Charles Frederick Worth was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. He started to work at the age of twelve, as a shop clerk in a draper’s shop in London, and a year later began a seven year apprenticeship at Swan & Edgar’s selling shawls and dress materials. After moving to the silk mercer’s Lewis & Allenby for a brief period, Worth left for Paris in 1845. His first job in the French capital was at Maison Gagelin, “magasin de nouveautes” in the Rue Richelieu as a salesman. After five years he succeeded in opening a dressmaking department t store.
The year 1853 was the year of the wedding of Napoleon II and Eugenia de Montijo, the new empress, The Maison Gagelin was the official supplier of the empresses’ trousseau, and this placed it in the society pages, while at the same time it took part in the Universal Expositions of London in 1851 and Paris in 1885. It was here that Worth had an opportunity to exhibit an original creation of his own: a mantle for use in court, inspired by models from classical antiquity.
In 1858, Worth decides to leave Gagelin and to go into business on his own, he goes into partnership with a Swedish businessman, Otto Bobergh, and opens his own house at number 7 in the Rue de la Paix, Paris. The beginning was difficult; he had a staff of twenty seamstresses and the assistance of his wife Marie Vernet. They were soon recognized and rewarded with success through an outfit that Worth had created for Princess Pauline de Metternich, the wife of the Prussian ambassador to the French court.
Worth was introduced to the Empress Eugenie, by the Princess Pauline de Metternich, and in 1859 he became the official court dressmaker, specializing in evening gowns and ball gowns in damasked tulle and lace. He was soon a favorite of the Empress Eugenie, and her influence and patronage were instrumental in his success. He would interpret in his own personal manner the Spanish tastes of Eugenia de Montijo through bolero jackets, laces and mantillas in bright confident colors.
In the 1860s he introduced the tunic dress, a knee-length gown worn with a long skirt. In 1864, he abolished the crinoline and pulled skirts up and back into a train. In its place he proposed the demi-crinoline and then the tournure (or pouf), definitively accepted in 1867-1868; which relegated draperies and padding to the rear of the outfit, thus resulting in a flattening of the front of the skirt. During this time he also created new types of clothing as the princesse, created originally for Empress Eugenie and for Alexandra of Wales. This style presented itself as a loose and comfortable dress, stitched without cuts in the waist, in contrast with the usual women’s clothing of the time, composed of a separate skirt and corset; and so introduced the concept of new developments into wardrobes that had become almost unchanged over time.
In 1870, when the Second Empire collapsed, Worth closed his business, only to reopen the following year. Although there was less demand for court trains and crinolines, Worth continued as the top Parisian couturier, dressing actresses Sara Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse and patronized by European royalty and international society. He dissolved his partnership with Bobergh, in 1871.
Worth handled rich materials in a sensitive manner, using simple designs and creating clothing on flattering lines. Much of his work is associated with the movement to redefine the female form and fashionable shape by removing excessive ruffles and frills, altering bonnet shapes by pushing them back off the forehead, and reshaping the crinoline and the bustle. Worth’s copious use of sumptuous fabrics and exclusive workmanship contributed, after 1871, to the revival of the silkworks of Lyons, pushing textile manufacturers to develop increasingly varied designs and typologies. For some of his clients he designed a complete collection of clothes for every occasion. Worth’s customers enjoyed being were happy to trust him to enhance their finer points by his skilful cutting of cloth. Worth was most famous for his evening gowns, often of white tulle.
Worth was a gifted designer who, in retrospect, seems to have had a clear understanding of the times in which he lived. He was able to dress both society and the demimonde with equal good, though obviously affluent, taste. In 1874, his two sons Gaston and Jean-Philippe joined the family company. Jean-Philippe assisted his father in the creative sector, and Gaston helped in the administration of the company, thus allowing the consolidation and expansion of the dressmaking business. At the beginning of the Republic, the fashion house began to orient its production toward the new manufacturing middle class, toward the world of politics and entertainment, and opening up to the social trends of the Belle Epoque. Master of taste and elegance in the nineteenth century, Worth was the first to introduce innovative commercial and sartorial concepts: he deserves credit for dividing fashion into seasons and for deciding to sell paper patterns of his creations to the international market, preferring to sell his own ideas himself, rather than falling victim to inevitable imitations.
Charles Frederick Worth died in Paris in 1895, leaving his empire to his sons and heirs. After an initial series of successes, his sons were unable to continue to carry on the tradition in the face of an increasingly aggressive competition. The House of Worth was taken over by the house of Paquin in 1950.
