The French Government Creates a “Fashion Bank” For Its Haute Couture Industry – 28/1/10

In our October 20 MO Down, we revealed the French Government’s plan to produce a rescue package to aid Paris’ couture artisans. This week, it has been confirmed a “fashion bank” will be created to lend money to struggling French fashion brands.

We believe this is an important government initiative, especially given that the lion's share of global luxury fashion, accessory and fine jewellery brands have a French history: including Louis Vuitton, CHANEL, Yves Saint Laurent, Lanvin and Christian Lacroix (sadly, no longer).

A recent Reuters’ article, Paris Haute Couture Learns To Make Do And Mend, discusses the economic shift in this industry. It suggested, “the feel-good factor of haute couture gowns is essential to the world's most expensive brands, helping them sell bags and perfume to the masses, but that formula seemed less certain as several houses faced deep losses and redundancies.”

This is something we’ve said before ourselves on the MO Down, haute couture helps to sell brands’ ready-to-wear lines, accessories, fragrance and beauty products, so it’s a very worthy investment.