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(1825-1895)
Worth was born in the town of Bourne, Lincolnshire on 13 October 1825. He was a son of a local solicitor, William Worth, who appears to run into financial difficulties when Charles was just a boy. Assuming that it was now up to him to put bread on the family table, at the age of 11 Charles headed for London where he became an apprentice and later a bookkeeper at a drapery firm «Swan and Edgar» in Piccadully. It was here that he developed an eye for sumptuous fabrics and showed the prodigious flair for salesmanship that was to serve him so well. To compensate for his lack of education, young Charles read current novels and visited the new National Gallery. He studied attentively the historical styles of costumes in the paintings. Certain aspects of fashion, he noticed, came round in circles and this knowledge later helped him in refreshing his own designs. At the age of 20 he left for Paris, the birth place of fashion trends.

Worth got a job at the drapery house of “Gagelin and Opigez”, a prominent firm that sold the textile goods, shawls and some ready-made garments.

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For 12 years, Worth became “Gagelin’s” leading salesman, and when he was not busy attending to the needs of his clients, he designed dresses for his new French bride, Marie Vernet, who also worked in this store. Soon, costumers began to notice these elegant creations, Worth was given a small department at the back of the store in which he displays his designs. The department prospered from the start because of his intimate knowledge of textiles combined with English tailoring techniques. So this was his first position as a professional dressmaker.

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“Gagelin and Opigez” were unwilling Worth to expand his business, he branched out on his own in 1858 In partnership with Otto Bobergh in Paris at 7 Rue de la Paix

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Although Worth had a number of influential clients, his big break came when he designed a gown for Princess Metternich, wife of the Austrian ambassador to Paris.
Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, spotted the dress at a ball in the Tuileries Palace. That dress had an incredibly complex cut. It was consisted entirely of tulle, flowers, pink hearts, silver sequins and bunches of green grass.

Elisabeth of Austria with Diamond Stars In Her Hair, 1865(fun fact: this gown, designed by Charles Worth, and the diamond stars, were the inspiration for a costume that Emmy Rossum wore in the film version of Phantom of the Opera.) |

Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Elisabeth of Austria, 1865, dress by Worth

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Elisabeth of Austria with Diamond Stars In Her Hair, 1865
(fun fact: this gown, designed by Charles Worth, and the diamond stars, were the inspiration for a costume that Emmy Rossum wore in the film version of Phantom of the Opera.)

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From this moment Worth started dressing the world’s most glamorous women.
In 1864, Worth got the monopoly of supplying all evening and state wear for the empress and became the most expensive dressmaker in Paris.

1855 Portrait of Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting by Franz Xavier Winterhalter.
It is rumored that Eugénie is wearing one of Worth’s designs that was presented to her by a friend.

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He had gift not just for good tailoring and for embellishing feminine looks but also for understanding advanced trends in modern design.
Worth’s dresses enchanted women’s looks thought clever cutting and superb fitting. His designs were very simple and clear, with flattering lines and unfussy embellishments.

Day dresses picture

During the 1860s, a new look overtook female dress. The domes skirts were narrowed at the top to show the shape of the hip and stomach and the bustle became very popular as it swelled out in back. Sleeves narrowed, and shawls were abandoned in favor of fitted outer garment.

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Ball gowns

The skirts of ball gowns swept backward into puffed-out drapery and flowing train. Trimming lost its staid, applied ornament began to sweep over the whole costume. Colors deepened and contrast were sharpened. A little exaggeration of the figure were signs of the new mode.

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Worth also was a marketing genius. Previously, dress designs had been displayed on wooden busts. (Scaled-down versions were sewn minutely on to dolls, which were sent out to potential clients as promotional devices.) Worth was the first couturier to sit his clients down and give them a little show-having first dressed a series of attractive young women, his sosies, or “doubles”, in his creations – that we call today models or mannequin. He was the first who introduced the concept of “defile” and “mannequin”. His firs mannequin was his wife Marie Verner.

Each time he wanted to launch a new fashion, he recruited his wife and the Princess Metternich. They would go to the races or another notable event wearing the new designs. Such was the prestige of the two women, that no other promotion was necessary.

He alredy had many of the ingredients of contemporary fashion marketing; runway shows, celebrity models, elitism and, of course, a charismatic brand psokeman.

He was the first who signed a dress with a lable with his name to his dresses. He borrowed this idea from the painters.

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French for “high sewing” or “high dressmaking” or “high fashion” refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing.

Charles Frederick Worth is widely considered the father of haute couture as it is known today. It was him who started to creat the clothes as a piece of art. His masterpeaces were created totaly by hand.

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Haute couture is fashion that is constructed by hand from start to finish, made from high quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques.
A haute couture garment is often made for a client, tailored specifically for the wearer’s measurements and body stance.[1] Considering the amount of time, money, and skill that is allotted to each completed piece, haute couture garments are also described as having no price tag - in other words, budget is not relevant. Each couture piece is not made to sell. Rather, they were designed and constructed for the runway, much like an art exhibition.

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In 1868 he created “la chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisien” (Trade union of High Fashion). This organization performed 2 main functions such as: * Protected the creation of designers against copying; * offered to the elite and high society unique and one of a kind piece dresses.

All members of “la chamber syndical” are required to found fashion house in Paris, to present collections twice a year, each collection consisted of 35 clothing items demonstrated by mannequins. The fashion house has to recruit no less than 20 employees and 3 permanent mannequins. The main requirement is that no less than 70% of the fashion house creations has to be handmade.

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Worth looked and acted like a proper fashion designer. He wore mustaches, dressed from head to toe in velvet, with a beret on his head, smoking cigar. He would greet clients while reclining on a divan. He had a capricious temper, he could furiously rip half finished garments to pieces because they were not exactly as he wanted them to be. Potential clients could be turned down, existing customers banished.

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Never before had a simple dressmaker consorted with the high and mighty almost as an equal. Before an important ball or masque princesses, duchesses, and countesses came to his fashion house to Rue De La Paix for inspection. They paraded in front of him while he decided on a last minute what to change or replace in their complete image.

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So his talent for design and promotion built his fashion house into a huge business during the last quarter of the 19th century. His sons, Gaston-Lucien and Jean-Philippe, took over their father's business following his death in 1895 and succeeded in maintaining his high standards. The grest fashion dynasty finally came to an end in 1952 when Charles Frederick Worth's great-grandson, Jean-Charles, retired from the family business.