Haute Couture

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Official haute couture houses
As of spring 2006, there are ten official haute couture houses:

Adeline André
Chanel
Christian Dior
Jean-Paul Gaultier
Givenchy
Christian Lacroix
Scherrer
Dominique Sirop
Frank Sorbier
Emanuel Ungaro
List as per [1]

Foreign members in 2006:

Giorgio Armani Prive is also shown during the couture shows as a foreign member invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne
Versace is also shown during the couture shows as a foreign member invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne
Valentino has also had a haute couture line for decades.
Previous members

Julien Fournié is the last creative director of the House of Torrente which, until 2005, was among the very few official haute couture houses.
The Chambre also invites some designers to participate in the shows, even if they do not meet the strict requirements for entrance to the Chambre. The list of guests will fluctuate from year to year. Recent guests include Chado Ralph Rucci, Pascal Humber, Philip Treacy, Martin Margiela, and Viktor and Rolf.

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Izmir-based Turkish circular knitter Uniteks has become the first textile manufacturer in the country to achieve the European Eco-Label after it was awarded the ‘flower’ for a range of baby wear and children’s clothing.

The company is one of Turkey’s leading circular knitters and has an annual turnover of US$150 million selling most of its product to European clients. The company says that one of its main operating principles has always been the careful use of natural resources and the limitation of pollution during the production process.

Facing changing environmental policies and customer expectations, applying for the Flower was just another logical step for the company, according to Bahadır Manus from the Quality Assurance Department who points out that Uniteks further uses the Flower as “a guidance tool in the research and development department” when inventing new products and designs.

Because Turkey is not a member of the European Union, the certification process was done in cooperation with the Danish Competent Body ‘Ecolabelling Denmark.

Meanwhile, the European Eco-label was present at the recently held Prêt-à-Porter fashion fair in Paris with a help-desk where around 80 exhibitors presented collections in the new ‘So Ethic’ section of the fair for sustainable fashion, representing labels such as Wellicious, Globe Hope and The Earth Collection.

“Some of the exhibitors present at the So Ethic section already knew the Eco-label, and many were very keen on learning more about the Flower,” said a statement from the European standard, “This is a remarkable development because when the Helpdesk visited Prêt-à-Porter in 2004, there was virtually no interest in the Flower.”

“At the time, producers complained about the difficulty in following and controlling the production chain for fibres. This concern was not voiced this time around. The growing demand for green products and consumer awareness seems to have convinced producers of the necessity to achieve sustainable production.”

Companies in the UK will be interested to know that the UK Government has appointed a new delivery partner, UK Ecolabel Delivery (a partnership between TUV NEL Ltd and Oakdene Hollins Ltd), to handle the growing numbers of Ecolabel applications and enquiries.

Defra (the UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) remains the officially designated Competent Body in the UK, but UK Ecolabel Delivery will carry out the key functions on Defra‘s behalf, working under contract to AEA Energy and Environment, which in turn provides advice to Defra about sustainable products.

On 16 July 2008 the European Commission presented a proposal for a regulation revising the EU Ecolabel scheme. The proposal strengthens the scheme by widening the number of products covered and making the system less costly and bureaucratic. It will encourage manufacturers to go beyond mandatory product standards.

Full details of the revision will be published in the 2009 update to the recently launched Eco-Textile Labelling Guide.