Paris Haute Couture Week back with Versace, Armani and more

Models present creations from the Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2014/15 collection by Italian designer Donatella Versace for Versace fashion house during the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France on July 6Show more

Just a few years ago it was on the brink of extinction. Now, haute couture — the 150-year-old Parisian tradition of making unique, astronomically-priced handmade gowns — is back.

The fall-winter 2014/15 collections started with brio Sunday with the Atelier Versace show, graced by Jennifer Lopez. The calendar has expanded to five days from three this season to make room for 12 major houses as well as a whole swath of up-and-coming names. Additions in recent seasons include the return of big hitters Donatella Versace, Giorgio Armani and Maison Schiaparelli.

So why did the tide turn?

“With so much focus from fashion’s powerhouses on heritage and traditions, couture has returned to centre stage as it is the embodiment of savoir-faire,” suggested Long Nguyen, the co-founder and style director of Flaunt magazine.

“There is also a resurgence of clients coming from new markets — Asia Pacific, Middle East, Russia — that supplanted the dwindling traditional European-based customers,” he added.

The Lebanese socialite and famed couture buyer Mouna Ayoub says word of mouth has driven large numbers of rich Middle Eastern women to couture houses in the last decade.

“It’s all so secret and they deny it … but I personally know at least 100 Arab women who in the last few years have started buying couture. They love it,” says Ayoub, who says she spent nearly 300,000 euros on one Chanel couture dress.

Haute couture — a protected name — is an artisanal tradition invented by the Englishman Charles Frederick Worth in the 1870s. It involves intricate, time-consuming sewing, unusual fabrics and luxurious embellishments such as rare feathers or semi-precious stone beading. For a century it defined the essence of French fashion, turning houses such Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent into the envy of the world.

Then in 2002, the death knell sounded when YSL held his last couture show and the number of houses and clients started to shrink. Critics called couture old-fashioned and irrelevant.

Now, designers like the 30-year-old Dutch abstract designer Iris Van Herpen, who won the prestigious ANDAM fashion award this week, have helped reshape perceptions about the age-old tradition and made it fresh again.