Editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar UK Justine Picardie explained to CNN Style : "There are some very, very, very rich people who want to buy and wear the most beautiful, handcrafted, individual clothes in the world… We’re seeing these great waves of new wealth, from China, from the Middle East, Russia, and also the emerging markets in Africa and India. What’s interesting is that they are buying these clothes in such quantities that a brand like Valentino, which is owned by the Qataris, has doubled its number of couture ateliers." By evolving with the times and capitalizing on and catering to the new couture customer, Valentino has maximized its output. Though fewer people may be buying couture in 2016, the clientele come from all over the world, with more varied taste and deeper pockets.Over the past 15 years, Lebanese designers, such as Elie Saab and Zuhair Murad, and Algerian designer Yacine Aouadi, have also been invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to participate in Couture Fashion Week, which has introduced a new Arab customer base. Though the craft itself may be centuries old, the majority of the money is now new.As shoppers continue to spend more on fast fashion, as data from BMI Research shows , and the constant demand for disposable clothing persists, perhaps this is why the appeal of couture and the appreciation for the painstaking craft has not lessened, even if it is a significantly smaller group of new money buying it in 2016. Couture is aspirational, it is the pinnacle of fashion and still the way of selling a dream. Its effects trickle down and influence all other levels of fashion design. Consumers might be so captivated or transported by the image of a couture gown that they buy a fraction of that fantasy at an entry level price, with a perfume or lipstick. Though we may not all have the bottomless purse of a Nigerian princess or an oligarch's daughter, couture is fashion's most vivid fantasy, and we all love to dream.