Haute Courture

Haute Couture is a word thrown around a lot in the fashion world, but what does it really mean? It translates directly into "high fashion," but haute couture means much more than that. The exact definition found on Wikipedia is "fashion that is constructed by hand from start to finish, made from high quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable sewers, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques." In France, there is actually a set list of requirements a fashion house must meet to have their pieces be legally considered "haute couture." The four criteria are as follows: a house must use multiple fittings to design for private clients, have a workshop in Paris that employs at least 15 full-time staff members, have 20 full-time technical workers in at least one workshop, and must present 50 original designs to the public every July and January (Wikipedia).
A single haute couture piece is reported to take between 100 and 700 hours to create! These exorbitant hours are due to every part of the garment being handmade and specially fitted for the client. And with exorbitant hours comes exorbitant prices, with daytime pieces starting at $10,000 and evening wear going up from $60,000. As you've probably guessed, the market for this kind of clothing is incredibly small. Only 2,000 women worldwide are reported to purchase haute couture, and only 200 of those women are regular buyers. 

I'll be sticking to Walmart.

Cite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/uloop/all-about-haute-couture_b_6746770.html
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