Haute Couture

  Haute couture translates into "high fashion" and is fashion that is produced with a focus on fine detail and an attention to hand executed and time consuming techniques.  Haute Couture usually refers to clothing, but can also refer to a fashion houses or designers that create the looks.  Fashion houses that create stunning haute couture pieces are Guo Pei and Givenchy.  Design houses must pass certain criteria in order to label their pieces as haute couture, you must make made-to-order for private clients with at least one fitting, have a atelier in Paris that employs at least 15 staff full time, have at least 20 technical working staff in the atelier, and every season present 50 original designs to the public.  Crafting a couture garment is time consuming and can take anywhere from 100 hours upward to 700 hours to create one piece.  Due to the time consuming work put into the garment by skilled artisans, haute couture pieces start at 10,000 at least, but evening gowns usually range between 60,000 to 100,000.  These prices enable only the wealthy to get private fittings and purchase a haute couture piece, and only the extremely affluent can be regular costumers.

Source: http://www.stylevitae.com/