.. hold a large number of surviving Worth garments and collections such as at The Costume Institute. This is a testimony as to how very popular this English born, French “Haute Couture” designer was in America, as well as with European royalty and nobles. American clients traveled to Paris to …
.. was the Art Nouveau movement that swept the world around 1900 until 1909. (Photos: Worth gowns left; 1858 scrolling velvet design is like the wrought iron and scrollwork of the Art Nouveau architectural movement; right 1908 gown for Queen Maud of Norway one of his last projects shows the …
…is the asymmetry of the skirt drapery. This was extremely difficult to implement, and showed exquisite craftsmanship. Worth had a fascination of eastern and Asian cultures, and he in particularly was attracted to Japanese influence. There had been a renewed interest in Japan in at the end of the 19th …
.. and silhouettes, Worth would provide entire wardrobes, including morning, afternoon, and evening dresses, nightgowns, wedding gowns, gowns for masquerade balls, and costumes for special events. (Photo: 1865 unique Worth ballgown for a specific customer.. although we can’t imagine whom..)
… also made collections which were displayed on live models. Less wealthy clients could order in their own size, and they were somewhat “mass produced”, although by hand by his designers using the highest quality techniques and materials. They just weren’t “custom costumes”. (Worth sketch: basic design for travel in …
.. historic dress, and the influence of what he studied can be seen in his later designs. In the 1890’s, there was a popular trend to go back to the “good old days” – of the Colonial Era. Worth designed gowns in this revivalist spirit of the 18th century which …
.. and trims which made up his beautiful (and expensive) garments. These often drew from historic influences such as the “Shepherdess look”, or “La Polonnaise” which he claims to have invented, even though it had been high fashion in Marie Antoinette’s era a century earlier. (Photos: left, 1890’s Worth “Polonnaise” …
.. and marketing. In the beginning when Worth was still in England, he cut off French clothing labels & sewed them onto his English made clothes, introducing the first designer labels. Later, when his designs and market could stand on its own, he made his designs available to other dressmakers, …
… to make her a ball gown of such uniqueness and to make a statement about her family’s contribution to innovation and society, that Mrs. Astor would take note and invite her to the higher levels of American society during the “Gilded Age” (1870’s into 1880’s). This Worth gown named …
.. just as big as in Europe. America’s industrialists were very wealthy, and the Astors and Vanderbilts were big clients. (Mrs. Alva Vanderbilt of the elite wealthy class in America, models a late 1870’s Worth gown)
