Fashion is big business, it’s something that excites and has always intrigued the masses, no matter what culture you are from. The fashion industry is deemed as glamorous, and with those involved being seen as graceful and stylish people.

Fashion Design In Itself Is An Art Form

Father of Fashion culture or Haute Couture

Fashion design can be traced back to its’ origins of the very early 19th century, at that time items like dresses were only really worn by royalty ‘Charles Frederick Worth’ , an englishman, was considered as the first fashion designer in the world, and is famously known as the “Father of Haute Couture”



His first design house was established in Paris, France. Interestingly enough Paris is also seen as the “home” of fashion in the world – which you can almost attribute back to Charles Worth.

Worth’s designs really appealed to the French people, and his designs quickly became known as the “House of Worth” As the fashion industry has progressed, in modern day now fashion brands are often known and labelled by the designer responsible for the collections.

There are many other fashion designers, who contributed to the evolution of fashion, ‘Paul Poiret’ being just one of them. A famous fashion designer, who contributed and influenced the Parisian fashion scene greatly. He was famous for blending classical styles with casual dress. Some other important designers it’s worth mentioning from that time are: who contributed much in that age, were Lanvin, Fortuny, Vionnet, Patou and Chanel.

Central Hub Of Fashion World

Paris was the central hub of the fashion world throughout the 20th century. Many countries, including the UK and USA were very into the French design houses work.

After the World War, fashion industry had started to develop and branch out to many other country’s across the world. Parisian based designers had set the bar, and then started to build a new aged designer focusing more on street fashion, alongside Haute Couture. Since then, the industry has grown and attracted many {young} people, which has continued to solidly build and concentrate on street fashion.

Long gone are the days when “designer” clothing was just for those of royalty, but now regular people all want the opportunity to wear haute couture and designer wear, created by fashion houses across the world.

Fashion is always emerging into different avenues, moving on from formal wear, into casual wear, and then even into sportswear. Large American designers such as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein brought a fresh new look to the industry which took the casual look even further with lightweight garments suitable for those people who wished to embark in sporting games such as Tennis & Golf, to name but a few, but it was also still smart enough to wear out for an evening and still look presentable.

Today, fashion is broken down into 2 main categories

  • Haute Couture – which is bespoke, designed for the individual; such as royalty and celebrities, or anyone who can afford to have a custom piece of clothing designed and made.
  • Ready To Wear – generic to a degree, collections that are sold and readily available (en mass) in designer department stores and the designers own websites.

The mid-90′s was an iconic time for the fashion world, with many new designers offering different and alternatives to their design work on clothing ranges and collections, it was a turning point for many in a lot of ways as it forced people to change how they thought about fashion and broke down barriers and boundaries.

Fashion weeks’ are BIG business – because of the season on season trends and changes, people wait with baited breath to see what the next fashion year is set to bring, and now with the added bonus of social media, the rest of the world can also be kept up to date in the minute with these changing trends and styles of fashion.

“Never use the word “cheap”. Today everybody can look chic in inexpensive clothes (the rich buy them too). There is good clothing design on every level today. You can be the chicest thing in the world in a T-shirt and jeans — it’s up to you.” Karl Lagerfeld | Fashion Designer