Haute couture is the creation of a fashion item tailor-made for a specific person or member, garments are custom-fitted and made by hand. Examples of Haute Couture fashion houses are Dior, Chanel, Valentino and Givenchy. The garments must be made in Paris and the customer must have at least one proof for the garment to be classified as Haute Couture. Fashion houses must employ 15 or more people and present their collections twice a year (Johnson, 2007). “The creation of a single dress can take up to 400 hours” (The Secret World of Haute Couture, 2007). Haute Couture clothing is extremely expensive. A very small number of people can afford these garments. 'Today only 2,000 women in the world buy couture clothes; 60% are Americans. Only 200 are regular customers.' (Johnson, 2007).High fashion began in 1860 when Englishman Charles Worth began making dresses for Napoleon's wife. Haute couture first became extremely popular in 1947, when Christian Dior presented his first fashion collection. (Stylist, 2011).'Just two years after the end of the war, Dior, with this collection in his image, definitively turns the page on restrictions, sadness, rationing, gravity and uniforms. With the utmost seriousness he wanted to give women back the taste of carefreeness, the art of seduction.' (Dior.com, n.d.). Figure 1 shows The Bar Suit, which was part of Dior's 1947 Haute Couture collection. During the war there had been rationing of both food and textiles, mostly limited to the heavy material of the uniforms. Dior wanted to make women feel like women again, The Bar Suit is elegant but highlights the female figure. Figure 2 is an example of contemporary haute couture. The Dior boss is part of their SS......middle of paper......Designer. 2011. Haute couture: the strange and the wonderful. [online] Available at: http://www.stylist.co.uk/fashion/show-stopping-haute-couture [Accessed: 10 April 2014]. The secret world of haute couture. 2007. [film] BBC Production for BBC2: Chanel (Firm).The SunPost. 2014. Art: Bass Museum of Art Explores Haute Couture Fashion and Contemporary Art - The SunPost. [online] Available at: http://miamisunpost.com/art-bass-museum-art-explores-haute-couture-fashion-contemporary-art/ [Accessed: 10 April 2014].Troy, NJ 2003. Couture culture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Wells, N. 2009. Runway 101: What's the Difference Between Ready-to-Wear and Couture?. [online] Available at: http://www.examiner.com/article/runway-101-what-is-the-difference-between-ready-to-wear-and-couture [Accessed: 10 April 2014 ].Welters , L. and Lillethun, A. 2011. The fashion reader. Oxford: Berg.