By Leonore Dicker
As the runways of Paris display some refined Haute Couture lines, we start to wonder who these garbs are made for. We’ve seen them on red-carpet events worn by A-list celebrities, but à la Cinderella, they are only borrowed for the night and vanish back to a mystical world the following day.
When the cost of a single garb can reach millions of dollars, the clientele becomes limited. According to Houston Socialite and couture collector Becca Cason Thrash, “couture is almost like a private club”. The sophisticated ladies who purchase these majestic garbs all know and respect each other; they are members of an unidentified society that overlooks fashion.
Haute couture customers naturally include the haute société, distinguished ladies like Grace Kelly in the fifties, Nan Kempner in the seventies and Kuwaiti socialite Mouna Al-ayoub in the nineties.
Nowadays, the limited clientele (no more than 500 around the world, with only about 150 regular clients) mostly come from the Middle East, China and Russia. “All the royal families of the Middle East are our customers”, explained Catherine Rivière, the head of Haute Couture at Christian Dior.
And the biggest client of them all? Sheikha Mozah –wife of the former emir of Qatar– might just take the crown. This lady never wears the same outfit twice and always looks like pure royalty.
As the runways of Paris display some refined Haute Couture lines, we start to wonder who these garbs are made for. We’ve seen them on red-carpet events worn by A-list celebrities, but à la Cinderella, they are only borrowed for the night and vanish back to a mystical world the following day.
When the cost of a single garb can reach millions of dollars, the clientele becomes limited. According to Houston Socialite and couture collector Becca Cason Thrash, “couture is almost like a private club”. The sophisticated ladies who purchase these majestic garbs all know and respect each other; they are members of an unidentified society that overlooks fashion.
Haute couture customers naturally include the haute société, distinguished ladies like Grace Kelly in the fifties, Nan Kempner in the seventies and Kuwaiti socialite Mouna Al-ayoub in the nineties.
Nowadays, the limited clientele (no more than 500 around the world, with only about 150 regular clients) mostly come from the Middle East, China and Russia. “All the royal families of the Middle East are our customers”, explained Catherine Rivière, the head of Haute Couture at Christian Dior.
And the biggest client of them all? Sheikha Mozah –wife of the former emir of Qatar– might just take the crown. This lady never wears the same outfit twice and always looks like pure royalty.
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