Welcome to week four, this is Silhouettes. I'm Michelle. >> It's Coutures. >> Cheers. >> [LAUGH] >> We're going to be talking about coutures this week and that's coutures with an s, very specifically. And I'm going to ask our resident fashion historian and expert to talk about why we're talking about coutures and with an s. Why is it plural and what does even couture mean? >> So, many of us have probably heard the term couture applied to different aspects of fashion. It is a French word that translates into dress making or sewing. And I'm sure some of us have heard it applied to probably like an expensive piece of fashion, something that was handmade, or even one of a kind. And all of those descriptors are in part true but the word couture, as it applies to fashion, really originates in the 19th century, with the establishment of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, meaning the couture syndicate. It was essentially a governing body that was established in order to protect designers in France from piracy. It still exists today, and in order to be considered couture, you have to essentially abide by some very strict regulations put forth by this body. Very extensive, but a few examples are, you have to have your atelier located in Paris. Every garment needs to be one of a kind and made for a specific client and have multiple fittings, and most of the garment needs to be handmade. So that's sort of the technical meaning of couture, but the idea of couture, something being handmade, exclusive, taking a lot of craftsmanship, can be applied to many, many fashion items, including humble masterpieces. Which is why we have chosen to call this week coutures with an s, because we're going to look at all of the different ways of making fashion items from actual haute couture items to more humble masterpieces. >> So as part of this week we'll talk about crafting, and one of the things that we'll talk about, and you'll actually get to see by going into the studio, is how a bespoke suit is made. And so our team went to Anderson & Sheppard, it's a tailor in London that's been on Savile Row, a place that really is the heart of suit making in London and actually really worldwide. It's globally known for it's production of suits, they've been there since the turn of the 20th century. And you'll see the process really from the very, very first picking of the materials, the measuring of somebody's body, very precisely, the measuring out then onto paper patterns and then onto fabric, the cutting, the sewing. Every single bit of painstaking labor that goes into creating a suit. We're then going to look at. What's our next topic? >> We're going to go from crafting to what we're calling producing. So we're going to look at some examples that, perhaps, at one point, were made by hand, were made for one person. But due to their rising popularity, have been made in more of a mass assembly line manner. And so a few examples that we're going to look at are the clogs, the Aran sweater, and then we're going to look at the leather biker jacket. A lot of us look at the biker jacket and think of it as the garment of the cool kid, that Marlon Brando so famously wore. But it's actually a wonderful example of a garment that is made very intricately, but on a bit of a larger scale than, perhaps, a Panama hat, or a suit for one client. Leather is not like a regular textile, like polyester or cotton, so it really requires very highly trained craftspeople, who also know how to work fairly quickly, in order to produce more than one a day. So it's an interesting example of the transition from crafting into producing. >> And then we'll also think about growing, actually cultivating, as a means to think about couture. So everything from cultivating pearls to thinking about bio coutures, so the idea of being able to grow from living cells to other types of living organisms and making that into something that's a fashion garment or an accessory. And then also thinking about growing through 3D and 4D printing, so additive processes like those. We'll have actually a look at MoMA's collection, the Kinematics Dress. >> We hope you enjoy this week, and perhaps you'll look at your clothes a little differently, now that you know how they're made.