COUTURE & THE HIGH STREET: How does Designer Fashion relate to YOU?
To begin to understand high fashion, you have to start with the TRICKLE DOWN EFFECT theory of fashion design. This theory explains the “trickle down” of design inspiration & direction that starts at the top with Haute Couture, and drips down to the various layers (and price points) of high street fashion.
When you see Haute Couture, Designer Ready-to-Wear, and Boutique Retail fashion as a steady progression and blend of human artistic expression and practical need to cloth, you can begin to see the “point” or at least, the reason for Haute Couture. Like fine art - couture is mankind’s way of expressing at the highest skill level into something that we can wear, creating a beautiful dialogue between the art & its creator and/or wearer. And like all forms of human expression, high fashion has the capacity to help mankind connect with each other’s experiences, and reach higher for the source of all beauty. The TRICKLE DOWN EFFECT describes how that same artistic expression then proceeds to effect us all, no matter our affiliation with high fashion or art.
Whatever the direction the inspiration goes, by seeing fashion as a wearable expression of the human experience, I hope that you begin to see fashion as something to be valued and enjoyed.