Is the Death of Haute Couture Around the Corner?

I was reading a blog post on Manrepeller on how commercialization is plaguing the haute couture industry. Then, I remembered a case study I was working on how Elie Saab was faced with the decision to forgo his couture line because it was not profitable any longer!

This is a sad phenomena, but it is in fact happening. The Haute Couture fashion week is getting shorter and shorter, and the clothes are getting more casual and resembling their "ready-to-wear" counterparts!

So, should designers merely focus on wearability and profitability while designing their couture collection to make their shareholders happy, or should they shift their attention to the art of fashion itself? Now that couture pieces are worn by Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry, is the death of couture around the corner and inevitable?

Haute couture is the creative playground and the tool with which designers create buzz and publicity around their label. Only those permitted by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris can design and show at the Paris Haute Couture Week.

I personally believe that couture is the heart and soul of fashion which gives life to this form of art! Creativity should not be suffocated by the hands of profitability! Did Van Gogh thought about how much he is going to make after he sells his Sunflowers painting? Absolutely, not! I suppose all he was concerned with was how to convey his art and creativity on his canvas. Fashion is a form of art, and it should be treated as one!

However, we should also keep in mind that art reflects the culture and the zeitgeist of an era, and probably this is what we value and appreciate these days; comfortable and casual pieces that we can run around and make money in all day long! High-heels are substituted with sneakers and denim is “The” fabric of the decade, which needless to say, found its way in couture as well. 

Well, a world without couture is a world without fantasy, and I certainly do not want to live in such a world!