Disposable clothing

“In these days it is very difficult to have something really exclusive; with the modern methods of producing and reproducing it is almost impossible to have a dress made especially for you. It is a great luxury.” –Christian Dior (1954) 

Couture is a word that gets a lot of abuse today. If you own a cute little boutique, and you want to make it sound high class, throw the word couture into it and you will suddenly appear classy and french. Here is LA everthing is couture, Juicy couture, doggy couture…yet…none of what is called couture is actually couture. Neiman Marcus has a whole floor devoted to couture, none of which is actually couture.

Haute Couture, in french means ”  high sewing” or expert sewing. What haute couture actually is, is very high quality garments produced by expert seamstresses and designers every season. The pieces are shown on the runway, or in the atelier ( designer’s studio) and then made to measure, according to the buyer’s measurements. So couture, could be considered something which expertly made to meaure for not client, as opposed to pret a porter, meaning, ready to wear in french.

Couture used to be the only way it was done, before the the invention of mass marketing in the 20th century. If you had money at all, when you needed a new dress, you would call up the tailor or the dress maker and have it made, and if you didn’t have money, it will still be made to your measurements, because you would have made it at home.

And its not that couture suddenly became expensive all of sudden, it was always expensive, its just that ready to wear has become to mainstream and with stores like H&M, very cheap. 

The whole ready to wear industry is a nightmare for a couple of reasons. 1. Not enough care is put into the garments themselves 2. To buy fashion and then dispose of it quickly is very bad for the environment 3. modern sizing is confusing and pointless. 

There are several recent companies online who will make you a custom made dress, they even call what they make couture, but it isn’t. My company, My Little Black Dress produces custom made clothing, that is couture. The big difference is how the dresses are produced. Most of the online companies that make customizable dresses do it will not make the dress made to meaure, you can design you own dress, and have it made according to a missy size. ( sizes 2/4-14) I think this defeats the whole purpose of having a custom made dress. You might as well bring you seamstress a pattern and pick out the fabric.

 Our company has customizable dresses, but they are made to measure, meaning the only numbers we use are your unique measurements. A custom dress is ideal for anyone, they are a very good idea for women who are not that perfect size 6, this means if you are a plus size or a petite size.

 I started this company because I am so sick of seeing women being assigned a numbered size for many reasons. One is women strive to be a particular size and often starve themselves to be that  size 2 or 0.  Sizes are abstract figures. Each company runs differantly, so you could be a size 0 in one company and a size 6 in another. Another reason that I hate sizing, is that women’s bodies are not perfect symetrical, so you might be a size 6 on bottom, but a size 8 on top. This is the time to order a custom made dress.

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