The idea of an Englishman
Ladies and gentlemen, we have to admit that we owe what makes France one of the glories in the world to an Englishman. Even if Fashion is all French, it is an Englishman who invented the concept of haute couture. Well, I'm going to shoot myself in the foot, but we don't have to shout it from the rooftops after reading thanks to Monsieur de France, eh! Charles Frederick Worth, born in 1825 in Lincolnshire. He is passionate about fabrics that he sells as a modest apprentice in a London store. He is also a passionate painter.
A fashion catalog from 1860 / Source Wikipedia
A great couturier and his wife
This mixture of knowledge of fabrics and love of beauty is the basis of this great talent who decides to leave England and settle in the capital of fashion and arts that is Paris. Phew! Our honor is safe. To save time, and perhaps also because the bad taste of some customers stung the eyes of this aesthete, Frederick Worth decides a revolution.
Previously, the client asked and the couturier executed, from now on, the couturier proposed and the client chose. He added two novelties that amazed at the time. The first is the fashion seasons. Fall winter, spring summer. The second is to show his creations on someone rather than on catalogs. The one who devotes herself is his wife: Marie Vernet Worth, a former saleswoman in clothing.
She invented this profession: wearing to show
Marie Vernet-Worth first model of the history (1825 1898).
Marie Vernet Worth wife advances in front of the customers to allow them to project themselves clothed with the creation which passes in front of them. After her, others will do this work. For a long time, they will be called look-alikes. The first model agency was born in England in 1928. Gabrielle Chanel made them parade in her sublime mirror staircase. Jean Patou, a French couturier, put very thin women in fashion. Nowadays, they are even thin not? They are still slimmed down by reworking the photos on computer. We are far from Marie Vernet, brunette, full-figured, and especially from the first vocation of this beautiful profession: that of wearing and especially showing what the genius of the human
