Because you’re Worth it

Empress Elisabeth of Austria in a Worth Gown 1865

Horrible, ear-shattering pun, but sometimes I have no class at all. You can’t look at the history of fashion and especially not the history of Haute Couture without taking a long and luxurious look at Charles Frederick Worth, the father of Haute Couture.

Mr Worth was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire in 1825.  It’s possible that he was born into a family of drapers because he spent his early years working in London at prosperous drapers – although who they were I’m afraid I don’t know – before being hired by Gagelin and Opigez who were very prosperous Parisian drapers. Clearly, the young Mr Worth was very good at his job is he was head-hunted by these chaps who were at the centre of the Paris fashion world.

Before we move on to Charles’ adventures in Paris, a word on drapers. Back in ye olde Medieval times drapers were an important trade guild in London. They sold cloth and textiles which could be specifically for furnishing and curtains, but most often were for clothing, especially in Worth’s period. In the nineteenth century most shops were specialists, i.e. they sold one product or type of product. However, it’s also worth noting that in this period, you couldn’t go to a dress shop to buy a nice frock and bits and pieces, because on the whole they didn’t exist. As the century went on we started to see the development of department stores. As these grew bigger and more prosperous we started to see the decline of specialist shops and drapers and we also started to see the growth of ready-to-wear clothing.  But when Worth was starting out, people mostly went to the drapers to buy the material to make their own clothes or have them made for them by a dressmaker or tailor.  Whilst drapers would sell items like bonnets and shawls – which would often be modelled for customers by house models – they didn’t sell ready-made dresses. This was the way of things. As a bit of an aside, H.G. Wells, him what wrote The Time Machine  and The War of the Worlds amongst other things, started out working as a draper. A little bit of trivia for my readers and now moving quickly onwards …!

Worth married one of the house models at Gaelin and Opigez. He used to make her simple dresses and customers, impressed by them,

The crinoline gets wider and the tulle gets puffier.

started to ask for copies. Worth was a forward thinking man and already a junior parter in the firm. He asked the partners if they would expand the company into dressmaking, but they were more conservative and not interested.  They saw dressmaking as a bit low-class and didn’t want to risk their company’s good name on such a venture.

Charles Frederick was convinced this was the way forward and found himself a wealthy backer who was prepared to put money in his new business. The chap, a Swede named Otto Bobergh became his partner and the company, originally known as Worth and Bobergh  opened in 1858.  It ran under this name until the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871) when it closed down and reopened in 1871 as the House of Worth.

Before the war Worth had already got a number of quite classy customers, among them the Empress Eugénie and Cora Pearl who was a famous courtesan. The war came at a very difficult time and there was worry that it would destroy Worth. Many of his high-class customers in Paris were part of the old regime and the worry was that they would no longer have power and he would lose his clients, not find new ones and therefore fail. If anything he came back bigger and stronger after the war, he had customers all over the world, many who would travel to Paris just to see his gowns and be fitted for their own.  All the while he was changing the world of fashion. His dresses were modelled at collections – much as we see today – and the aristocracy and other rich women, instead of having their dresses made for them by dressmakers, were buying designs from Worth. The way he worked and how his dresses were made created the roots and the heart of the new Haute Couture industry and the rules that made it what it still is today. Just about everything was hand sewn, individual dresses were fitted to and for the customer. Dress dummies would be created that replicated the shape and figure of the customer, so that she could order new dresses and not come for fittings if she did not have the time. This was particularly important for customers who did not live in Paris in the days before quick travel. Dresses and accessories would be made and shipped to the woman wherever she lived in the world.

The bustle

The most important thing he accomplished was turning the process of design and dressmaking from being seen as the work of artisans to the work of artists. Worth himself was definitely seen as an artist. He died in 1895 and the house continued under his sons Gaston (who founded the Chambre de Syndicale de la Haute Couture) and Jean-Philippe.

So, that was Monsieur Worth, but what was his style. The House of Worth created many court gowns and dresses for debutantes who were being presented at court. His trademark style was lavish and – most importantly of all – expensive! He did a lot of work in silk and tulle, heavily patterned, often with spangles and sometimes gold and silver thread, creating intricate embroidery. The Dress worn by Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the first photo, shows the epitome of his early style very clearly. Silk tulle, spangles, gold thread and a crinoline.

Worth did not invent or bring the crinoline into fashion, however in the 1860s he was very much at the forefront of making it ever more popular and ever more insanely impractical.  You can see it wider in the second photo and you can also see his ongoing love affair with tulle.  The crinoline started to go out of fashion in the 1860s and transform to the bustle. Worth showed an even greater love for the bustle and, as before, was at the forefront of its popularity.  The first bustle photo is for a day dress that could only be worn by a woman who had very little to do. It’s not what one could call practical. As always, many of his dresses were for evening wear and courts and

A night out with added bustle

ballrooms as can be seen in the two gowns in the photo to the right.  High in embroidery, heavy in material and difficult to figure out how a woman would manage to waltz in one of these babies, but times were different and clothes, not just Worth’s, look a little OTT to our modern eyes. Under the continuation of the house with Gaston and Jean-Philippe, it’s fair to say that the gowns became less full of frippery and easier on the eye, but this had as much to do with changing times as them having better style than their father. While some of these dresses look like over-fluffed Austrian blinds to our eyes, they were the dresses to own from the 1860s-1890s. Did they weigh a lot? Where they uncomfortable and impractical? Abso-bloody-lutely, but rich people liked their clothes to say something about them. The heavier, the more impractical, the richer you were. You weren’t walking anywhere and you didn’t have to do a damn thing because that’s what servants were for. Uncomfortable? Well a woman should suffer to be beautiful! Thankfully, these days we suffer in different ways and if we decide that suffering is overrated, we don’t have to try those different ways!

So, in terms of wanting to wear them, the House of Worth under Charles Frederick didn’t produce much that we would want to copy or emulate, but the work on the gowns was exquisite, as you can see in the last photo, which is a close up of the work on one of is court gowns. These items really are minor works of art and they also

Close up of the intricate work on a Worth court gown.

represent a change in what fashion was and eventually, who fashion was open to. Worth himself was never going to design something for a shop girl, but with the birth of Haute Couture along with the growth of department stores, we started to see cheaper copies of couture available to the woman in the street, the lower middle class and the upper working class. They might not be wearing silk tulle with gold and silver thread and intricate embroidery, but she could buy something that emulated later Worth and other important designers.

Worth did not set out to make fashion more egalitarian, but whether he liked it or not, that was a small part of his legacy.

A Long, Long Time Ago

 

We’re not starting at the very beginning, but in terms of having some knowledge of what the society was like, what they were wearing and how advanced the clothing was compared to what followed it and for quite some time after the disappearance of this society, it’s not really possible to go further back than the Minoan Civilisation. We’ve only been properly aware that they really did exist for just over a hundred years and maybe, hopefully, one day we’ll know more about them than we’ve so far learned, but what we do know is pretty incredible.

So, first things first: when were they around? From roughly 5,000 B.C. to roughly 1,700 B.C. To give it a little perspective, The ancient Egyptians arrived on the scene in about 3,100 B.C. and the classical (ancient) Greek culture starts at roughly 500 B.C. There’s a culture there before that – well, the Minoan civilisation was on that there Crete! – and there’s a period known as the Dark Ages from c. 1,100 B.C. – c. 750 B.C., but when we’re looking at all the pretty things from Classical Greece, we’re mostly looking from about 500 B.C. and definitely from about 323 B.C. when Alexander the Great finished having wars (and died, as you do) and Greece went into the Hellenic period.

Huge apologies for so much dating, please note the dates are approximate and now that we’ve figured out how very early on in our history those Minoan folk popped up, we’ll move on to the more interesting stuff: what they used to wear.

You’ve already spotted the photo at the top. This is either a statue of a snake goddess, or a priestess of the snake goddess, this was found at Knossos. The major problem we have with a society so old and so long disappeared is knowing for sure what figures represent. However, there are other murals of women dressed like this, so we know that this must have been something that women wore. Whether it was everyday clothing, especially for ceremonies, worn only by a certain class of woman, we can’t know for sure. But this costume was not just a one off, it is seen in a lot of art from the culture.

The first thing that anyone is going to look at is the woman’s breasts which are very much on display, but when we get past that slightly

Minoan style queens

shocking image, her clothing is even more interesting. This is prior to a period when what we saw women and men wearing clothing that was held together by clasps, pins, belts, sashes girdles; in short, clothing that was not sewn. So look again at this Minoan figure and now notice that what she is wearing is a sewn garment. The skirt she is wearing may have had framework underneath it to support the bell shape of it. The blouse she is wearing is also sewn and then cut rather low. There was also an item of clothing that might be worn under the blouse, which was similar to the corsets that were worn from around the Renaissance period onwards.

You’ll also notice from the first image and the one to the right  that the clothing was colourful and the breasts and hips large with very small waists. When the Minoan civilisation was discovered in the 19th century their shape was so similar to contemporary fashion that the images of women, such as the snake goddess were called La Parisienne, because of the similarity of shape. We can’t be sure, but it is thought that the belts holding the waists in (this was worn by men as well) may well have been worn from childhood onwards, thus changing the natural shape of the body. Again, we can’t know this for sure.

Here is what we do know. At some point in the progress of their civilisation women were wearing clothing that was sewn and probably made to fit their bodies. This type of skill would not be seen in clothing again for many hundreds of years. Their bell-shaped skirts

Minoan jewellery

became more complex and ruffled, they were made from a variety of materials although probably mostly linen or wool. They had complex designs and patterns on them, which improved as the civilisation became ever more talented in art, design and ‘industry’. We can also see that hair was styled, possibly with semi-precious jewels if you were wealthy enough, and that jewellery – look to your left! – was pretty impressive as well.

I think that one of the most interesting things about what we now know about the Minoan culture is that it came to us very late, so has had little direct effect on women’s clothing since then. We can see the impact of classical clothing on some later designs and especially in early 20th century clothing. But, at the time we discovered that these pretty marvellous people had existed, women were wearing shapes very similar to the shapes that women had worn on a Greek island millennia before.

Some people think that the Minoan people,  who died out very quickly and almost without a trace, may well have been the people of Atlanta, the mythical culture that sank into the sea. When we look at the intricacy of their art and design and clothing and then think about how early in our history all of this was happening, it’s not surprising that people think they may be the great lost culture who were hundreds or even thousands of years ahead of the societies that continued on when they disappeared.

One last word about this long gone society. We are pretty sure that their were far more goddesses than gods in their religions and that their religions were matriarchal. They weren’t a society without war, but were relatively peaceful. There is also  suggestion that they might have gone in for human sacrifice, but hey! Nobody’s perfect!

 

On the Couch

Freud‘s Couch

I want this blog to be a comforting journey through history, with me as your happy guide telling you things you didn’t know along with things you did know, but I can tell you a little more about – hopefully – and make it all come alive for you. So, what does Freud’s couch have to do with this, you might be wondering. Well, the answer is twofold. First, back  in days of yore, patients would go and visit Dr Freud and lounge on his couch, telling him their problems and he would relax them and help solve those problems. The whole thing was rather lovely and relaxing and … except it wasn’t.

Dear readers, I have been on Freud’s couch. He wasn’t around, being dead an’ all, and strictly speaking I was being a very bad person by getting on it in the Freud Museum, but people who know me, know I like to misbehave in museums and were possible touch things I shouldn’t. The misbehaviour reached serious levels in the Freud museum, because I decided I wanted to know what it was like to lay on  the father of psychoanalysis’  couch and see how it felt to be one of his patients. I did it, so you don’t have to and I’m here to tell you it felt uncomfortable, uneasy and ever so slightly unhygienic. In short, I’m pretty sure that being his patient was the opposite of relaxing and calming and that by the time he got round to telling you that everything you thought was based on hysteria or cock, you’d accept it and pretend to be cured just so you never had to get on his horrid couch again. In ever shorter: Freud’s couch was minging.

So, the second part of the answer is that while I want all my readers to feel as though they’re laying on a couch while they get told all sorts of wondrous things about fashion, clothing, design, the whys and wherefores of what clothing meant, especially to women and how it can be seen as something that has and still can restrict our freedom as well as something that says something about our place and role in society. I want that imaginary couch to be comfortable and somewhere that you’re not longing to jump out of, nor somewhere where a coke-fiend with a beard is droning on and on about cock. His couch is a metaphor for all that can be wrong with being on the couch. Our couch will be whatever couch takes your fancy, a place to go and think about things girly, pretty, strong, sensual, feminist to the max, dreamy, ugly, superficial, important, cultural, life-changing and permanent. Cock will be at a minimum here unless and until I decide to produce a post about the codpiece and then all bets are off.

I want your couch to be a happy place, where you get to read the minutiae of clothing and fashion, from the ancient world to the modern day with no real timeline being followed, because that’s not really how it works. We may go from ancient Greece to 193o’s Lanvin, because the drapery will be all. We might spend a few posts going through the renaissance and then another few following the career of Frederick Worth. We’ll just let the mood and the muse take us and I hope to be a great tour guide, because, even though I do say so myself, I am  a fashion historian par excellence! I also love interiors, so there will be brief forays into those, because I want us all to take note of the fact that beauty and comfort are very  often not one and the same thing. Our poor ancestors often suffered far more discomfort than we would ever put up with. Why? Hopefully, we’ll find out along the way.

In the meantime, here’s another couch, this is the one I’ll be laying on while talking to you – in my mind of course, fashion historians are notably skint and can’t afford beautiful couches. Feel free to join me on this one or to find one of your own. If you find one you love and want to share it with me, please send me links in the responses and one day soon we can have a post which includes all our lovely couches and why they’re so right for each of us.

My couch – for now. I’ll no doubt change my mind along the way