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Fashion History and Trendsetting If all roads lead to Rome, then all fashion roads lead to Paris! Illustration by Megan Hess Tatiana Bellator | September 24, 2018 Paris is known as a city of art! It is widely known that multiple arts have developed in the French capital for centuries including the art of perfumery, gastronomy, winemaking and most notably, the art of fashion! 1. 17TH CENTURY: LOUIS XIV, A LOVE AND APPRECIATION FOR LUXURY!King Louis XIV of France, often referred to as King of Couture, believed that luxury was necessary not only to the economy of France but to the prominence and endurance of the monarchy. He even passed on a law that prohibited members of the court from being "unfashionable". Thereupon, there was an upsurge in demand for luxury and fashion among the people of Paris. At the time, the world's fashion capital was Madrid, where fashion was particularly characterized by being obscure. This was due to dark fabric ink being both scarce and expensive, so the Spanish wished to flaunt it as much as they could. The new trends that Louis XIV introduced were colorful, voluminous, and rich in every way, the opposite of austere Spanish style. He was successful in setting new trends that would be taken on by French Fashion enterprises in the future. Fun fact: King Louis XIV would bathe in bottles of perfume on a daily basis in order to avoid noisomeness, which then on proliferated Paris' industry of high quality perfume. 2. 18TH CENTURY: THE RISE OF HAUTE COUTUREThe French, until this day, are known for being the best clothing makers in the world. Haute Couture , initiated in Paris and literally translating to "high sewing", faced an upsurge around 1895 and is characterized by creating hand tailored and custom made designs for one specific person; thus, making it both highly expensive and exclusive. Whenever you see Haute Couture on the runway, know that every single piece was intricately done with every element being placed with excruciating detail, most likely having been tailored for months. Today however, Haute Couture is more of a PR stunt as much of it's appreciation has been lost and many people are not paying for it anymore. 3. 19TH CENTURY: HAUTE COUtuRE AROUND THE WORLDIn the 1930's and 1940's many fashion houses, both in Paris and around the world, began adopting the term Haute Couture and referring to themselves as Couture Houses, but without actually possessing the characteristics and prestige of one. For this reason, The Union Chamber of Haute Couture established specific rules as to who could refer themselves as Haute Couture, these being:
4. 20TH CENTURY: AN EMPIRE BUILT BY KARL LAGERFELD!Paris owes a great deal of its success in the industry to fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. He was the first to accept and understand the importance of the media in the industry. He had a globalized idea of fashion and was fluent in English. He most notably revived the french fashion House Chanel after being offered a position to lead the brand in 1982. His image became as much as a Parisian idol as the Eiffel Tower and he soon became the symbol of every frenchmen around the globe. After Coco Chanel's death in 1971, The House of Chanel began to loose popularity and was viewed as obsolete and de-mode. In response, Karl Lagerfeld began to modernize Chanel's iconic tweed suit and successfully re-captured the public's attention. Later on, other Paris based brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior and Balmain began to reinvent their style. 5. PARIS FASHION WEEK STATS!- Over 110 designers present their collections at PFW.
- 160, 000 people are involved in the Parisian Fashion Industry - More than 1, 500 brands work in the French Fashion Industry - There is a profit of around 6.5 billion euro from French Fashion Exports - Chanel has the largest show for Paris fashion week with 2600 guest attending.
2 Comments
Tina Derbak-Carpenter
1/11/2018 12:05:29 am
Hi! What a great history on haute culture fashion. Will be reading all from now on.
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15/5/2023 06:47:05 pm
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