Paris Exhibition Celebrates Couture Pioneer Charles Frederick Worth

PARIS — Today’s Met Gala stars have nothing on the grandes dames of the Gilded Age.

A new exhibition in Paris revives the glittering balls of the 19th century, which marked the birth of haute couture and the man credited as its founder: Charles Frederick Worth.

Spectacular gowns worn by style icons such as Countess Greffulhe, Lady Curzon and the Duchess of Devonshire are among the highlights of “Worth: Inventing haute couture,” which opened on Wednesday at the Petit Palais museum here, marking the English designer’s first major retrospective in France.

The soaring Belle Epoque building provides a fitting backdrop for the show, which features more than 400 works including 80 pieces of clothing, some so fragile that they will never be shown in public again, according to organizers.

“This exhibition recounts the fabulous destiny of the House of Worth over a hundred years, spanning three generations from the Second Empire to the Roaring ‘20s,” said Annick Lemoine, chief curator and director of the Petit Palais.

“It’s an extraordinary and exceptional exhibition because we had fabulous, extraordinary loans from prestigious institutions around the world, but also from private collections,” she added. “Some of these loans have been the subject of unique restoration campaigns.”

Bustle dresses in rich silk damasks evoke the HBO series “The Gilded Age,” featured in a clip that shows the character Bertha Russell, played by Carrie Coon, descending a grand staircase.

One of the star exhibits, known as the “Lily dress,” was X-rayed by the experts at the Palais Galliera, the fashion museum of Paris, which partnered with the Petit Palais on the exhibition. They took it apart and put it back together after a painstaking restoration of its delicate ivory silk satin appliqués in the form of lilies.

Dated circa 1896, the gown was famously worn by Countess Greffulhe, who was Marcel Proust’s inspiration for the Duchess of Guermantes in his saga “In Search of Lost Time.”

“The ‘Lily dress,’ considered one of the jewels of our permanent collection, is being displayed on a mannequin here for the last time,” noted Marine Kisiel, heritage curator, fashion department, 19th century at the Palais Galliera.

The fabrics, which are usually stored flat, can only be displayed upright for four months at a time and in this case, will likely be locked away forever.

Raphaëlle Martin-Pigalle, chief heritage curator, modern paintings department at the Petit Palais, said the documents on display were equally delicate. They include order books, invoices, illustrated catalogues, books of silk fabric swatches and clippings from La Gazette du Bon Ton, the fashion magazine launched in 1912.   

“Practically everything you see here will be put away for the next three or four years at least, if we can take them out again at all. It might be never,” she said.

The Birth of Couture

The exhibits provide a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the couture house founded in 1858 as Worth & Bobergh, rechristened as Worth in 1870.

Spread over eight stories at 7 Rue de la Paix, it employed 1,200 people at its peak and set the template for the modern luxury industry, pioneering concepts like the star couturier, the designer label, seasonal collections and fashion shows.

Clad in a beret and velvet smock, Worth styled himself à la Rembrandt in photos by star portraitist Nadar, and personalized labels by using his handwritten signature. He quickly became the darling of European imperial courts, including Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III.

Rich with historical details like puff sleeves, ruffs and lace collars, his creations were immortalized in period paintings such as a towering portrait of New York social arbiter Mrs. Astor by Carolus-Duran, which was prominently displayed in the reception room of her Fifth Avenue mansion.

“At the time, it was truly a marker of material and social success to be portrayed in a dress by a famous couturier,” Martin-Pigalle said.

The show chronicles the birth of Rue de la Paix as a luxury nexus, home to now-defunct houses like Paquin, Doucet and Doeuillet, but also jewelers like Cartier, which unofficially joined forces with Worth when Andrée Caroline Worth married Louis Cartier in 1898.

The show also features art works collected by Worth, including a marble bust by Marcello, the pseudonym of Swiss sculptor, painter and aristocrat Adèle d’Affry. “Marcello was a big client of Worth, so much so that she asked to be buried in one of his dresses,” Martin-Pigalle said.

An Expensive Habit

Paintings from the era vividly depict the social events where women were expected to parade in a rotating wardrobe of tea gowns, opera coats and fancy dress, like the striking Queen of Palmyra costume that Louise, Duchess of Devonshire, commissioned for a ball given in honor of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

The highlight is a room housing exceptional creations including the court cloak with a sweeping train worn by Franca Florio, the wife of a Sicilian businessman and shipowner, when she was appointed lady-in-waiting to Italy’s Queen Elena in 1902.

One thing that remains a mystery is the cost of the clothes.

“We haven’t found a way to decipher the system of letters they used in the order books, which were used as a code to keep the prices secret but known to the house,” confessed Kisiel. “What we do know is that it was exorbitant and that you could easily ruin a husband or lover by dressing at Worth.”

Following the founder’s death in 1895, the label was taken over by his sons Gaston and Jean-Philippe, who kept pace with changing trends by introducing more streamlined silhouettes.

Jean-Charles and Jacques, Gaston Worth’s sons, further modernized the house in the 1920s with innovations like logo knits and collaborations with artists like Jean Dunand and Raoul Dufy. In 1924, it launched perfumes in glass bottles designed by René Lalique.

Sold to Paquin in 1954, Worth closed its doors in 1956. The exhibition doesn’t delve into subsequent efforts to revive the house and its fragrances, which included a short-lived couture line, launched in 2010 and helmed by Italian designer Giovanni Bedin.

Five years in the making, the exhibition provides a snapshot of a defining era for French fashion.

“What we show — and it’s the reason why the word ‘inventing’ is in the title of the exhibition — is the invention of a world and a system that shaped the image and the workings of couture, but also Parisian luxury and therefore French luxury and its global influence throughout the 20th century,” Kisiel said.