Monday 12 January 2015

  I have been posting outfits made up of pieces from designer to high street shops and i thought i would write a pieces on each market in the fashion industry. There are three main categories that every brand or label can be put into: haute couture, designer ready to wear and high street fashion.

Haute Couture
 Haute couture designers are members of Chambre de la haute couture and must follow rules:
They must
-  design made to order garment for a private client with one or more fittings
-  have a workshop in Paris that employs at least fifteen staff members full time
- have twenty full time technical people in at least one workshop
- present a collection of at least fifty original designs to the public, both day and evening garments, every season
Couturies and designers that are members of Chambre de la haute couture include ALEXANDER MCQUEEN, CHANEL, LANVIN and VERSACE. Every haute couture house also markets ready to wear collections as they gain greater profit on ready to wear than haute couture. The most important marketing technique for this group are the catwalk shows. This level is the smallest section of the fashion market but is the most desired with the individuality of the pieces and the feeling of being the only one that owns that piece.

Ready to wear
Ready to wear is the second section of the market. The clothing made in this section are still designer but are produced in a larger quantity than haute couture. They are also pieces that are intended to to worn without major alterations and are made to standard sizes.The ready to wear collections are like haute couture and present their garments by catwalk shows but is shown earlier twice a year during fashion week which takes place on a city to city basis. Ready to wear marketing often concentrates on the quality of the garment and being luxurious but affordable.

High street fashion
High street fashion is affordable for the average person and designs are based on trends seen at catwalk shows. High street designers are able to create versions of designer wear in under six weeks and is sold to a mass market and are often chain stores. New look, Topshop, and H&M and examples of chain stores for high street fashion. Due to high street fashion producing to a mass market we are finding more and more celebrities wearing pieces that the average person could afford.