This week, legendary fashion designer Oscar de la Renta told The Wall Street Journal that he thinks couture is no longer relevant. It makes sense that he would say this — in a society where we are constantly striving for better quality items for less money, spending a lot on custom-made clothing just isn’t possible for most people.

Couture is a very specialized branch of fashion, and only a select number of designers have “couture” status. Usually these designers show their couture collections in-between their ready-to-wear collections, and pieces of couture must be custom ordered for thousands and thousands of dollars. Not exactly appealing when you can get a Zac Posen for Target dress for $50.

I still enjoy seeing the couture collections as an art expression, but I do understand that couture shows are costly and time-consuming if there isn’t a consumer to purchase a few pieces after the show. Would you be sad to see couture retire?

Source: The Cut