Empress Eugénie and Frederick Charles Worth
When Eugenie de Montijo was crowned Empress of France in 1853, the crinoline, a horse hair and linen hoop was derigeur for French fashion. Sometimes reaching 3 yards in width, the lavish skirts draped over hoops encouraged an opulent display of French silks and brocades that supported French textile production. Women who dressed in crinolines were required to navigate their steps (and doorways) with care, but they nonetheless accepted the hoop-skirt because it allowed them shed the layers of paniers underneath.
Eugenie, was not particularly fond of the crinoline, as a natural athlete, the hoops restricted her youthful gait, but she understood that her public appearances were opportunities to promote Imperial splendor. Working in concert with Emperor Napoleon III, she instituted a fashion system sponsoring great State balls at the Tuileries palace, operas, concerts and week-long festivities at Compiègne where ladies were not permitted to wear the same dress twice. Every event became an opportunity to sport a new dress, even an outing to the races at Longchamp, could launch a new style or accessory.
Eugenie was not able fully reject the prevailing fashion until 1860 when she met an audacious entrepreneur, Frederick Charles Worth (1825-1895) following a party at the Tuileries Palace. Thanks to Eugenie’s patronage, Worth became the founder of modern Haute Couture. In 1868, Worth and Eugénie agreed upon a new dress design that was to change women's silhouettes for the next decade. Rejecting the crinoline, the new dress was to be straight and narrow in the front, hugging the figure, with an over-skirt at the back to form a bustle.
Worth received an order for over a hundred gowns from the Empress in 1869 as Napoléon asked his wife to travel to Egypt for the official opening of the Suez Canal. The visit was of primary diplomatic importance and Eugénie was determined to represent the glory of France and the imperial regime. In another daring move, Eugénie patronized a young trunk maker, Louis Vuitton (1821-1892) to provide the trunks to pack her gowns, helping another enterprising craftsmen establish his reputation.
While Eugenie’s role was instrumental in Worth’s success, after the fall of the Second Empire she lost her status as his most important client. The House of Worth survived largely due to Worth’s innovative selling techniques that are still the basis of haute couture marketing today. From his own couture shop, the House of Worth located at 7 rue de la Paix, he agreed to sell some of his most original “models” to foreign buyers with the foreign buyers with the right to distribute them commercially wherever they wanted. Worth creations could therefore be easily found all over Europe and America. Worth was also the first to use labels on his clothes, and he soon realized the benefits of marketing and branding his designs so that they could attract a larger clientele. Worth also marketed successful creations would be repeated at the end of the season and sold as ready-made costumes which could be acquired in all the major department stores of Paris, London or New York. Department stores as we know them today were then in their infancy but were spreading rapidly. In Paris, both Le Printemps and La Samaritaine, Parisian landmarks to this day, opened in 1865.
Frederick Worth’s career and Fashion house that will be the subject of an exceptional exhibition at the Petit Palais from May 7-September 7, 2025. Over 400 works, including clothing, accessories, drawings, and paintings from the Musée Galleria and exceptional loans from American museums will be on display.