843–1919), an artist who was the director of the historic Gobelins and Beauvais tapestry factories. Artistic professions ran in the extended Badin family. Givenchy's maternal great-grandfather, Jules Dieterle, was a set designer who also created designs for the Beauvais factory, including a set of 13 designs for the Elysée Palace. One of his great-great-grandfathers also designed sets for the Paris Opera.
Impressed by the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, young Givenchy decided he wanted to work "somewhere in fashion design". He studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. His first designs were done for Jacques Fath in 1945, an association that came through family members who knew Fath personally. Later he did designs for Lucien Lelong (1946) — working alongside the still-unknown Pierre Balmain and Christian Dior. From 1947 to 1951 he worked for the avantgarde designer Elsa Schiaparelli.
In 1952, Givenchy opened his own design house at the Plaine Monceau in Paris. Later he named his first collection "Bettina Graziani" for Paris's top model at the time. His style was marked by innovativeness, contrary to the more conservative designs by Dior.
At 25, he was the youngest designer of the progressive Paris fashion scene. His first collections were characterized by the use of rather more cheap fabrics for financial reasons, but they always piqued curiosity through their design.
Audrey Hepburn, later the most prominent proponent of Givenchy's fashion, and Givenchy met in 1953 during the shoot of Sabrina. He went on to design almost all the wardrobe worn by her in her movies. He also developed his first perfume collection for her (L'Interdit and Le de Givenchy). Grace Kelly, Gloria Guinness, Dolores Guinness, Babe Paley, The Duchess of Windsor, Mona von Bismarck and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis were other famous customers of Givenchy's.
At that time, Givenchy also met his idol, Cristobal Balenciaga, who had also influenced Paco Rabanne's work previously.
In 1954, Givenchy's prêt-à-porter collection debuted; later a men's line was also launched.
The House of Givenchy was split in 1981, with the perfume line going to Veuve Clicquot, while the fashion branch went to the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy group's portfolio of upscale brands. As of today, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy owns Parfum Givenchy as well.
Hubert de Givenchy retired from fashion design in 1995. His chosen successor to head the Givenchy label was Dominique Sirop, but Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, thought Sirop was not well enough known and appointed John Galliano instead. After a brief stint by Galliano, a five year stay from Alexander McQueen and a term from 2001 to 2004 by Julian MacDonald, Givenchy women's ready to wear and haute couture has been headed by Riccardo Tisci since 2005.
In January 2007, La Poste issued postage stamps for the St. Valentine's Day designed by Givenchy.
Givenchy stands 6' 6" inches tall.
Givenchy's nephew, James de Givenchy, is an American jewelry designer.