Couture ltd: French fashion's debut in London's west end.

Between the 1890 s and the 1920s, several leading Parisian couture businesses, spearheaded by the house of Paquin, expanded to London to exploit the idiosyncratic advantages of British commerce and clientele. Most of these houses opened branch stores there and formed limited liability companies according to English law, but each strategized their expansions with a distinct individuality. This article explores Franco–British relations in the arena of high-end dressmaking, as well as the economic structures inherent to the early and rapidly expanding couture businesses, by analyzing a series of unpublished business records held in both British and French archives. These cases shed new light on the balance between commerce and creativity in French fashion and offer firsthand accounts of an internationalized couture market in its formative stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]