January 20, 2010

Fashion Week 2010/2011 in Paris

(France)- Paris Fashion Week, one of the most prestigious fashion events of the year is starting tomorrow at the Carrousel du Louvre in the French capital. For the first part of the week, the event is given over to menswear (fall-winter 2010/2011 collections), while haute couture takes center stage in the second part (spring-summer 2010 collections). A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, which allows fashion designers, brands or "houses" to display their latest collections in runway shows and buyers to take a look at the latest trends. Most importantly, it lets the industry know what's "in" and what's "out" for the season. The most prominent fashion weeks are held in the fashion capitals Milan, London, New York, and Paris.
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XXXIn the major fashion capitals, fashion weeks are semiannual events which must be held several months in advance of the season to allow the press and buyers a chance to preview fashion designs for the following season. This is also to allow time for retailers to arrange to purchase or incorporate the designers into their retail marketing. The schedule begins with New York, followed by London, with the penultimate fashion week in Milan ending the events in Paris. These four cities are the traditional "big four" fashion weeks that are followed by new emerging fashion weeks globally.
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XXXHaute couture (French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking") 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, 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, Rome, New York and Tokyo.
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XXXIn France, the term haute couture is protected by law. 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.
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XXXHowever, 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. In fact, much of the haute couture displayed at fashion shows today is rarely sold; it is created to enhance the prestige of the house. Many top designer fashion houses, such as Chanel, use the word for some of their special collections. (from wikipedia.org)
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