haute couture

French term refering to the extravagant and often absurd and impractically unrealistic fashion pieces that designers create to demonstrate their unique style and inventiveness. Proper pronunciation can be tricky; haute is somewhere between ought and oat, pronounced quickly so that the o is highly unrounded ("oh", if held long enough, ends up sounding like a /oo/). couture is pronounced ko'tur with a highly unrounded 'o', a 'u' that sounds almost like a german umlaut, and an 'r' made in a way similar to gargling. Alternatively, you could pronounce it in a very American fashion as 'ought kuh-ter'. See also: couture