cou·ture 
(k-tr, -tür)
(k-tr, -tür)n.
1. The business of designing, making, and selling highly fashionable, usually custom-made clothing.
2. Dressmakers and fashion designers considered as a group.
3. The high-fashion clothing created by designers.
[French, sewing, from Old French cousture, from Vulgar Latin *cōnsūtūra, from Latin cōnsuere, cōnsūt-, to sew together : com-, com- + suere, to sew; see syū- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]