BrainStuff Classics: Who Was the First Fashion Designer?

Fashion designers and their work are everywhere these days, from our closets to the runways. But one man started it all: Charles Frederick Worth. Learn who he was and how he created haute couture in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/who-started-haute-couture.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, Lauren bob Obam here with an episode from
our podcasts archives. Not so long ago, clothing fashions came
and went, but there was no such thing as fashion
brands or designers. Today's classic delves into how all that
changed due to one innovator in the eighteen hundreds. Hey

(00:26):
brain Stuff, Lauren vog obam here. It's hard for me
to imagine myself or most of my friends and neighbors,
let alone someone like Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge,
designing their own dresses. But that's what all women did
as recently as the nineteenth century Royalty and common are alike.
There had never been such a job as fashion designer.
Then Charles Frederick Worth arrived on the seed and created

(00:50):
literally translated it means high dressmaking, and the fashion design
industry was born. Opator refers to garments created for a
specific client. Ashion houses such as Chanelle and Christian Duore
are official hook coutur establishments because they meet specific requirements,
which include designing made to order clothes for private clients
via more than one fitting, having a full time staff

(01:12):
of at least fifteen and presenting collections of at least
fifty original designs to the public twice annually. Worth came
up with the idea of fashion designers and fashion houses
in the middle of the nineteenth century. An Englishman born
in eight Worth worked for textile merchants as a young adult,
where he learned all about fabrics and dressmaking. He eventually

(01:33):
relocated to Paris, where he secured a job with company
that sold luxury textiles. Itching to design his own garments,
Worth approached management with a novel idea, create a new
department within the company dedicated to designing and producing dresses,
and allow Worth to be the designer. It doesn't sound
shocking today, but management bulked. Dressmakers were not well regarded

(01:55):
back then and mail designers were virtually unheard of, but eventually,
in eighteen one they agreed. Soon Worth was heralded as
a talented tastemaker and clients sought his opinion on fashion.
In eighteen fifty eight, Worth left the textile company and,
together with Otto Beaubat, opened his own company, the Parisian
based House of Worth. His designs typically featured lavish fabrics

(02:19):
and trimmings. Not surprisingly, he also obsessed over proper fit. Soon, Worth,
who considered himself an artist, began insisting clients accept his
vision and designs even if they disagreed, although some deemed
him a bit of a tyrant. Client's acquiesced and the
profession of fashion designer as we know it today was born.
Worth dissolved his partnership with Boubat in eighteen seventy one,

(02:41):
and the House of Worth was solely his. By this time,
he counted Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon the third, as
one of his patrons. Her influence helped boost his career,
and eventually he was dressing other prominent women of the day,
including famed stage actor Sarah Bernhardt and opera star Nellie Melba.
The Englishman's contributions to the field also include being one

(03:02):
of the first fashion designers to sew his name into
garments and to create maternity wear. Owen Worth died in
eighteen sons Gaston Lucien and Jean Philippe took over the operation.
At first business was good, but the powerful House of
Worth began losing its footing during the twentieth century. The
House of Paquin acquired the business in nineteen fifty and

(03:22):
by nineteen fifty two. The Worth family was formally out
of the business when Worth's great grandson Jean Charles retired,
but the House of Worth wasn't quite dead. The business
was bought and sold several more times over the years,
resuming cotour operations in the late nineteen sixties and again
in the early twentyeens. Many of Worth's garments are still

(03:42):
around today, and fashion buffs can see them at museums
all around the world, including the Costume Institute, which is
part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as
London's Vienna Museum and the Museum at f i t.
Today's episode is based on the article who started Coutur
on how Stuff Works dot com, written by Melanie rod

(04:04):
Zekie McManus, an association with fashion historians April Callaghan and
Cassidy Zachary of the podcast Dressed. To hear more about
Worth and here from guest Highland Booker, lead designer for
the Worth Fashion House in the late nineteen sixties, Tune
into Dress this episode founding father of Oak Tour, Charles
Frederick Worth, available wherever you find your podcasts. Brain Stuff

(04:25):
is a production of our Heart Radio in partnership with
how stuff works dot com and is produced by Tyler
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