Charles Frederick Worth

 

Four generations of Worths are linked to what is possibly the most enduring name in fashion history. Indeed, if it hadn't been for the house's contributions to fashion, the French Second Empire would not be remembered as an endless parade of luxurious confections in women's dress, and the Gilded Age would not have appeared as golden.

Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895) founded a fashion house that is widely regarded as having established the pinnacle of fashion creativity: haute couture. The French phrase originally meant the highest level of sewing. Later, it was used to describe the segment of fashion—particularly French fashion—that exemplified the pinnacle of dressmaking techniques while also producing new styles. Unfortunately, due to overuse, the term haute couture has lost its original meaning.

Early Career

Charles Frederick Worth was unusually astute in recognizing that his talents were better suited to artistic creativity rather than business management. Worth traveled to Paris after working in London dry-goods stores. In 1846, he was hired by the well-known dry-goods and dressmaking firm Gagelin et Opigez. This position provided Worth with the experience he needed to launch his own company. At Gagelin, he was exposed to the best fabrics and trims and given the opportunity to hone his design skills. He also learned the value of live models and met his future business partner, Otto Bobergh, a Swede (1821-1881). The House of Worth was founded in late 1856 or early 1857 as Worth and Bobergh at 7, rue de la Paix, with Worth as artistic director and Bobergh as financial director. When Bobergh decided to retire due to major political unrest in France, the partnership dissolved in 1870-1871.

Marie Vernet (1825-1898), Worth's wife, was a former Gagelin model. By wearing Worth's creations, Mme. Worth easily drew the attention of the ladies of the French court, and then the Empress Eugénie herself. The empress thrived on lavish gatherings and equally lavish dress when it came to promoting French industries, including the once-dying silk industry of Lyon. In 1860, the empress appointed Worth as court couturier. Worth introduced a new method of creating an outfit to ensure his house could keep up with the growing demand for his dresses. Instead of designing an entire gown, he pioneered the idea of mixing and matching skirts and bodices, ensuring that ladies did not appear at a function in identical attire. Worth also created interchangeable pattern pieces for these garments, ensuring the uniqueness of a finished ensemble.

Clients could preview evening attire in rooms lit by natural light, candlelight, gas lamps, and, later, electric bulbs at the House. While the House maintained the standard fitting and modeling rooms, it also provided color-coded fabric selection rooms. Understanding the play of colors and textures was one of the House's enduring achievements, and it was successfully passed down from generation to generation. Charles Worth's color sense was especially notable; he preferred nuanced hues to bold primary colors.

Merchandising Innovations

Throughout its history, the House of Worth catered to the wealthy and titled, but it also served those with less means. Garments could be ordered from afar with no need for personal fittings. The client provided a comfortably fitting garment from which measurements were taken. Worth's models could also be made using commercial paper patterns. The House first advertised its creations in obscure but aesthetically pleasing nineteenth-century publications before breaking into the mainstream at the end of the century with full-page images in Harper's Bazaar, The Queen, and their French counterpart La mode illustrée. In the twentieth century, the House's models were advertised in high-end fashion publications such as the Gazette du bon ton and, more recently, Vogue. The former continued the centuries-old tradition of hand-drawn and hand-colored illustrations, while the latter featured contemporary photographs.

Late-nineteenth-century publicity images of Charles Frederick Worth show him dressed as an artist, with a bow around his neck or a beret. Many of his son Jean-photographs Philippe's show someone intent on conveying an impression of creativity. The Worths, like many classically trained painters and sculptors of the time, drew inspiration from historical prototypes. References to garments in historical paintings gleaned from museum visits, published descriptions of works of art, and personal familiarity with historic costume were all used in the House's designs. Many Worth garments from the reigns of Charles and Jean-Philippe referenced seventeenth- and eighteenth-century styles, but due to construction detail and fabric selection, none of them will ever be confused with their prototypes. Beyond the waistband label, which they first introduced in the mid-1860s, the Worths used several distinguishing features in their garments. Despite being widely credited with the idea, Worth was not the first dressmaker to use a label. The earliest Worth examples were stamped in gold, but by the late 1870s, they had evolved into a woven signature. This signature label would be valid for the entire term of the House. Attempts to defraud the public with false labels were made, particularly in the early twentieth century in the United States.

Dress Construction and Materials

Despite popular belief, the vast majority of the House's garments were trimmed with machine-made rather than handmade lace. Many Worth clients had lace collections that they had acquired as investments. When such lace was used on a garment, it was almost always removed and returned to the client. If gemstones were used in the design of a garment, the same procedure was followed. The use of selvage as a decorative and functional finishing touch was another feature used by the House.

The type of fabrics used by the House was perhaps its most significant contribution. Following the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, Worth became an even more important client for Lyon's textile and trim manufacturers. There is evidence that Worth used pre-existing yard goods as well as collaborated with manufacturers to develop patterns for new materials.

Charles Worth began his career as a designer by following the growth of women's skirts in the 1850s, when they were supported by layer upon layer of petticoats. Worth draped yards of fabric over the skirts' increasing width in the late 1850s, as the newly invented crinoline cage, or hoop, allowed for expansion without adding bulk. Unfortunately, many Worth dresses from this era were frothy, cloudlike confections in silk tulle that have since melted into oblivion. However, portraits by artists such as Franz Xaver Winterhalter provide an impression of their impact.

In the early 1860s, Worth introduced hooped dresses with flattering fronts. However, it is clear that he was careful not to reduce the amount of material required; he simply pushed the fabric to the back of the dress. Worth is also credited with inventing the princess-cut dress during this decade. These more restrained styles posed a financial challenge. Having been trained in dry-goods stores, Worth recognized the danger of weakening trades that helped his own business succeed. As a result, he had to either incorporate large amounts of material into his garments or support the production of more expensive luxury goods. To maintain a high level of consumption, the House moved material from draped overskirts to trains, bustled backs, and a variety of combinations of these styles throughout much of the 1870s and 1880s. Before 1870, the Empress Eugénie's patronage of the French textile industries was critical, and Worth's business was critical for the looms of Lyon and Paris that created spectacular luxury materials afterward.

Many of the House's early garments were made of unpatterned silks-tulles, taffetas, reps, and satins-or nominally patterned fabrics with stripes and small floral sprays—typical dress goods. Beginning in the 1870s, almost as if to fill the void left by the departed French court, the house began to use more expensive textiles typically associated with household furnishing in its garments. Worth dared to use grand-scale floral motifs designed for wall coverings in garments with skirts that were frequently too short to include a full repeat of the pattern. Such luxury fabrics, displaying astonishing material richness and the highest level of technical skill, were a feature of the House's models well into the twentieth century. With the exception of machine-made laces, Worth's trims and embroideries matched the background fabric. The majority of Worth's customers agreed that the pricey toilettes were worthwhile.

Charles Worth and his family did more than just buy materials; they are also known to have collaborated closely with textile manufacturers. The Worths either commissioned specific designs or ordered preexisting patterns from companies like A. Gourd et Cie, J. Bachelard et Cie, and Tassinari et Chatel. Frequently, the fabrics they chose had previously been displayed at major international exhibitions. Many of the fabrics found in late-nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century Worth garments feature subjects popular with the House: feathers, grain stalks, stars, butterflies, carnations, iris, tulips, chestnut and oak leaves, scallops and scales, and rose bowers.

The First Couturier

Worth was not the first man to be recognized as a fashion designer. The Empress Josephine held LeRoy in high regard as a milliner and dressmaker. However, Worth was the first to be referred to as a couturier. Nonetheless, Worth had the good fortune to be a man entering a field dominated by women, a position that made him a curiosity in the 1850s. The magic of the "man milliner" called Worth drew the fashion-conscious to the rue de la Paix during the heady days of the Second Empire. Worth's clients were vilified as being dictatorial monarch's slaves. It was also not lost on the House that the theater was an active agent in the spread of fashion. Even when dressing actresses of Sarah Bernhardt's stature, Worth insisted on full payment for garments. Lillie Langtry, the British actress, was a regular client, as were other grandes horizontales (courtesans), actresses, and opera stars such as Cora Pearl, Eleanora Duse, and Nellie Melba. The House dressed Bostonians such as Lillie Moulton, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Mrs. J. P. Morgan, as well as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco counterparts of the Vanderbilt, Astor, Hewitt, Palmer, McCormick, and Stanford families. Members of the royal families of Russia, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, as well as noblewomen from numerous German principalities, were dressed by the House.

The establishment of the House of Paquin in 1891 was the first challenge to the house's dominance. Worth began to lose clients to this concern in the 1890s. An examination of the order numbers found in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century garments reveals not only the year of manufacture, but also that orders were decreasing during this time period. However, for nearly fifty years, a Worth garment was the most coveted of all apparel, especially among American women. Perhaps this popularity arose as a result of women from the United States feeling at ease discussing their dressmaking requirements with a man who spoke English. In return, Charles Worth appreciated his American clients for their trust in him, figures that highlighted his creations, and, perhaps most importantly, francs to pay his bills.

Worth's Successors

On his death, Charles Frederick Worth was officially succeeded by his sons Jean-Philippe and Gaston, who had established significant roles within the House in the 1870s. Jean-Philippe (1856-1926) assisted his father as a designer, and Gaston (1853-1924) served as business manager. Throughout the years and across four generations, the Worths never lost sight of the importance of sound financial and artistic management.

It is impossible to separate Charles and Jean-designs Philippe's when they worked together as designers within the House. Even though later house labels bear the elder Worth's signature, others may have been responsible for the garment's inspiration.

Because the Worths had dressed so many female members of Europe's royal families, World War I and the subsequent devaluation of European currencies were especially devastating to them. Furthermore, many of the House's older clients died during this time, as fashion was transitioning from Edwardian to jazz age styles. When Jean-Philippe and Gaston retired in the early 1920s, they were succeeded by Gaston's sons, Jean-Charles Worth as designer and his brother Jacques as financial director. Jean-Charles effortlessly transitioned the House's designs from the more staid yet elaborate prewar models to the simpler and more practical styles of the 1920s. However, as time passes, fewer and fewer of the characteristics that had previously been exclusively associated with the House's production can be discerned in the garments that survive from this period.

Worth's grandsons were succeeded in the 1930s by his great-grandsons Maurice and Roger, the latter taking on the role of couturier. They attempted to revitalize the House by relocating the Paris store to 120, rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré in 1936. However, at the end of WWII, both the London and Paris branches of the house merged with Worth's old rival Paquin. The London branches, which opened in 1911, outlasted the Paris branch by eight years. Worth's heirs also closed down the House's branches in Cannes and Biarritz.

The Worth name was still used in perfume in the early 2000s, despite the fact that the company had long been out of direct family control.