News: New York Fashion Week Spring 2005

Demi-Couture On The Rise
By: Mari Davis
Photo below: A demi-couture gown from Zang Toi Fall 2004 collection. Photo by: Javier Mateo

DALLAS, May 20, 2004/ FW/ --- There’s a new word in fashion, ‘demi-couture,’ defined as a new fashion movement wherein designers go for the richly detailed look of haute couture yet the clothes are still considered ready-to-wear.

When did this fashion movement start? How did it all begin?

The earliest reference to demi-couture was on an article published Nov 26, 1996 at the International Herald Tribune entitled, “Couture: Some Like It Haute, but Others Are Going Demi.”

“Some like it hot, some keep it haute, but now comes a new concept: demi-couture,” wrote Suzy Menkes, who continued to describe Martin Margiela’s Spring / Summer 1997 collection entitled ‘semi-couture.’

“Margiela, a master of cut, who trained with Gaultier, built his spring-summer collection round a tailor's dummy labeled 'semi-couture.' The stiff canvas form - a kind of corset/tabard - is the base of the collection, so that you might get an apron skirt in gold velvet or just the front of a draped chiffon top,”

What exactly is demi-couture? To understand this new term, we have to define the meaning of couture, haute couture, and ready-to-wear or pręt-á-porter first. [more]