Haute Couture is the creation of a fashion garment that is custom made for a specific person or member, the garments are custom fitted and handcrafted. Examples of Haute Couture fashion houses are Dior, Chanel, Valentino and Givenchy. The clothes must be made in Paris and the customer must have at least one fitting for the garment to be classified Haute Couture. Fashion houses must employ 15 or more people and present their collections twice a year (Johnson, 2007). “Creating a single dress can take up to 400 hours” (The Secret World of Haute Couture, 2007). Haute Couture clothes are extremely expensive. A very small number of people can afford these clothes. “Today, only 2,000 women in the world buy couture clothing; 60% are American. Only 200 are regular customers. (Johnson, 2007). Haute Couture began in the 1860s when Englishman Charles Worth began making dresses for Napoleon's wife. Haute Couture became extremely popular in 1947, when Christian Dior presented his first fashion collection. (Stylist, 2011). “Only two years after the end of the war, Dior, with this collection in his image, definitively turns the page on confinement, gloom, rationing, gravity and the uniform. He wanted with the greatest seriousness to give women back the taste for lightness, the art of seduction. (Dior.com, nd). Figure 1 shows The Bar Suit, which was part of Dior's Haute Couture collection of 1947. During the war there had been rationing of food and fabrics, mostly limited to heavy uniform material. Dior wanted women to feel like women again. The Bar Suit is elegant but highlights the feminine silhouette. Figure 2 is an example of contemporary haute couture. Dior clothing is part of their SS...... middle of paper ....... Stylist. 2011. Haute couture: the weird and the wonderful. [online] Available at: http://www.stylist.co.uk/fashion/show-topping-haute-couture [Accessed: April 10, 2014].The secret world of haute couture. 2007. [film] BBC production for BBC2: Chanel (Enterprise).The SunPost. 2014. Art: Bass Museum of Art explores high fashion and contemporary art - The SunPost. [online] Available at: http://miamisunpost.com/art-bass-museum-art-explores-haute-couture-fashion-contemporary-art/ [Accessed: April 10, 2014]. Troy, NJ 2003. Couture culture . Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press. Wells, N. 2009. Track 101: What is 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: April 10, 2014]. Welters, L. and Lillethun, A. 2011. The fashion reader. Oxford: Berg.