Court, Silk and Worth

French Fashion & Haute Couture

Course 1 · Chapter 2 · Origins: Court, Silk and Charles Frederick Worth

French fashion did not start with the couture houses. It began as an instrument of the state, in the court of Louis XIV, and was carried by the silk weavers of Lyon, the dressmakers of Paris and the first fashion magazines. This chapter follows that story from the 17th century to the 1850s, when an Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth, opened the house that is usually called the first haute couture house. Names, dates and figures are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

Louis XIV, Colbert and Luxury

Fashion as policy

Louis XIV (reigned 1643 to 1715) used the court at Versailles as a stage for the monarchy, and clothes were part of it. His finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, treated the luxury trades (silk, lace, tapestry, mirrors) as a way to bring money into France and to make Europe copy French taste (check).

Lace and silk

Colbert set up royal workshops and gave privileges to makers of French lace in the 1660s, to reduce imports from Venice and Flanders (check). Silk weaving, centred on Lyon since the 16th century, received royal support and became one of the country's main industries.

A French fashion

By the late 17th century French dress was copied across Europe. Dolls dressed in the latest styles were sent to foreign courts as a form of advertising, and the first publications described what was worn at court (check). The court's rules of dress also made the king the arbiter of taste.

Taste as a national asset The pattern set in the 17th century lasted: the state backed the luxury trades, and Paris and Versailles were presented as the place where fashion was made. Later chapters show that the pattern lasted into the 20th century, with the state protecting the couture label and helping the industry (Chapters 5 and 7, check).

Lyon and the Silk Weavers

  • The industry. Lyon became the centre of French silk weaving in the 16th century, when the king granted privileges to the city's merchants (check). Its fabrics, designed by specialist artists, were sold to the court and to buyers across Europe.
  • The Jacquard loom. Joseph Marie Jacquard, a Lyon inventor, developed a loom controlled by punched cards in the early 1800s, which made it possible to weave complex patterns automatically (check). It is also remembered as an ancestor of the punched-card idea in computing.
  • The workers. The silk workers of Lyon, the canuts, were skilled but poorly paid, and their revolts in 1831 and 1834 are among the first large industrial disputes in France (check). The luxury of the court depended on this labour.
  • The link to couture. The Paris houses bought their fabrics from Lyon, and the relationship between designers and weavers continued for the next two centuries (Chapter 9).

Rose Bertin and Marie Antoinette

Point (check each)Detail
Rose BertinA dressmaker and milliner (marchande de modes) from Picardy (1747 to 1813) who opened a shop in Paris and became the favourite supplier of Marie Antoinette, queen from 1774. She was nicknamed the "minister of fashion".
The guildsThe trade was organised in guilds. Dressmakers (couturières) were allowed to make women's clothes from 1675, and the "modes" merchants, who added trimmings and accessories, were a separate trade (check).
The queen's styleMarie Antoinette favoured elaborate hairstyles and hats, and later simple muslin dresses. A portrait in a muslin dress in 1783 was criticised as too informal for a queen (check).
The criticismThe queen's spending on clothes was attacked by critics before and during the Revolution. Historians debate how far the criticism reflected her real spending and how far it was propaganda (check).
The RevolutionThe Revolution ended the guilds and the court's dress code. Plain styles and the trousers of the sans-culottes became political, and the Directory and Napoleon's Empire brought a classical, high-waisted style (check).

Napoleon supported Lyon's silk industry, and Empress Joséphine's dressmakers, such as Louis-Hippolyte Leroy, were well known (check). The idea that a dressmaker could be a name, rather than a servant, had begun.

The First Fashion Press

Publication (check each)Note
Le Mercure Galant (from 1672)A gazette of court news that also described fashions.
Galerie des Modes et Costumes Français (from 1778)A series of engraved plates showing current dress.
Journal des Dames et des Modes (from 1797)A magazine with coloured fashion plates, widely copied abroad.
Fashion platesEngravings of dresses, collected by historians as a record of how clothes looked and how they were described.

The plates are one of the most important sources for the period, but they show the ideal and not the ordinary dress, so they need to be read with care (Chapter 10).

Charles Frederick Worth

  • The man. Worth (1825 to 1895) was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, and trained as a draper's apprentice in London before moving to Paris in 1845 (check). He worked for a silk and shawl firm, Gagelin, and in 1858 opened his own house at 7 rue de la Paix with a Swedish partner, Otto Bobergh (check).
  • The patron. His break came when Princess Pauline de Metternich, the wife of the Austrian ambassador, wore his dresses at the court of Napoleon III, and Empress Eugénie then became a client (check).
  • The innovations. He sewed his name into his clothes, as an artist signs a painting. He showed designs on live models (his wife, Marie, was the first, check), designed a collection in advance each season, and told clients what to wear, instead of waiting for their instructions.
  • The trade body. The Chambre syndicale de la couture parisienne was founded in 1868, with Worth's house among the leaders (check), to protect the trade and regulate its practice.
  • The legacy. His sons Gaston and Jean-Philippe ran the house after his death, and it lasted until the 1950s (check). He is called "the father of haute couture", a title that needs qualification (Exercise 2).
A British comparison The British links run through the story. Worth was an Englishman, and the trade treaty between Britain and France in 1860 (the Cobden-Chevalier treaty) opened the way to cross-Channel trade in textiles (check). A much earlier Scottish link is Mary, Queen of Scots, who was brought up at the French court in the 1550s and introduced French dress and styles to Scotland (check). The paisley pattern that appears in French and British fabrics was copied from Kashmir shawls and named after the Scottish town of Paisley, where it was woven in large quantities (check). Edinburgh's own department store, Jenners, opened in 1838 and sold imported silks and fashions (check).
Check the details Fashion history is full of "firsts". Claims that a designer was the first to sign garments, show on live models or hold a seasonal collection are repeated in many books, and earlier examples are known. Dates of founding, the names of partners and the details of Worth's life should be checked against museum catalogues and biographies. Stories about Rose Bertin and Marie Antoinette are often retold in a polished form, so check them against historians.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Draw up a timeline from Colbert to the Chambre syndicale of 1868 with at least eight entries, and mark the ones you would want to check.

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Exercise 2

Test the claim "Worth invented haute couture". What is true in it, what is missing, and what evidence would you use?

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Exercise 3

Compare Rose Bertin and Charles Frederick Worth as dressmakers to the powerful: who held the creative authority in each relationship, and what changed?

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • State and luxury: Louis XIV, Colbert, Versailles; Lyon silk and the Jacquard loom
  • People: Rose Bertin, Marie Antoinette, Charles Frederick Worth, Empress Eugénie
  • Dates: 1858 Worth's house; 1868 Chambre syndicale (check)
  • Sources: fashion plates and early magazines, read with care