Why go
Louis XIV's court, the Paris couture houses and Yves Saint Laurent's ready-to-wear line mark three different moments in French fashion. Grasse adds the related perfume tradition. Together they make fashion and fragrance more than a set of shop names when you encounter them in France.
The full story
Under Louis XIV, the French court helped establish luxury goods and dress as expressions of status. Modern haute couture took shape in Paris in the nineteenth century, and couture houses became a defining part of the city's fashion identity. Chanel, Dior and Givenchy are among the names that carried that tradition through the twentieth century. Couture, however, was never the whole story. In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent launched a prêt-à-porter line, putting designer clothing into a ready-to-wear framework that differed from individually made high fashion. Later designers including Sonia Rykiel and Jean-Paul Gaultier continued to reshape the field. The perfume town of Grasse offers a related thread: scent is another part of France's luxury craft history. Looking at court dress, couture and ready-to-wear in sequence helps explain why a French fashion display can contain both painstaking one-off garments and clothes designed for wider use.