Chanel's Attitude and her 50's Silhouettes
Chanel was already criticising the boned bodices promoted by Dior as backward looking. The emerging new society was only too willing to agree with her. However as mentioned above, Dior's looser freer styles were partially the starting point for Quant's early designs.Chanel was astute enough, to know that couture had a limited future. Its influence was morphing into one that would culminate in branding and ready to wear designer labels in the next decades. Couture Design House survival now depended not on the depleted 3000 private rich customers, but on selling designs to the mass market.
A Chanel Suit Design
In Britain, Haute Couture models began to be licensed to companies like Wallis and soon provided a useful source of income. Macy's of New York paid huge sums of money for an individual Toile, a linen or calico copy of the designer model garment. 
Every piece of information they needed to make the garment as a near copy would be provided. Details of trimmings, buttons, fasteners etc were all part of the price paid. With thousands of copies constructed, Macy's could afford to sell a dress worth $1000 for $100. If they sold a superior more exact version as a limited copy, they could sell it as a designer original and reap the reward of a higher designer price.
http://www.fashion-era.com/1950s/1950s_8_society_never_had_it_so_good.htm
