Charles Fredrick Worth, was an English-born designer, who is often referred to as ‘The Father of Haute Couture’.
Born In Lincolnshire in 1825, Worth started off working in a very profitable drapery company, in London. He moved to Paris in 1845 and took up work with Maison Gagelin, a well-known parisian drapery, that specialized in fabrics and dress accessories. The Maison Gagelin employed women to work in the house as models for their wares, one of these models caught the eye of Mr. Worth, her name was Marie Vernet and within a few years they would be married.
During their time working together at the Maison Gagelin, Worth began designing dresses for Marie. The dresses she wore received a lot of attention and Worth asked his bosses if he could sell his dresses with in the shop. They were hesitant, so he joined forces with a wealthy swedish gentleman and together they opened Worth and Bobergh in 1858.
The house did extremely well and was soon the go to place for many rich and titled women, as well as several famous actresses. His clothing was so popular, he had the wealthy women from america traveling all the way to Paris to be dressed by him. At one stage he was so busy he had to turn away customers, something that was almost unheard of, in his day.
Due to the Franco Prussian War, the house shut and when it reopened in 1871, Worth did it on his own, renaming the business, House of Worth. He was the first designer to use branded labels in his clothing, as well as the first designer to show his full collections on models, essentially inventing the catwalk show. He was also the first to catalogue his collection and allow his clients to then go through them, picking, color and fabric.
He was best known for his use of lavish fabrics and trimmings and was a huge fan of the newly invented sewing machine. While other designers of the time were shunning modern technology, he embraced it, and only finished the finer details by hand. He was most popular for his crinoline ball gowns and the walking skirt, a skirt cut shorter, that allowed ladies to walk with out their dresses dragging in the mud. (no fear of that happening these days…)
Although his popularity had started to wane by the time of his death in 1895, his sons took over the business and it was still profitable, until the turn of the century which saw designers like Poiret, discard of corsets and crinolines, in favor of loose unstructured styles. They eventually closed the business in 1956.
In 2010, the House of Worth, was taken over by Martin McCarthy, (a fashion entrepreneur, who has worked with houses such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Cerruti and Celine) and Dilesh Mehta, the CEO of Shannel Enterprises, a 250 million dollar perfume and fashion empire. Together they hired designer Giovanni Bedin, who has worked with both Lagerfeld and Thierry Mugler to relaunch the label.
They recently presented their first ready to wear collection as well as couture for S/S 2011. Scarlett Johansson, Kylie Minogue and Charlize Theron are already fans and both shows received favorable criticism. I predict we are going to be seeing a lot more from this label in the next few years and I for one, am very excited.
For images and more vintage designer history please go to my blog http://enchantedvintageclothing.com/
Author: Jessica Inveninato
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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