Haute couture
Paris since the Middle Ages was famous for the production and commerce of luxury goods, including jewelry, watches, leather goods, and perfumes. "Haute couture", or high fashion, had been largely dominated by French designers since the 18th century. The number of fashion houses in Paris had risen to seventy-two who exhibited at the 1925 Exposition of Decorative Arts, then, after the Depression, dropped to thirty-nine at the Pavilion of Elegance of the 1937 Paris Exposition. After the war, Christian Dior was the first designer to organize a major fashion show on February 12, 1947. Several designers from before the War, including Coco Chanel (who had gone to Switzerland in 1945, then returned to Paris in 1954), Elsa Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, and Nina Ricci re-opened salons, and were joined by other new designers; besides Dior, they included Jacques Fath, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Balmain, Pierre Cardin, Hubert de Givenchy, and Guy Laroche. The success of French designers, led by Dior, earned a significant amount of hard currency for the cash-strapped French economy.