Couture Trade: The Universal Benchmark Of Fashion

By Mai Manaloto

Couture provided a standard for impeccable universal sartorial taste. It was marketed as the peak of advanced style or commonly defined as high fashion. Couture designs are kept up to date by the infusion of new trends that are shown in extravagant fashion shows.

It exists to serve as a role model to all fashion designs explaining why a silhouette can be theatrical, attention-grabbing and extreme. It was meant to be vulgar and merely conspicuous. Wearable choices of couture on the other hand were made for two audiences, the general public and private clients. But what is it that would make a woman spend a fairly large amount for a couture made dress?

A couture piece must first captivate a woman and make her feel flattered by its design. Then it must meet various requirements such as longevity, appropriateness and value in terms of price. Expensive clothing is expected to be well-made and stresses the importance of serviceability to a woman. Exclusivity and the design itself also plays a role in the decision making process of acquiring couture wear.

Couture does not only exist as a benchmark in fashion design but serves as something desired by women. A symbolic purchase of a well-earned triumph established overtime. As Alexandra Palmer, who has a Ph.D. in design history and a fashion costume senior curator, put it "Couture wardrobes symbolized and highlighted the status of the social elite and implied that the wearers were knowledgeable, cultural and social professionals who practiced connoisseurship in many fields" (2001).