frfashion1-2, Exercise 3: Bertin and Worth

Model answer (check the details):

Rose Bertin: a marchande de modes who supplied trimmings, hats and accessories and advised a queen. She was famous and influential, but she worked inside a guild system and under the queen's authority: the client decided, and the dressmaker interpreted the client's taste. Her power was the power of a trusted adviser and fashion leader.

Charles Frederick Worth: a designer-businessman who put his name on the garment, showed a collection chosen in advance, and told clients what was fashionable that season. He worked in a system with fewer guild restrictions, and a middle- and upper-class market large enough to support seasonal collections. The creative authority moved from the client to the designer.

What changed: the guilds ended with the Revolution, the market for luxury grew with the wealth of the Second Empire, and the idea of the designer as an artist took hold. The relationship between maker and client turned from service into expertise.

Care: do not exaggerate the contrast. Worth's clients, such as Empress Eugénie, still had great influence, and Bertin's fame shows that dressmakers could hold real authority before 1789.