Peggy Sagers: What is the difference between couture and haute couture?

Couture is any fashion piece that's handmade and one of a kind.

However, haute couture is high fashion clothing or also known as high dressing, made by fashion houses regulated by the French Government since 1858.

Haute couture can only be done in France, but the methods can be taught and used all over the world.

Today on "Fit 2 Stitch," we learn some couture concepts from Ella Pritsker.

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♪♪♪ Peggy: Patience is the word we're gonna use today, a little bit more redundantly.

I'm gonna bring Ella on today and you're gonna understand why I'm using the word "patience" because, in my opinion, Ella, this takes a lot of patience.

Ella Pritsker: It does.

It is patience, it is creativity, and technique.

Peggy: And those other two words are important as well.

Ella: It is something that anyone can do as long as they apply their creativity and learn the technique.

Peggy: It's amazing.

I mean, some of these-- I can't wait to get started.

Let's get started.

There's a wedding dress back here.

Can we start with that?

Ella: Yes.

Peggy: And tell me about the-- what's the back story?

Ella: As a child, I really wanted to design a Cinderella wedding gown.

It is something that have been on my mind for a long time and, one day, recently, someone called and said, "I'm designing this event and I'm calling it 'Cinderella Fashion-- Cinderella Fairy Tale Wedding,'" and I said, "I'm in.

You had me at Cinderella."

And so we, in our studio, designed this wedding gown and we worked on it, literally, for several years, although the event was taking place in just a few days after our conversation, and we have created this dress and then for the next 10 years we added-- we kept adding the flowers and we kept adding the beading and we kept adding details that really make this dress what it is today.

So the dress is about 10, 12 years old, and it had undergone a journey in our studio because every time I'm teaching somebody new how to do this, they add their own touch.

So it really is a compilation of so many different people.

Peggy: So this is sort of like life.

So I love that the dress has a story, but I'm just certain that you do as well.

Can you share--do you mind sharing a little bit of your story with us?

Ella: Sure, would love to.

I grew up in rural Russia where there were no fashion magazines and, as a child, I loved reading.

And I remember reading Tolstoy and Turgenev and all of their intricate descriptions of fashions, and I was so inspired and I loved imagining all of the dresses in my head and thinking about all of the embroideries that were described and how silk fluttered as she was running somewhere, or how her chest was looking so plump in the corset.

The descriptions were so vivid and my imagination was just running wild with all of the beautiful prints and silks and chiffons and laces, and I dreamed that one day I'll be able to make these dresses.

Peggy: That's fascinating, even as a child.

Did you sew?

Did you mother sew?

Ella: My--in my family, all of the women sewed, knitted, and crocheted and macraméd and did all sorts of things with leather and felt.

Felting was very big in Russia.

And so, all of our clothes were handmade and-- Peggy: That's-- there's a long way from Russia to here.

Ella: As I traveled through Europe and lived in Italy for a period of time, I met several dressmakers that each taught me some art form of-- that was related and some technique that was related to couture.

And I remember, as I was watching and seeing all of these beautiful things, I fell in love with the art of couture and I realized that I wanted to dedicate my life to this creative work, to becoming a master at this creative work, to learning all the techniques, to be able to draw with this medium, which is what couture art is.

Peggy: Mm-hm, it is.

It's just so impressive and, yet, that word "patience" to me just keeps coming back because I just think it takes a tremendous amount of patience, but I think that's not it only.

Let's look at some of these because I think the other, what you're saying, technique is very important as well, clearly.

Ella: Thank you.

Technique is very important.

It is like a little tool in your toolbox.

Once you learn the technique, you can put it in your toolbox and pull it out any time that you need to accomplish something with that technique, designing a particular dress, coat, jacket, or whatever the case may be.

And in this case of this particular coat, several techniques were used and one of them is hand beading.

So, all of this, otherwise beautiful but plain silk organza was completely beaded by hand with Swarovski crystals, and the reason I've chosen Swarovski crystals here is because it's the only thing that really can pick up on and complement the depth of blackness that only velvet has.

There's really nothing quite like velvet, as black and as deep.

Peggy: Because it's just so dense.

Ella: Because it's-- the color's so dense, the texture of the fabric is so dense, and it's really just this beautiful regal black that doesn't really exist in anything else.

Peggy: Were you gonna say something else about that?

Ella: Oh, I just wanted to touch on the way the collar is made.

The technique that we used in this collar is it's hand set into the jacket and it is also underlined with a really wonderful hair canvas and it's something that is not used very often these days because it's all done by hand and it's very difficult to work with.

But the entire collar is, and the body of the jacket, is underlined with hair canvas and the reason I use hair canvas a lot in my couture work is because it keeps shape.

It allows the garment to stay in shape, no matter what happens.

So, even while you travel, even while it's hanging in your wardrobe and it's really taking the weight of the rest of the garment, it will continue to stay in shape.

Peggy: And that hair canvas was typically used in the shield of suits, but you're using it just in the upper portion.

Ella: I use it in the upper portion here, in the shoulders, as well as the collar itself, and you can see how thick the collar is.

But the reason it keeps shape is because there's hair canvas in that.

Juxtaposition with this collar that doesn't keep its shape very well, although it will stay in good shape if you keep it pressed.

So, and this is a beautiful piece and it's very beautifully embroidered.

The reason that I absolutely love this is because it is so monochromatic.

You can not really tell the embellishment of this coat until you come near it and you come close and then you see all the embroidery and all the hand beading, and this sparkle of Swarovski crystal and the back of it has a slightly different ornamentation, so.

Peggy: It's so natural, such a natural transition from one to another.

Ella: Yes, and also this, as all of our clothes are beautifully lined with silk that feels just like butter against your skin.

Peggy: It's pretty too.

So you do couture work and let's go look at that.

So you do couture work for customers.

So talk to me about charging, not necessarily dollars.

But how do you decide how much or where do you start or--?

Ella: I think that for everybody it's a very individual thing and also it's very individual for each market.

And I think it's almost like when you decide what-- how you dress for the job you want, so you charge for the type of customer you work-- you want to work with.

Peggy: Oh, that's a really good idea.

Ella: I think that if you're not-- if somebody is telling you that you charge too much, well, you've-- maybe you're working with the wrong person and you need to find a different customer that you want to work with.

Peggy: I think that's so key, 'cause so many of us would say--we'd say, "Oh, well, what should I charge?"

You know, we start to go down immediately whereas if you hold fixed your-- Ella: Right, it takes confidence in your own ability to create, in your own ability to produce the type of work that you really want to produce, and the customer will come.

As they say, if you build it, they will come.

And when you produce beautiful work, people will find you.

We're very fortunate to have women call us from all over the country when they're designing something very special for their very special occasion.

Sometimes, it's a wedding, sometimes it's a red carpet affair.

And that's when we really go to work on creating something very special, like, for instance, this ensemble.

This jacket belongs to a lady.

We started with very luxurious cashmere, Italian cashmere, and I envisioned that I wanted to have almost like a coral reef effect on the jacket because turquoise looks so dramatically beautiful against this mahogany brown.

And so, we first created the style, and then we embroidered all of the coral on the jacket and then we started here in beading and this took many hours.

Many, many hours.

Peggy: So when you just-- let's go back to fabrics for a minute.

How do you know-- talk to me about fabrics and the quality of fabrics.

This is a cashmere so.

Ella: This is a Italian cashmere, and I absolutely love the feel of cashmere.

Peggy: I was gonna say, I'm gonna run my hands all over it, but I know I'm not supposed to.

It is beautiful.

Ella: It's so luscious and it's the beautiful lining also, silk charmeuse that we use for lining.

We only use silk charmeuse.

And then this also very beautiful Italian silk chiffon.

The way that I look for fabrics is not necessarily even I set out to find this and this, for instance, I'm working on a garment.

I just scan in my mind everything that I've seen up until today, and I also look online and I also have my very trusted retailers that I work with, and I find something that-- or maybe I'm scrolling, scrolling, and then I see something that caught my eye and I go back to it, and then inevitably, it matches something I already have or it-- I find, like, a focal point and then I find the complementing piece.

Peggy: So in this particular case, would it be fair to say we started with this skirting?

Ella: We started with the skirt.

Peggy: You start with the print.

We match it to a solid, great quality fabric.

Ella: Yes.

Peggy: And then the appliqué comes inspired-- gets inspired by what you were saying like the turquoise and then, of course, the colors in the skirt.

Ella: Yes, except that this is not an appliqué.

Peggy: No, no, I get that.

Ella: This is embroidery, one bead at a time.

Peggy: I completely can see that, because of just the pattern of the beauty.

Now, when you go to price this out, how do you-- do you speculate about how many hours this will take, 'cause somebody at the end is gonna have to pay for it.

Ella: Yes, I do estimate and I would say that, in working very closely with the client, you want to inform the client what that piece might cost and then halfway through or as you add more detail, you always want to inform your client that it might cost this much extra or this might-- Peggy: It's like building a house.

Ella: Exactly.

Peggy: Right now, we ran into a lumber price increase so we gotta go back and-- okay, gotcha.

I like that, okay.

I like that.

This is beautiful.

Come down here, I wanna look at this one, which is--and we'll come back to these.

But this one right here is just a perfect example of lace, but yet it's so simple.

It's the creativity.

It's that other word.

Creativity, patience, and skills.

Those three.

Ella: Yes, and when I was commissioned for this wedding gown, I asked the bride, "Do you know what you want?"

And she said Yes, and she pulled out this 3-inch thick folder.

Peggy: Oh no.

Ella: And I said, "Okay, what are the colors of your wedding gown?"

And she said, "I want it to be black and white, and the wedding is--it's a New Year's Eve wedding and immediately I had this idea of a high-low and the teacup, a Russian teacup, embroidery inside the gown.

So we had this gorgeous lace that we took, bit by bit, took it apart, and embroidered all the little pieces in a very symmetrical fashion, all inside the skirt.

That's how the gown started.

So, once the inside of the gown was done, then we started adding a little bit of embroidery here.

And we had this beautiful lace, three-dimensional flowers we've created and embroidered and all of this is sheer mesh.

She was very happy and we were overjoyed.

Peggy: Let's talk boucle.

Ella: Okay.

Peggy: Love boucle.

Love it.

I've always loved it.

Define it for me, just as a-- I know it's a French word.

Ella: So, boucle is a French word, although it's so lightweight.

Although boucle is a textile that can be loopy or textured.

So boucle is very distinct and you will always be able to recognize it, just like this one is also very textured, very loosely woven, most of the time.

So in case of this beautiful outfit, it is very couture, because it has the elements of couture.

The beautiful fabric and has all of these gorgeous colors, very vibrant, hot pink, red, orange.

It has this gorgeous embroidery, beading, that is mimicked-- that is mimicking this beautiful pattern.

And then it's also lined with beautiful silk jacquard, and the bottom of this skirt has a beautiful trim that-- Peggy: I love the tie-in of this.

Ella: We create it specifically for this jacket.

Peggy: You create it?

Ella: Yes, it was layers of silk organza, trim, and mesh that created this beautiful treatment that was designed specifically for this jacket.

Peggy: Talk to me about where the ideas come from.

Ella: So, I believe that creativity is something that is within, and the more you work, the more creative you are.

Your inspiration never comes while you're sitting on a beach or resting up somewhere.

Inspiration always arrives on time while you're working.

So you really have to get busy working so that inspiration can find you while you're busy.

Peggy: That's a great quote.

Ella: Thank you.

Peggy: And again, a boucle, a beautiful simple boucle, but just with the beading on top.

Ella: I love boucle.

It is such a beautiful fabric.

It's so elegant and-- Peggy: I do too.

I love the texture.

Ella: It's very-- yes, it's luscious, it's so delicious, it's so nice to wear.

It's so lightweight and it's just elegance.

And in this case, for this dress, we had again hand beaded all of this trim here.

This isn't trim that we purchased and applied.

Peggy: It's not trim-on-a-string?

Ella: Right.

This is a trim that we created, one bead at a time on this dress.

Peggy: My goodness.

Which brings us back to this, because I would love to know this--did you get the buttons first on this?

Ella: So, I saw the buttons.

Peggy: I love this.

Ella: These are vintage.

They're absolutely gorgeous.

They look like candy.

And then I found this beautiful boucle that had this amazing selvage and I decided-- Peggy: Oh, this is a selvage?

Ella: This is a selvage.

I decided I'll use the selvage as a trim on this skirt, which was a full set with a blouse.

But this represents another example of couture, where your elements create themself.

They kind of become the garment in your mind as you collect them.

And a lot of times you would find something and then you already have the element that's already in somewhere in your cupboard or your drawer and then you say, "Oh my God, this is gonna be so perfect."

Peggy: It is.

Ella: And it comes together beautifully.

Peggy: And it's funny how you remember that stuff you forgot.

Ella: Yes, and while-- when you buy things because you love them, they will become part of your memory and catalogued somewhere in your-- Peggy: That's a good point.

Let's talk about this jacket because this is a little line of sportswear you're doing.

Ella: Yes, and-- Peggy: And this is amazing to me.

Ella: This is boucle.

I want to wear it not only for special occasion; I wanna wear it every day.

And so, I've created this beautiful boucle jacket that is so comfortable.

Peggy: Which is woven.

Ella: It's woven, but it is-- the way it is made, it is very comfortable.

I can--it can stretch with me, it can stretch with my movements.

Peggy: Because of all these little inserts?

This is genius.

Ella: Because of mesh that is-- the way it's constructed with mesh.

Peggy: So you're taking a woven, you're inserting just enough knit in there to make the whole thing feel like a knit jacket.

Ella: Yes.

Peggy: Enough in the sleeves.

Look at that.

I mean, I'm just--I mean, I know I say, "Look at that."

You clearly know this.

But it's beautiful.

Ella: It really makes it very comfortable in warm weather.

It breathes, it moves, and I--and it's very chic.

Peggy: So this came from your love of boucle and your love of golf.

Ella: It came from all of that and I just really love to play golf.

I love being in the golf course, and I want to be able to go to dinner afterwards, but I really don't wanna look like a little boy.

I just wanna look like a lady while I'm playing golf.

Peggy: Which is what a lot of the golf clubs look like.

Ella: Right.

Therefore, I had this collection.

Peggy: And you've even got the skirt to match.

So talk to me about this outfit because I have a problem that I love this, and yet I don't necessarily pick it out.

Ella: Right.

Peggy: So tell me--what's diagnose what's wrong with me.

Ella: Regardless of the fact that this is your style or not, because the jacket is very conservative, it's a pencil skirt, and it's a blouse that ties all the way up to your chin and it has a beautiful bow, what is important here and why I chose this as a subject to talk about, is the combination of all the textures.

This is such a beautiful example of couture where the texture and the color of all the elements here, they just speak to each other.

They were purchased at a completely different time and place, and then at some point I found this beautiful embroidery that we had also took-- we took it apart and we embroidered it onto the jacket, piece by piece.

There's a little bit of one of it on the back.

We made the flowers three-dimensional.

They weren't.

We made all the leaves and added all of the gold thread in here just so that it can also talk to this beautiful gold sheen that's in the blouse.

The blouse is very sheer, the jacket is very conservative and very thick.

And then there is this very pretty linen for a skirt.

Peggy: It's just so beautiful and when those different prints start puling together like this, I know it's really, really good and I have a hard time doing it.

But I think just collecting fabrics and comparing them is a good way to start.

Ella: Well, listen what couture is.

It is somewhere at the intersection of artistry and creativity and workmanship.

This is--this is what couture is.

Peggy: I love it.

And like I say, I recognize it.

I've just gotta practice more.

Ella: All you have to do is go to the store and see what you find.

Peggy: There you go.

Start buying what you love.

I like when you said that.

Start buying what you love.

Ella: Oh, you have to.

You have to really enjoy, you have to really feel it.

It has to really catch you.

It has to really engage you.

Peggy: I'm telling you, when I talk to you, I hear it, I feel it, like, I just wanna get better.

Thank you so much for being here.

Ella: It has to wake something up in you.

Peggy: Thank you so much for just explaining the process because I think we really-- I get it.

I get a better-- on a different level, I understand it more so.

Ella: Thank you so much for having me.

Peggy: Thank you, Ella.

Appreciate it.

There are some details in designer garments that are simple to duplicate and fun to add on our clothing.

How many times have you looked at something and said, "I can do that"?

We will do just that, next time on "Fit 2 Stitch."

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ announcer: "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Kai Scissors.

♪♪♪ announcer: Reliable Corporation.

♪♪♪ announcer: Plano Sewing Center.

♪♪♪ announcer: Elliott Berman Textiles.

♪♪♪ announcer: Bennos Buttons.

♪♪♪ announcer: And Clutch Nails.

♪♪♪ announcer: To order a four-DVD set of "Fit 2 Stitch," series 12, please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.

♪♪♪