“Haute Couture” is one of those phrases that is bandied about in popular culture. But its uses are not always faithful to its real meaning. Like “champagne”, “haute couture” is a carefully regulated term. And you can no more apply that term to any old pretty frock, than you can call any glass sparkling plonk, champagne.

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Christian Dior’s latest haute couture collection presented Monday in Paris was inspired by Jean Singer Sargent’s portrait of Madame X, a painting so controversial that the American artist was forced to withdraw it when he first showed it at the Paris Salon of 1884.

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