What is couture?

Christian Lacroix at his last haute couture collection (Fall/Winter 2009)
Source: nymag.com

The relevance of couture over the years is slowly declining. Once upon a time, the schedules, aesthetics and trends of the ready-to-wear season to come, was dictated by the two couture seasons yet now it really is the complete opposite.

In many ways, couture nowadays is really only just used for marketing purposes. After all, how many of us can really afford a couture gown? However by attaching the 'couture' label to garments or brands, it encourages people to believe that they are a part of this fantasy and luxurious wealth in an economic climate which really isn't so great. So while couture is used as a marketing ploy more than anything else at the present time in fashion, what defines couture nowadays?

In short, couture really is just attention to detail. From the types of fabrics and materials used, to the way in which they are sewn onto the garment and the way the garment fits, to the ateliers and artisans, couture is the world in which the significance of the garments are in it's intricacies.

Since Raf Simons presented his couture collections under his new position at Christian Dior, many have voiced their opinions against the collections, rejecting them as being true 'couture.' Raf Simons is a simple designer, he studied architecture, a world where more is more and less is less - it is more or less the same as the world of couture. While Raf Simons controversial designs may have appeared rather boring with bar jackets reminiscent of Dior's New Look the couture appeal of his designs lay not in the embellishment but the tailoring involved in creating the perfect suit jacket and not in the use of embellishment or theatrical nature as in the case of Christian Dior under John Galliano. While Raf Simons is typically a designer of the less is less concept, designers such as Elie Saab have based their whole appeal on the concept of more is more. Their attention to detail is much less subtle and perhaps more significant as their garments are heavily embellished and adorned with intricate lace.

One label which really does act as an intermediary between these two concepts is Maison Martin Margiela. Their fall 2013 collection consisted of an odd mix of eclectic styles, textures and fabrics yet could still be labelled as artisanal or couture. Once the masked models used to represent anonymity and while it still may, MMM has been revolutionary in using this anonymity as a platform to still be able to embellish and represent an identity yet still retain anonymity. While the collection mixed anything from boyfriend jeans to a top constructed entirely from agate slices, this collection truly represents the balance of between the overly embellished to the simplistic garments of couture.

Whether a designer chooses to create a collection where more is more or take a more simplistic approach or perhaps even merge the two, haute couture is not something which can simply be defined by a word or two, nor a sentence. It is well and truly up to the designers and their creative teams to govern the influence, past, present and future of couture.