Worth of Paris

In 1894, Mrs Wombwell and her daughter Almina, the future Countess of Carnarvon, were to be found in Paris visiting the House of Worth to choose a wedding dress and trousseau. The wedding date had been set for 26th June 1895.

Charles Frederick Worth dominated Parisian fashion in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He was however an Englishman, born in Bourne in Lincolnshire in 1825.

Worth previously worked and trained at two department stores in London, Swan and Edgar and Lewis & Allenby, before moving to Paris to work at Maison Gagelin. It was here that the young Worth began to sew and have dresses made up for clients. He was enthusiastic and full of ideas, in fact rather too many for Gagelins.

Having met and married his wife Marie, in 1858 Worth set up his own couture house at 7 Rue de la Paix. He was the first couturier in the street. Napoleon III had been restored to the throne of France in 1852, making Paris once more an imperial capital and the setting for numerous state occasions.

To mark the restoration, Emperor Napoleon gave three balls in honour of his wife, the Empress Eugénie, at the Tuileries.

One of the guests at the first ball, Mme de Metternich, the wife of the Austrian ambassador, was wearing a Worth dress. The Empress noticed it immediately and Princess Metternich recounted the following conversation in her memoirs:

“May I ask you, Madam,” the Empress enquired, “who made you that dress, so marvellously elegant and simple?”
“An Englishman, Madam, a star who has arisen in the firmament of fashion,” the Princess replied.
“And what is his name?”
“Worth.”
“Well,” concluded the Empress, “please ask him to come and see me at ten o’clock tomorrow morning.”

Empress Eugénie was soon ordering all her outfits from Worth, from court dresses to ready to wear. His designs incorporated elegant fabrics, detailed trimming, and superb fit. Worth was known for preparing several designs for each season which were then shown to prospective clients by live models. Clients would make their selections and have them made up in their choice of fabric to their measurements in his atelier. In the 19^th century, wealthy women would often have four or more changes of dress each day and many clients would purchase their entire wardrobes from Worth.

When the Empress and a large retinue travelled to Egypt in 1869 for the official opening of the Suez Canal, the visit was of primary diplomatic importance and so she turned to Worth to ensure she looked her best to represent the glory of France.

Napoleon III’s reign collapsed in 1871 and in the aftermath of war and revolution, with a dearth of money and grand occasions, Worth turned to English and American clients and once more promoted his ‘brand’. He was the first house to sew his label in each dress and the first to create much of what we might think makes up a couture house today.

There was therefore no more fashionable nor sumptuous couture house than Worth from which Almina and her mother could begin to decide on a suitably spectacular wardrobe. When they arrived at 7 Rue de la Paix, Almina and her mother would have been conducted into the grandeur of the house before ascending a staircase to the main showroom. Prices were always eyewatering, much as they are today, but luckily money was of no consequence to Almina’s father, Alfred de Rothschild.

Charles Worth died in 1895 but the House of Worth continued on as Charles was succeeded by his two sons, Gaston-Lucien and Jean-Philippe, who also became renowned for their fragrances. The Countess of Carnarvon continued to visit Paris and the House of Worth until the First World War.