So I found this fabulous BBC documentary on the crazy secret world of Haute Couture:
It goes into more than just the making of the gowns (although there are some crazy-intense things going on with feathers in the Lagerfeld section). There are also interviews with the women who actually buy haute couture, and the women who run the salons, and the designers. It’s this completely fascinating, almost alien world.
And it got me thinking…. Runway shows to the side, is this the relationship that reasonably well-off people had with their clothes in centuries past? At what point did this level of workmanship and customization become the realm of the uber-rich?