Paris, July 6th, 2010

Think organza, silk and tulle in a dramatic 'bouquet' of block colours: mandarin, violet, canary yellow and saturated red, accompanied by playful soft shades of rose pink and sky blue. For this collective John Galliano took inspiration from the cliff top garden of “Les Rhumbs” - the childhood home of Christian Dior in Granville, Normandy.

Models heads were wrapped in coloured cellophane, their waists tied with textured ribbons, as though they themselves were bouquets of flowers. Tulips, exotic orchids, hydrangeas, roses and delphiniums; they were all recreated for the runway, with billowing skirts and striking silhouettes. The collection overall seemed to exude a lot more wearability than what you would usually expect with Galliano's approach to couture, and it seemed to pay homage to the old-style glamour of classic Dior.

Couture is the most expensive and prestigious fashion in the world - with a standard couture gown priced around 40 000 dollars.

Designers are often dismissed for the time, money and manpower that goes into creating pieces that only cater to an exclusive audience of 200 people internationally - the luxuriously wealthy mainly from Russia, the Middle East and Asia. It is considered an investment - like buying a piece of art from a great living artist.

Meaning literally "high sewing", Haute Couture can be traced back to the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette but was only formalized in Paris by an English-born couturier, Charles Worth, who opened his fashion house in 1858 who was quick to realise that success relied on the most stringent quality control. He founded the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne to regulate the by-then burgeoning number of houses. Each member was required to apply for admission annually and to conform to a set of rules – governing the number of people employed and designs produced seasonally – which remain little changed to this day.

Meanwhile in France a huge bribery scandal erupted this past week, as Couture Fashion Week in Paris came underway. The finance minister for Sarkozy was accused of accepting bribes, in correlation to his proposal to increase the retirement age in France from 60 to 62. Sarkozy the president of France has denied receiving wads of cash from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, and her late husband and said he will not allow rumours to undermine his efforts to reform France's pension system and cut the budget deficit. Reuters. Madame Bettencourt is one of these women who can afford a 40K couture gown. Private wealth doesn't like these social benefits; they cut into their profits.

Haute couture is an art form. It's what we often deem as ‘aspirational fashion’.

Joel Nikolaou