Charles Frederick Worth

From Lincolnshire to Paris

Charles Frederick Worth was born in 1825 in Bourne, a market town in Lincolnshire. As a teenager he worked for London drapers, including Swan and Edgar on Piccadilly, where he learned about fabrics and customers.

In 1846 he moved to Paris and joined Gagelin, a respected firm selling silks and shawls. He began making dresses to show off the fabrics, and Gagelin allowed him to open a dress department, where his designs won prizes.

Moving to Paris without speaking much French was a bold step for a young man from a small English town. His years in London drapers' shops had taught him about silk, wool and lace, and about pleasing demanding customers, skills that proved valuable when he began to design.

A house of his own

In 1858 Worth opened his own house in Paris on rue de la Paix. Before him, dressmakers mostly followed their clients' instructions. Worth reversed that: he designed collections himself and clients chose from his ideas, the model for every fashion designer since.

His salon became a meeting place for wealthy and fashionable women from across Europe and America, who visited for consultations and fittings.

Firsts that stuck

Worth was the first to show his designs on live models instead of dolls, so clients could see how a dress moved. He also sewed branded labels into his garments, turning a designer's name into a mark of quality, much as an artist signs a painting.

He used rich fabrics from French mills and adapted the huge skirts of the 1860s into more practical shapes. Museums around the world now hold Worth gowns, prized for their materials and workmanship.

Worth's business also changed how fashion was sold. He showed new designs each season, and clients could choose a model and have it made in their own size and preferred fabric. Agents and department stores abroad bought Worth models to copy legally, spreading Paris fashion around the world.

The family business

Worth died in Paris in 1895, and his sons Gaston and Jean-Philippe continued the house, with Jean-Philippe as designer. The evening coat pictured above, from about 1900, comes from this period.

Worth and his son Gaston played a key role in organising the Paris couture trade into the Chambre Syndicale, founded in 1868, the body that grew into today's Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. That is why Worth is so often called the father of haute couture.

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