Fashion Q&A: What is a Fashion House?
It’s no doubt that fashion can be confusing. There are countless seasons that seem to be pulled out of thin air. Fashion Week doesn’t even correlate with the seasons (But that’s for another post.), and every house’s Creative Director leaves as they may.
A fashion house acts as the headquarters for many designers. These establishments will hire fashion designers, or Creative Designers, to produce Ready to Wear, Pre-Fall and Haute Couture collections. Haute Couture is special in particular because the houses hire Creative Directors to design pieces, but these don’t make it to the stores because they’re hand-sewn and custom-made for high-profile customers. Though Haute Couture pieces don’t rake in the most money, they do garner the houses great publicity within the fashion industry as trendsetters like Daphne Guinness, Sarah Jessica Parker, and other celebrities wear them on the red carpet and to various events.
Within the house sits the creative director who not only designs apparel and other products, but the shape the brand to the house’s aesthetic and liking. The houses are implemented as a way to establish itself as an entity within the fashion industry. Therefore, once the house has established itself as a brand with a certain aesthetic, it’s important that this be maintained, but constantly evolving with the market. This is why the choice for new creative directors to enter houses is so important. Think about it, if Karl Lagerfeld were to take over Oscar de la Renta as Creative Director, the brand would fall off the map due to poor sales. These houses have a large following of loyal customers who expect a specific aesthetic when buying products.
Written by: Moriah Briscoe