Guides on Jolies Pièces

Designer ready-to-wear: definition, history and how to judge it

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Designer ready-to-wear means clothes designed by an identified designer, cut in standard sizes and produced in short runs. It sits between haute couture, which is made to measure and legally protected, and mass fashion, produced in very large quantities without a signature. What defines it is less a price point than a signature and manufacturing you can trace.

What is ready-to-wear?

Ready-to-wear covers every garment sold finished, in standard sizes and produced in series. You buy it in a store and wear it the same day, with no fittings or alterations in a workroom.

Gold plated, vermeil or solid gold: what is the difference?

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Gold plated, vermeil and solid gold are not three grades of the same finish. They are three different objects, and French law defines each one precisely. Gold plated means a base metal under at least 3 microns of gold, vermeil means solid silver under at least 5 microns of 18 karat gold, and solid gold means a gold alloy all the way through.

The three terms are used loosely on product pages. Here is what they actually mean, and how to check them on the piece itself.

What is a concept store? Definition, origins and examples

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A concept store is a shop that brings together a curated selection of designers and several worlds, fashion, jewelry, objects, sometimes a café or a gallery, under one point of view. You will not find a brand’s entire range or a whole department, but pieces that a person or a small team has chosen one by one. The format was born in Milan in 1990 and became a Paris institution with Colette from 1997.