The Principles of Haute Couture

The Principles of Haute Couture is an informative book about the history, qualifications, and techniques used in haute couture, or high dressmaking. This book helps readers visually see an example of each technique and how it could be used in a design using famous examples.

For this publication, I illustrated each page to show the process of creating a dress starting the book with a needle and thread and ending it with how the dress could be worn at an event. I decided to foil everything with either black or gold foil to create an eye-catching design. Each page has a custom element from hand embroidering into the page, to creating intricate cuts to imitate the look of delicate lace. These custom pages are a way to reflect the labor that couturiers put into their couture dresses. To put this book together, I decided to French fold and Japanese bind the pages to give the book a sturdy feel.