Why Couture and Craft Matter Right Now

“Grace spent a week observing online the couture collections in Paris in July. She wrote many reviews for @t.g.therealtonyglenville. Some designers commented and so we asked Grace for her thoughts on the business of couture and the tradition of craft.”

Words: Grace Mortensen (Aged fifteen)

Why does haute couture matter so much in the fashion cycle each season and why does craft matter so much right now? I have been giving more consideration to this since my experience as an intern during the last couture week in Paris. During this time, I reviewed more than a dozen shows.

In a teenager’s eyes haute couture is an alien-like concept. On their daily scroll coming across £100,000 dresses compared to their usual Brandy sweatpants they are in disbelief as to why that is even a thing and who would ever wear such pieces. But truly it is not about who is buying or wearing these things. It’s about craftsmanship and the essence of haute couture.

Why should our generation care about hand sewn feathers in a Paris workshop?

Even though most teenagers would not wear haute couture themselves I think it still has a significant influence on the clothes we wear. Haute Couture impacts everyday fashion more than we realise. Many colours, materials, silhouettes, and textiles that seem normal in teenage clothing often are derived from the ideas that designers have experimented with on the runway. A lot of teens see the concept as stupid and over the top, but don’t acknowledge the skill behind every small detail and the impact this has on their clothing too.

People may be mistaken into thinking runway concepts are meant for the street. But that is not the sole purpose. Haute couture is not designed to be practical everyday clothing. Instead, it gives designers the freedom to experiment with dramatic silhouettes, intricate details and unusual materials turning fashion into art. I think that this is what makes haute couture so interesting and important, because it does not follow the same rules as everyday fashion, yet still introduces ideas that can be adapted into it. Couture is about possibility not practicality; it is creating a vision of what fashion could become.

As a 15-year-old, most of the fashion I see isn’t on the runway it is on my phone. I see clothes through TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest before I ever see them in a shop. This shows how much of an impact social media has had on fashion, most trends disappear within weeks which feeds into the ideology of fast fashion. Because of this couture is at a distance to our generation’s fashion yet that distance makes it feel much more important. Couture doesn’t have to operate at that speed and creates a visible and enduring impact, not just disappearing within weeks. It shows where the clothes we see actually come from. I think that haute couture brings a variety of ideas in the fashion world and without it we would be repeating the same endless concepts. This makes it so important as it brings constant creativity and sets the original ideas of fashion.

Teens live in a world of technology, constant AI imagery, micro trends, and disposable fast fashion brands producing cheap synthetic clothes. This overlooks the importance of the craft of making clothes and real fashion. If a piece of fast fashion can be created in a week, what makes something feel genuinely made?

Couture and its handwork- embroidery, beading, tailoring, draping, feather work, and so much more, makes the creativity visible and makes craft matter. Fast fashion treats clothes as temporary props for a single photo rather than real objects. This makes craftsmanship matter more rather than less because of the sharp contrast between trends vs creativity. Fast fashion is here to respond to the swiftness of fashion trends compared to haute couture which values time, skill, and individuality within their craft.

In a culture where images can now be produced almost endlessly, the physical process behind an object becomes part of what makes it valuable. An AI model can produce an image of an intricately detailed couture dress in seconds, but nobody has spent hours constructing it, embroidering it, or solving the problems in making it exist. This makes artistry and craft more relevant because it splits open the idea of something being beautiful in an AI or faked photo than something actually being made and thought through to realisation.

However, I believe my generation is beginning to embrace craft and the importance of it. We are leaning more into upcycling, thrifting, and mending our own clothes. Slowly we are realising the bad quality of fast fashion and looking into more long-lasting clothes with meaning and value to them. Old fashioned skills of sewing, and handcrafts such as knitting, are being looked at once more Today’s teenagers are turning to giving new life to old clothes by mending, updating, and fixing; imbuing clothes with a fresh legacy by paying attention to details such as buttons providing clothes with a modern uplift. Using a combination of high-street stores, Vinted and recycling existing outfits, today’s teens entwine the latest trends with, say, an upcycled bolero made out of an old t-shirt thrown over a pair of vintage True Religion jeans.

Yes, most people won’t buy a couture dress, but it doesn’t take away the relevancy of it and how much of an impact it has made on the world of fashion. Overall, Haute Couture matters so much in the fashion cycle each season as it gives fashion its imagination and creativity, showcasing skilled craftsmanship and keeps the idea of fashion as an art alive.