The State Funding Programme for Haute Couture in Paris - Defending and Promoting a Tradition (1952-1960)

Equally Gianluigi Di Giangirolamo's essay enquires, via an analysisof the archival sources kept at the French Ministry of Financeand the French Economy's Centre des Archives Économique et Financiers, into action designed to support Parisian haute couture after World War Two. It is specifically the couture-création assistance plan launched by the government from 1952 to 1960 which is examined, a plan co-ordinated by Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne (Chambre Syndicale) during the period which might be considered French fashion's first crisis.
It was a system of public and private help designed and drawn up to safeguard Parisian' couture's creativity and safeguard its constituent and characteristic elements and, in the first place, the specialised workforce. The unique characteristics which enabled original models to be created every season, internationalfashion's source of inspiration.