Designers need you (really, they do!)

By: Anne Robinson

Follow me on twitter- amr8798

email me at amr8798@gmail.com

The fashion industry has one main goal: "to provide a desirable and appealing product to satisfy customer needs, demands, or aspire to have."

You might ask yourself then, why is it harder to buy a designer item than it is to go to the mall and find a new outfit. Designer items can be hard to find at stores and may require months of saving up for the big buy.

Coco Chanel once said, "I like fashion to go down to the street, but I can't accept that it should originate there." High end designers don't want their collections to be easily accessible to every person on the street. An extremely high level of craftsmanship goes into the creation of every product.

Designers do need consumers though. They need us to be interested in them and their collections. Chanel also said, "Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger." Without any interest from consumers, designers would be out of luck (and work).

I have to insist that you follow this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGm8egzGiPY). It will bring you to a clip showing how Louis Vuitton shoes are made. It's really amazing, so go watch it...now!

Buying designer labels gives you the satisfaction of knowing how and where your clothes and accessories were made. These items are created through hours of human labor. Everytime you pick up a piece of clothing from the shelf of a retail shelf, you should wonder if it was made by a machine, operated by some poor child in China.

Buy from a designer and you will know, without a doubt, that the item was created by a skilled professional in excellent working conditions.

So, whether you are the type to run out and buy new collections as soon as they are available, or you just keep up to date on the new season's styles, you are doing your part to keep high end designers in business.

It's almost like designers work for us. (Well not really, but it's a nice thought.)

The truth about haute couture

By: Anne Robinson

amr8798@gmail.com

What do Chanel, Dior, and Valentino all have in common? Well for starters, I'd like to be wearing their haute couture designs on my trip down the Red Carpet....which I'm convinced could happen at any moment, so I better start planning my fittings.

To clear up any confusion, here I only refer to couture in its true meaning, which means that really cute half-off sweater I bought last weekend at Juicy Couture doesn't mean I can now say, "of course I have couture in my closet, what fashion-friendly girl doesn't?"

So, let's back up and have a quick history lesson on haute couture. Get your phones ready because you'll be booking a trip to Paris by the end of this.

In order for a courtier to be considered haute couture they must make their designs at their own premises. They must also take their collections to the press in Paris twice a year.

Haute Couture is a French phrase that comes from 'high fashion' and 'dressmaking, sewing, or needlework'. Couture items are made in Couture houses in Paris. Today, there only a handful of authentic couture houses. It means that a design is made and fitted exactly for you. The first step in the creation process is a sketch. Then, the design is sewn in toile- canvas material that can be adjusted and marked to fit the actual model. (Toiles are useful because they save designers from using expensive fabrics for the initial model) Next, the garment makes it's way down the runway. Then, clients can choose to buy the garment, in which case the client would have at least two fittings, so that the garment could be made to fit their exact measurements.

Expect to pay an exuberant amount...only the best fabrics are used and the manual labor is somewhere between 150 hours (for a suit) and 1,000 hours (for a wedding gown or embellished dress). Prices vary depending on the client's measurements, personal tastes, fabrics used, the amount of hours it takes to complete the design, etc. Some couture gowns can be bought for around $25,000 but don't be surprised if the price reaches into the millions. Samantha Mumba (picture here) wore a $9 million Scott Henshall couture dress to the Spiderman 2 premiere.

Often times today the term 'couture' is used out of context and refers to ready-to-wear high fashion clothing. In reality only a select number of couture houses meet all of the standards required to be considered haute couture.

But in the end, if you are fortunate enough to be one of the roughly 3,000 women worldwide who can afford to buy haute couture, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your garment was made just for you, and that besides your closet, is can be found no where else in the world.