A SIGNIFICANT DECLINE IN THE COUTURE SYSTEM

European Couture

Twentieth-century high fashion had traditionally been the almost-exclusive domain of European fashion centers. Designers from European cities, especially Paris, created original clothing for particular wealthy clients or a collection of styles from which clients could choose and subsequently purchase person-ally tailored versions. Naturally, this method is extremely expensive, and the group who patronized personal couture was elite. Many others depended on basic manufacturer lines that, while influenced by what was going on in Paris, were usually fairly basic wear. Still others made their own clothing.

Line for Line

By the 1960s couturiers were sending their original designs abroad, particularly to the United States, where certain retail stores copied them in a system called "line for line." For a fee these American manufacturers were given permission to produce copies of designs for private customers. Manufacturers promoted this system, boasting that they could have their customers wearing an item from Parisian high fashion within several days of its introduction in the couture houses. But the affected public was still small.

Ready-to-Wear

In the mid to late 1950s certain Parisian couture houses also began to create secondary lines of fashions to be mass-manufactured. The couturiers finally realized the enormous economic potential of selling some of their designs at less expensive prices. The secondary designs were not poorly designed versions, but less expensive fabrics were often used, and sometimes the cut itself would be somewhat less intricate. Buyers from around the globe purchased rights to mass-produce the designs. These ready-to-wear clothes were sold in large numbers in retail stores, allowing more people to wear "high fashion."

The Power of Paris

While the Parisian celebrity de-signers at first were reluctant to allow their designs to move from the elite couture houses to the general public through ready-to-wear lines, their power over the fashion world had not yet diminished. They still had direct control over the line-for-line and ready-to-wear versions of their designs that they sold abroad, but their influence was much more diffused. Even lesser designers for American and British manufacturers who were not buying the couture designs directly were imitating the basic style coming out of Paris. Everyone wanted the Paris look. Paris dictated how far down the hemline went, whether the bust or the hips would be emphasized or deemphasized, the types of fabrics that were in fashion, and the correct colors, accessories, and hairstyles. If Paris said that rounded collars were in, the world made rounded collars.

Decentralized Power

With the rise of the youth market in the late 1950s and early 1960s, however, Paris began to lose its monopoly of control over the way people dressed. High-fashion meccas began to be established in London, New York, Rome, Milan, Madrid, and other places. In the 1960s and 1970s young people tended to reject the dictates of Paris styles, following instead their own fashion inspirations—such as young, trendy de-signers or popular rock superstars. The antifashion era of the hippies, as well as the general antiestablishment sentiment of many young people during the Vietnam War years, served to decentralize even more the forces governing the way people dress. Paris may still be the fashion capital of the world, but it now has some substantial rivals.