The Fashion BusinessLondon couture blossomed briefly in the 1950s period but simply did not,
could not, and would not cope with the radical drop in private clients. It
had neither the international standing, nor the financial resources, nor even
the wish to emulate Paris in this way. As a consequence, with the exception
of Hardy Amies’ company for example, the old pre-war style of elegant
London couture had virtually died by the late 1960s.
The 1960s, 1970s and 1980sParis couture had by contrast responded instantly as we have seen, to
international cultural and economic shifts during the 1950s and 1960s,
through a continuous transformation of both its style and business. Elitism
in couture manufacture was retained but Yves Saint Laurent by 1966 was
designing and producing a specific prêt-à-porter line not related to his haute
couture collection. From around 1970, tie-ups with ready-to-wear and
franchised accessory production expanded and became essential. The truth
was that with only one or two exceptions (such as the house of Chanel),
from that date, couture has been by running its salons at a loss. G.Y. Dryansky
verified on 3 February, 1972 in Women’s Wear Daily that the ‘$40 million
yearly volume done by 20 couture houses in Paris is far and away a deficit
operation... a small price to pay for the reputation couture makes for a
name’. He reported that after only four years of ready-to-wear operations,
the House of Givenchy had already reached sales figures of nearly $2 million.
In the same year, the salon of Yves Saint Laurent was ‘losing $700,000 a
year on its couture operation’, but was ‘grossing $24 million retail sales world
wide on ready-to-wear’ after less than six years of production.^23 By 1980,
according to Françoise Vincent-Ricard, there were only 2,000 private clients
remaining amongst the Paris couture houses.^24
The Economist reported on 17 March. 1984 that Cardin had allowed his
logo to go on 150 products from telephones to jet aircraft and was raking in
annually 1 billion dollars. Even that, The Economist reported, was dwarfed
by St. Laurent, with a turnover of 2 billion dollars from his licenses in 1982,
$400 million from perfume sales licensed to Charles of the Ritz. Couture
accounted for only 0.15 per cent of the financial turnover but in 1983 that
was 40 million francs. St. Laurent was selling $30 million dollars worth of
products at one Tokyo department store Seibu.
- Taylor, L., Romantic Fashions,p. 82 in de la Haye, A., The Cutting Edge,50 years of
British Fashion, 1947–97, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1997. - Vincent-Ricard, F., La Mode, Paris: Segliers, 1987, p. 61.