The birth of haute couture: a brief history

From Gabrielle Chanel and Cristobal Balenciaga to Maria Grazia Chiuri and Demna Gvasgalia, a timeline of fashion's most illustrious moments

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  For Valentino's spring/summer 2022 haute couture collection, Pierpaolo Piccioli created looks for a range of body shapes and sizes. Photo: Valentino

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  Valentino's spring/summer 2022 haute couture collection was dubbed Anatomy of Couture. Photo: Valentino

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  The collection also featured Piccioli's signature pops of colour. Photo: Valentino

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  A look from Valentino's spring/summer 2022 haute couture collection. Photo: Valentino

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  Maria Grazia Chiuri presented a muted palette of black, white and Dior grey. Getty Images

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  The Dior look was quiet and controlled, with long sleek capes, pleated dresses and trouser suits. Getty Images

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  PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 24: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY - For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) A model walks the runway during the Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2022 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 24, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Kristy Sparow / Getty Images)

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  A look from Dior's spring/summer 2022 haute couture collection. Getty Images

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  A look from Rami Kadi's haute couture spring/summer 2022 collection. Photo: Rami Kadi

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  Rami Kadi’s haute couture spring/summer 2022 collection was 'co-designed' with his computer. Photo: Rami Kadi

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  A feathered dress by Rami Kadi. Photo: Rami Kadi

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  Alexandre Vauthier served up party wear. Photo: Alexandre Vauthier

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  A feathered dress on the Alexandre Vauthier runway. Photo: Alexandre Vauthier

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  A look from Maison Rabih Kayrouz. Photo: Mathieu Maury

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  Rabih Kayrouz's collection featured luxurious brocades. Photo: Mathieu Maury

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  Schiaparelli's collection was graphically portrayed in black, white and gold. Photo: Schiaparelli

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  Sculptural elements nodded to Schiaparelli's surrealist roots. Photo: Schiaparelli

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  Founded in the 1970s by Loris Azzaro, the maison Azzaro is famed for its shiny evening wear. Photo: Azzaro

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  High-octane glamour at Azzaro. Photo: Azzaro

Haute couture is, at its heart, a celebration of excellence. It sits at the very pinnacle of fashion, ensuring that age-old skills and generational knowledge are not only kept alive, but continue to evolve and remain relevant in a contemporary context.

Only a select number of fashion houses can produce haute couture, in adherence with strict guidelines set out by Paris’s Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. It is reserved for a discerning few, but the industry employs hundreds of people, preserving dressmaking techniques that have been passed down through the ages.

The history of haute couture (and its Italian equivalent, alta moda, spearheaded by Dolce & Gabbana) is littered with colourful characters and revolutionary concepts, from Gabrielle Chanel attempting to free women from the restrictive fashions of the day, to Cristobal Balenciaga inventing new ways to drape fabric over the female form and Elsa Schiaparelli bridging the worlds of fashion and art.

A look from the Dior haute couture spring/summer 2022 show. Getty Images

Today, a new generation of trailblazers continue to push the ideals of haute couture ever forward, from the discreet, reductionist approach displayed by Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior’s spring/summer 2022 collection, to Pierpaolo Piccioli’s most recent offering for Valentino, Anatomy of Couture, which saw the designer eschew standard-sized mannequins and instead craft his couture creations around real bodies of varying shapes, sizes and ages.

“Creativity, as life itself, is possible only in a non-homogenous environment, where beauty can manifest itself, free and fierce,” he wrote in his show notes, displaying once again how in tune he is with the nuances of our times.

1858

While it is now synonymous with France, the earliest concept of couture can be credited to a now largely forgotten Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth, who opens his boutique, The House of Worth, in Paris in 1858. In an early precursor to the industry we know today, he sews labels with his name on them into the gowns he creates, a move that earns him the moniker “father of haute couture".

A 1910 gown by Charles Frederick Worth. Photo: Swarovski

1868

The Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, des Confectionneurs et des Tailleurs pour Dame is set up in Paris, setting guidelines that dressmakers must follow. Since 2017, it has been known as the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.

1891

Jeanne Paquin becomes one of the first female couturiers. She dresses actresses in her gowns and sends her collections on tour to the US to capitalise on new American wealth. She is a trendsetter who paves the way for Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel a few years later. She is selected to head the first showing of couture at the Paris Expo in 1900 and is elected president of Le Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in 1917.

1903

Having worked for Doucet and Worth, Paul Poiret opens his own salon, as well as a perfume shop and a decorative arts space, creating the first “total lifestyle’’ brand. Eager to liberate women from petticoats and corsets, in 1906 he incorporates the fluid lines of kimonos and kaftans into Western dress.

1910

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel died on January 10, 1971. Photo: Lipnitzki

Chanel opens a millinery studio in Paris and in 1913 begins offering chic, comfortable, masculine-inspired clothing that frees women from the restrictive fashions of the time.

1912

Madeleine Vionnet begins experimenting with a new way of cutting that does away with cumbersome clothes. Cut on the diagonal, or bias, the resulting slip dresses will inspire the dress codes of the 1930s and, many years later, the work of John Galliano.

1918

Spanish designer Cristobal Balenciaga opens his atelier in San Sebastian in Spain, and begins experimenting with silhouettes. Oscar de la Renta, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin and Emanuel Ungaro will all work in his atelier over the coming decades.

Alberta Tiburzi wearing an envelope dress by Cristobal Balenciaga, for Harper's Bazaar June 1967

1927

Elsa Schiaparelli opens her atelier, encouraged by Poiret. Combining fashion with surrealism, via friends such as Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali and Man Ray, Schiap, as she is popularly known, injects sharp modernism into women’s clothing.

Elsa Schiaparelli, photographed in 1932 by George Hoyningen-Huenz. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1939

Chanel retires and closes her couture house after the outbreak of the Second World War. She will return in 1954, to counterbalance the restrictive clothing championed at Dior.

1947

Christian Dior unveils his Corelle collection, which includes a tightly tailored jacket teamed with a full skirt, worn over copious petticoats. Dubbed the “New Look” by Carmel Snow at Harper's Bazaar, it marks a return to opulence and femininity after wartime rationing.

Marion Cotillard models Christian Dior's now famous Bar jacket. Photo: Dior

1952

French aristocrat Hubert de Givenchy opens his couture house. He will meet his muse, the actress Audrey Hepburn, two years later and will dress her for the remainder of her life.

1952: British actress Audrey Hepburn with French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy in his workshop, in Paris.

1957

Following the untimely death of Christian Dior, his protege, Yves Saint Laurent, who is 21 at the time, is named as his successor. He opens his own atelier in 1962.

1961

Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's. Courtesy Everett Collection

Givenchy dresses Audrey Hepburn in the famous black column dress for the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

1968

Balenciaga retires, shuttering his couture house.

1972

Balenciaga dies and industry journal WWD declares: “The king is dead.” He has previously been described by Chanel as “the only couturier in the truest sense of the word. The others are simply fashion designers.”

1981

An 18-year-old Elie Saab opens his couture atelier in Beirut, joining the ranks of haute couture in 2000.

A model presents a creation by Lebanese designer Elie Saab as part of his Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2017/2018 collection show in Paris, France, July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

1983

Karl Lagerfeld joins Chanel, making his debut with haute couture.

1983: Karl Lagerfeld joins Chanel. Tristan Fewings / Getty Images

1996

John Galliano is appointed as creative director of Christian Dior, and will bring his flamboyant flair to haute couture. The same year, Alexander McQueen takes over at Givenchy, mixing sculptural forms with the brand's DNA.

2001

To collect her Oscar for Erin Brockovich, actress Julia Roberts dons a vintage Valentino couture gown.

Julia Roberts in vintage Valentino. Photo: Getty

2002

Yves Saint Laurent retires, closing his haute couture atelier.

2005

Giorgio Armani launches his couture line, Armani Prive.

2012

Dolce & Gabbana launches its answer to haute couture, Alta Moda for women and Alta Sartoria for men.

Dolce & Gabbana has created its own distinctly Italian answer to haute couture. Courtesy Dolce & Gabbana

2014

Ralph & Russo is invited to join Le Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, making it the first true British couture house in more than a century. Christian Dior becomes the first house to stage a show in Shanghai, China.

2014: A model wearing the final dress walks the runway during the Ralph & Russo show as part of Paris Fashion Week - Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2014-2015 at Pavillon Cambon Capucines on July 10, 2014 in Paris, France. Kristy Sparow / Getty Images

2015

Under creative director Hedi Slimane, the Saint Laurent couture atelier is relaunched.

2020

Creative director Demna Gvasalia resurrects couture at Balenciaga, after a gap of 53 years.

Creative director Demna Gvasgalia has resurrected couture at Balenciaga. Photo: Balenciaga