Ready-to-wear

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Prêt-à-Porter redirects here. For the movie Prêt-à-Porter (English title: Ready to Wear), see Prêt-à-Porter (film).

Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the fashion design term for clothing marketed in a finished condition, in standard clothing sizes (in casual usage, off the rack or "off-the-peg"). Some fashion houses or fashion designers create ready-to-wear lines that are mass-produced and industrially manufactured, while others offer lines that are very exclusive and produced only in limited numbers and only for a limited time. Whatever the quantity produced, these lines are never one of a kind. Fashion houses that produce a haute couture line, such as Chanel, Dior, and Lacroix or Torrente by Julien Fournié, each produce a ready-to-wear line, which returns a greater profit due to the availability of the clothing. Relative to couture, ready-to-wear clothing is often more practical and informal, though these things are not always the case. The craftsmanship of ready-to-wear clothing is also held to a lower standard than that of haute couture. High-end ready-to-wear lines are sometimes based upon a famous gown or pattern that is then duplicated to raise the designer's visibility level.

Designers producing ready-to-wear lines generally present a collection each season during a period known as Fashion Week. This takes place on a city-wide basis and occurs twice per year. Collections for fall are shown early in the year, usually around February, and spring collections shown around September. Ready-to-wear fashion weeks occur separately from those of haute couture. Paris, New York, and Milan are home to the world's most famed fashion weeks, but many other major cities such as London, Los Angeles and Tokyo hold Fashion Weeks that are both highly-anticipated and well-publicised.

External links

[Seasonal coverage of ready-to-wear and couture fashion shows]

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