Re-Luxe

How Luxury Re-found Its Luster

Haute Couture Week—the made-to-measure clothes that begin at $20,000 for a day suit, and go up to several hundred thousand for evening wear—is unfurling in Paris right now. And after decades of being on fashion’s endangered list—with houses turning the shows into celebrity-packed circuses to create marketing hype—couture has bounced back to life as a bona fide fashion option that wealthy shoppers can buy and wear. 

And many do. The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode reports that there are now roughly 4,000 regular haute couture clients—more than double the figure from a decade ago. (In the 1990s, it had reportedly dwindled down to 200…) 

Paris’s High Jewelry Week, which runs concurrently with the haute couture shows, is also on the upswing, with luxury and jewelry brands reporting a surge of orders of one-of-a-kind pieces that start in the $100,000 and rise quickly into the seven figures. Sales are said to be growing 12 percent a year, with no end sight. “High jewelry is a bigger part of luxury brands’ offerings,” says Carol Woolton, founder and host of If Jewels Could Talk podcast. “They make very few pieces, but they sell them all. It’s quite a fierce marketplace now.” 

What’s brought such old-school ultra-luxury back to life?