Dress, the history of fashion, is a production of iHeart Radio.

With over 7 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common.

Every day we all get dressed.

Welcome to Dress, the history of fashion, a podcast where we explore the who-what-when-of-why-we-where.

I am April Callahan, a fashion historian, and usually one-half of the dressed host duo with Cassidy Zachary,

who just had her first baby Leo, congratulations.

So she is momentarily out on maternity leave, which is why in the coming weeks we will be re-earing a few of our favorite past episodes,

which we are calling Dressed Classics.

Today we invite you to the hallowed realm of oak couture via an episode that we recorded in our very first season in 2018.

So, well, some of the temporal markers that we might reference might be a smidge out of date,

the sentiment and our deep respect for one of fashion's greats remains true.

We hope you enjoy.

So Cass, the time has come once again when it's Fashion Week in Paris.

The very first episode of Dress that we did aired during Paris Fashion Week during February of 2018, but this fashion week,

this one is extra special, because it's not just Fashion Week in Paris, it's oak couture week.

Yay!

And this is a period for about four days when the elite of the elite will present their collections for both the envy and the scrutiny of the world.

Yes, and we should make a point to note that Parisian Fashion Weeks and oak couture weeks are two distinct events.

They are purposefully held on different dates in order to emphasize the rarefied nature of the oak couture collections.

So, it's really extra special indeed, April, because a mere 14 officially sanctioned oak couture houses appear on the schedule for this week.

However, they are joined by five foreign member houses and an additional 15 invited guests.

In other words, fashion houses who have received a federation de la oak couture, edela modes, official invitation to join the distinguished ranks of oak couture.

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