Home Shopping Network; Elite clients are no longer heading to the ateliers of top designers for fittings. So the designers are going to them.(Cover story)

Byline: Dana Thomas

In the old days, ladies traveled to Paris to attend the couture shows in the ornate salons of the designers' headquarters. Afterward, they met with their personal vendeuses --or saleswomen--to try on the creations they desired. Then they hit the slopes or the beach until their garments were ready. Couture was a fun and civilized affair for clients, and a very good business for fashion houses.

During the past two decades, however, as the number of people enjoying such lavish lives of leisure has declined, couture has struggled to survive. In the 1950s, according to the Federation Francaise de la Couture, there were 20,000 clients; in the 1980s, 2,000, and in the past 10 years, the number has dwindled to a few hundred worldwide-mostly wealthy socialites and businesswomen-who still regularly visit top designers for made-to-measure clothes. Several houses--including Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro and Versace--have shut their ateliers. The twice-annual couture weeks in Paris have shrunk to a couple of days each, and the shows have changed from demure presentations of new offerings to spectacular million-dollar productions attended by journalists, retailers and celebrities. "The true haute couture clients don't come to the shows now," says Catherine Riviere, head of haute couture at Christian Dior. "The shows are about celebrities and image, and that doesn't interest couture clients at all. They want to see the collection properly and privately and don't want to be exposed to this media circus."

So couture houses have adapted their strategy. "If the clients don't come to couture, couture will go to them," says Dior spokesman Bernard Danillon. Like queens holding court, many couture clients now receive their dressmakers at home. The trend began quietly a few years ago, but has picked up dramatically in the past year. Of the dozen major fashion houses that still produce haute couture today, several--including Dior and Chanel--provide home service. "People are getting richer and richer ...