WEBVTT - Who Was the First Fashion Designer?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.040
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff works. Hey, brain Stuff,

0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:10.120
<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, it's hard for me to imagine myself

0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:12.640
<v Speaker 1>or most of my friends and neighbors, let alone someone

0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.160
<v Speaker 1>like Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, designing their own dresses.

0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.119
<v Speaker 1>But that's what all women did. As recently as the

0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.360
<v Speaker 1>nineteenth century, royalty and commoner alike, there had never been

0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.240
<v Speaker 1>such a job as fashion designer. Then Charles Frederick Worth

0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:31.120
<v Speaker 1>arrived on the seed and created old coutour literally translated,

0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.000
<v Speaker 1>it means high dressmaking, and the fashion design industry was born.

0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.440
<v Speaker 1>Old coator refers to garments created for a specific client.

0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.040
<v Speaker 1>Fashion houses such as Chanelle and Christian Dre are official

0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:47.680
<v Speaker 1>coatur establishments because they meet specific requirements, which include designing

0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.159
<v Speaker 1>made to order clothes for private clients via more than

0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.159
<v Speaker 1>one fitting, having a full time staff of at least fifteen,

0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.360
<v Speaker 1>and presenting collections of at least fifty original designs to

0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:00.360
<v Speaker 1>the public twice annually. Worth came up with the idea

0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.280
<v Speaker 1>of fashion designers and fashion houses in the middle of

0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:07.280
<v Speaker 1>the nineteenth century. An Englishman born in eighteen five, Worth

0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:09.920
<v Speaker 1>worked for textile merchants as a young adult, where he

0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:14.640
<v Speaker 1>learned all about fabrics and dressmaking. He eventually relocated to Paris,

0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.480
<v Speaker 1>where he secured a job with company that sold luxury textiles.

0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.560
<v Speaker 1>Itching to design his own garments, Worth approached management with

0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.039
<v Speaker 1>a novel idea, create a new department within the company

0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:28.679
<v Speaker 1>dedicated to designing and producing dresses, and allow Worth to

0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:33.160
<v Speaker 1>be the designer. It doesn't sound shocking today, but management bulked.

0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:37.120
<v Speaker 1>Dressmakers were not well regarded back then, and mail designers

0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.840
<v Speaker 1>were virtually unheard of, but eventually, in eighteen fifty one,

0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:45.000
<v Speaker 1>they agreed. Soon Worth was heralded as a talented tastemaker

0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.320
<v Speaker 1>and clients sought his opinion on fashion. In eighteen fifty eight,

0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.680
<v Speaker 1>Worth left the textile company and, together with Otto Baubat,

0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:56.200
<v Speaker 1>opened his own company, the Parisian based House of Worth.

0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:01.120
<v Speaker 1>His designs typically featured lavish fabrics and trimmings. Not surprisingly,

0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:05.200
<v Speaker 1>he also obsessed over proper fit. Soon Orth, who considered

0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.720
<v Speaker 1>himself an artist, began insisting clients accept his vision and

0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.280
<v Speaker 1>designs even if they disagreed. Although some deemed him a

0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.200
<v Speaker 1>bit of a tyrant. Client's acquiesced, and the profession of

0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:19.080
<v Speaker 1>fashion designer as we know it today was born. Worth

0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.000
<v Speaker 1>dissolved his partnership with Boulbairt in eighteen seventy one, and

0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.079
<v Speaker 1>the House of Worth was solely his. By this time,

0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.240
<v Speaker 1>he counted Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon the third, as

0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.320
<v Speaker 1>one of his patrons. Her influence helped boost his career,

0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.440
<v Speaker 1>and eventually he was dressing other prominent women of the day,

0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.440
<v Speaker 1>including famed stage actor Sarah Bernhardt and opera star Nellie Melba.

0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.560
<v Speaker 1>The Englishman's contributions to the field also include being one

0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.920
<v Speaker 1>of the first fashion designers to sew his name into

0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.600
<v Speaker 1>garments and to create maternity wear. Ohen Worth died in

0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.640
<v Speaker 1>eighteen ninety five. Sons Gauston, Lucien and Jean Philippe took

0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.800
<v Speaker 1>over the operation. At first business was good, but the

0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:58.560
<v Speaker 1>powerful House of Worth began losing its footing during the

0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.720
<v Speaker 1>twentieth century. The House of Paklin acquired the business in

0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.720
<v Speaker 1>nineteen fifty, and by nineteen fifty two the Worth family

0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.680
<v Speaker 1>was formally out of the business when Worth's great grandson

0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.200
<v Speaker 1>Jean Charles retired, but the House of Worth wasn't quite dead.

0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.120
<v Speaker 1>The business was bought and sold several more times over

0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.919
<v Speaker 1>the years, resuming cotour operations in the late nineteen sixties

0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.200
<v Speaker 1>and again in the early twenty teens. Many of Worth's

0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.959
<v Speaker 1>garments are still around today, and fashion buffs can see

0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.040
<v Speaker 1>them at museums all around the world, including the Costume Institute,

0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.480
<v Speaker 1>which is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as

0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.520
<v Speaker 1>well as London's Vienna Museum and the Museum at f

0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:41.400
<v Speaker 1>i T. Today's episode was written by Melanie red Zki

0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.720
<v Speaker 1>McManus and produced by Tyler Clang in association with fashion

0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:49.240
<v Speaker 1>historians April Callaghan and Cassidy Zachary of the podcast Dressed

0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.680
<v Speaker 1>to hear more about Worth and here from guest Highland Booker,

0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:54.880
<v Speaker 1>lead designer for the Worth Fashion House in the late

0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:59.280
<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixties. Tune into Dresss episode Founding Father of oaktre

0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.280
<v Speaker 1>Charles is Frederick Worth. Available on Apple Podcasts or wherever

0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.360
<v Speaker 1>you find your podcasts, and of course, for lots more

0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.120
<v Speaker 1>on this and lots of other smart topics, visit our

0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:22.680
<v Speaker 1>home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.