Become a Couture Girl

Few of us will ever be able to afford to be true couture girls. Couture, or Haute Couture is the highest level of fashion possible, and refers to clothing that is custom made and fitted by the top designers in the world. A single Haute Couture outfit can cost upwards of $60,000, as much as a college education or a home in much of the country. Couture clothing is chosen by the very rich, the very vain and the very influential. For example, couture dresses are often given to movie stars to wear to the Academy Awards to promote a designer's new line or seasonal look. That said, by understanding and following fashion it is possible to cultivate a couture look without spending a great deal of money.

Steps

  1. Understand fashion categories. Before you can aspire to a certain fashion you have to understand how the fashion market works. The market is broken into several categories that are defined, somewhat, by how styles filter through the market. Haute Couture is, of course, the top, and where the styles originate. Three categories are here to keep it simple, however the market can be broken up into many different categories.
    • Haute couture. Also known as "made to measure" couture refers, traditionally, to a garment made to fit a specific individual. Generally though, haute couture refers to the latest styles, those that are shown on the catwalks and change each season. Typically, this means couture clothing refers to the styles and fashions chosen by the world's top fashion designers, or labels. Couture garments are made from fine materials in the highest quality possible. Interestingly, fashion houses lose millions of dollars on their couture lines as nobody buys them. Since nobody (or very few people) dress in true couture, if you can follow the fashion yourself you have as much a chance as anybody in achieving this look.
    • Ready-to-wear is where designers and fashion houses make money from the new styles defined in couture. Invented after World War II, ready-to-wear first brought couture looks and styles to the "everyday" person. Today, generally, ready-to-wear refers to the most expensive designer brands and labels.
    • Mass market. The mass market refers to everything else. These are the everyday clothes most people wear, but they too are influenced by the styles created by couture seasons. It might take several seasons for mass market designers to adopt a style or trend from an influential couture line. Mass market clothing tends to be made of cheaper materials in a factory or production setting to keep the costs of manufacturing low.
  2. Understand designers. Fashion designers define the latest couture look, but are also savvy marketing professionals. Just because they call their clothes couture doesn't mean they are. Many designers do not even bother with a couture collection, these days. Understand how your favorite designers introduce new looks and styles into their fashions. Be warned that many designers and labels use the word couture to advertise, not to describe.
  3. Stay on top of fashion. The best way to be a couture girl is to keep up with the latest style changes in each season's new designer lines, and then imitate those style changes. There are many ways to keep up with fashion including:
    • Look at designer shows online.
    • Read trend reports.
    • Read and look at the pictures in fashion magazines including Women's Wear Daily, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Elle.
    • Read fashion blogs
    • Follow celebrities. Find a celebrity you admire, or who has a similar body type or look as you and find out what couture designers they prefer. Discover Edie Sedgwick.
    • Follow the news about Fashion Week in various cities. Fashion weeks are where new couture styles are introduced.
  4. Stay on top of accessories. The savvy couture girl knows that accessories change as much (if not more) than clothing styles. By keeping a careful eye on the latest accessories you can often get a couture look with your existing clothes. For example, when white belts started to be popular you could have bought a white belt and used it with your existing jeans and been quite couture for about 2 seasons before it hit the mainstream.
  5. Stay on top of styles. With each fashion season styles in clothing and accessories change, but so do many other styles. These include hair cuts, body types, makeup and much more. The savvy couture girl knows that the latest haircut can go a long, long way to achieving a couture look.
  6. Know the fashion cycle. In fashion, what goes around comes around. Couture is where new fashions or styles are introduced, and sometimes it can take a long time for those fashions to filter down through the market. Other times, the new styles change very quickly. The whole thing is known as the fashion cycle. For example, the length of a woman's skirt has cycled dramatically over the last few decades and even years. The cut of a jean's leg is another example of a fashion style that changes a great deal. A savvy couture girl can often find the latest styles in old clothing that represents the last time that style was in fashion.
  7. Understand color. Every season the colors change. So it is with fashion. One of the great keys to fashion is color and knowing what colors and textures are currently fashionable. If you are looking for a couture look on a limited budget just understanding and wearing the current fashionable colors will go a long way.
  8. Learn to mix&match. The greatest difference between the way the average person dresses and the way that models are dressed in fashion editorials is that magazines present unexpected combinations of clothes and add plenty of accessories. However, many fashion editorials cross the fine line between "unexpected" and "weird". Distinguishing what crosses this line and what doesn't requires a very refined fashion sense. To make the difference between them, follow these rules:
    • The colors have to match. Too many colors in an outfit clash. Imagine this outfit: little black dress, bright orange leggings, bright pink shoes, and a huge, yellow&green handbag- sorry for the person who designed this outfit, but it just doesn't look good.
    • The volumes don't have to be exaggerated. Anything that hides your body line is a big no-no. The clothes have to enhance your body, not the other way round (no matter how slim and beautiful your figure may be; an outfit isn't supposed to be focused on clothes alone and hide your body). The ideal shape you have to achieve is the hourglass-shaped body; anything that makes your torso look square, exaggerates your shoulders, creates an unnatural leg line and so on must be avoided.
    • The clothes have to be symmetric and cover your more... conventional body parts. Go for simple lines and curves instead of complicated designs. As for symmetry, this rule applies mostly to volumes.

Tips

  • Don't be afraid to be original. That's what couture is all about.
  • By definition dressing couture means being ahead of everybody else in fashion. This involves a certain amount of risk, after all, you may well be wrong. Be warned that if you really dress couture you will not look like everybody else, and you may be teased for it.
  • Couture clothing is modeled and presented to us in magazines and other locations adorned over the bodies of the most striking models in the world. These models are good at making the clothing look good. Simply dressing in their clothing is not going to make you look like the models, or make the clothes look good.
  • Try reading books/internet articles about fashion and choosing colors that look good on you.

Warnings

  • Don't rely on Juicy Couture as it's more "preppy" than couture.
  • Don't be a fashion victim; that's not what a couture girl means. You don't need to change your style to be fashionable; getting a few new trendy clothing items each season is enough. Know what looks good on you and what doesn't; don't just follow trends like crazy. Put your own tastes before current trends and remember that the main criterion in shopping for clothes is that you have to like them. If you don't like something and you buy it just because it's "trendy", you'll throw it away after it gets out of fashion; which is a major waste of money if it is a designer item.

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