Haute Couture Wedding Dresses: The History
The literal translation of “haute couture” is somewhere in between “high dressmaking” and “high sewing”. In practical terms the term refers to a garment that is made to order, for a specific customer, from the highest quality and most expensive fabrics. It is sewn with extreme attention to detail by using time-consuming techniques and experienced seamstresses. Haute couture symbolizes the highest of high fashion and in the 1940’s, in the height of its popularity, it set a standard for impeccable design that has rarely been surpassed since.
Although haute couture may not be as popular now as it was in the 1940’s and 50’s the legacy of artistry and craftsmanship still thrives in the remaining fashion houses of Paris and haute couture still has a strong influence on providing inspiration to designers across the world. La Novia Bridal will continue to be inspired by not only current haute couture but also the elaborate creations from decades gone by. Haute couture is not just a garment, it is a piece of art and La Novia Bridal has created a wedding dress store that is a bridal fashion art gallery to celebrate the creation of haute couture wedding dresses in Vancouver and provide brides with an opportunity for the true couture experience.
What Makes a Wedding Dress Haute Couture?
Haute couture garments are very expensive due to high quality fabric and the hours of labor it takes to produce one garment. Couture wedding dresses are created with these high quality fabrics in this same painstaking manner. Due to the elitist form of design and price of the haute couture garment, only the world’s richest and upper class women could afford them. In the height of the 1940’s, haute couture was considered a lifestyle reserved for high society and royalty women.
Today, a woman’s wedding dress is the most expensive and elaborate gown that a woman will ever own. As a Vancouver haute couture bridal shop, La Novia Bridal wants to give fashion forward brides the one opportunity that otherwise most women would not get: to wear an exquisite couture wedding gown and to make a social statement of taste and style for one special day.
La Novia Bridal’s Haute Couture Wedding Dress Designs
La Novia Bridal is Vancouver’s first haute couture wedding dress store. Our unique designs are created right here in Vancouver by Jason Matlo, acclaimed couturier and one of Canada’s top designers. Matlo’s designs combine the most exquisite fabric (shantung silk, silk brocade, silk charmeuse as well as various laces.), detailing, and structure. Matlo as well as seamstresses working at his atelier, have specialized couturier training, which is a very unique skill difficult to find in Vancouver. La Novia Bridal specializes in wedding dresses from Matlo’s 2010 and 2011 bridal collections as well as gowns Jason created exclusively for our bridal boutique. These high quality-wedding dresses are inspired by European fashion, vintage, and haute couture. They are available to try on in a sample size and true to the original definition of haute couture, will be created to custom fit the bride’s body perfectly.
During our personalized consultations, brides are taken back to Paris, 1947, to a time and a place when haute couture was at its height. Book a consultation today.