Literally means "high fashion" in French.
- The term originally referred to Charles Worth's (an Englishman) works of fashion art, but later was used for all haute couture--> The House of Worth was founded in 1858 in Paris, France.
- A couture house has to be certified by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris based in Paris. Their rules state that only "those companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by the commision domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves" the label of Haute Couture.
- The criteria for Haute couture was established in 1945 and then revised updated again in 1992.
- Those houses include: Chanel, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix and a few more less known designers in the U.S.
- There are also some foreign members who partake in haute couture: examples include Armani and Valentino.
- Each yeah each couture house has to present a full fashion line..
- All very expensive- can cost from 10,000 euros up to hundreds of thousands.