The Art Of Fashion

From the beginning, fashion and art have intermingled, giving creativity and innovation a place in our everyday lives

- Pamela Golbin

The English couturier Charles Frederick Worth – preferred designer of Empress Eugénie – revolutionised the dress code of high society with one bold gesture, radical and innovative, subtle and of extreme simplicity. By placing his name, Worth, on the latest dress he was designing, it passed all at once from the status of ornament to that of a work of art. The gesture, seemingly innocent at first, turned out to be crucial, sealing the fate of fashion and becoming the founding act that still resonates today.

Having proclaimed himself an Artist with a capital A, Worth set in motion a course of action that would launch the glamorous myth of the couturier-creator, ahead of his time. It would be Worth who dictated the spirit of the times and future trends, but most of all, he conceived the entire DNA of the profession of couturier-as-superstar. One thing led to another, and he invented the concept of the designer label, which he would refine during the rest of his career.

In the space of barely a decade, a formidable momentum was well underway. In 1868, the Chambre Syndicale de la confection et de la couture pour dames et fillettes was created, centered on two sectors with contradictory goals and methods: Haute Couture and industrial ready-to-wear clothing. The former offered original creations, launched trends, and engaged in constantly renewed innovation, like art, rising and falling by fits and starts. Producers of ready-made clothing were content to follow, reproducing couture creations on a mass scale. Nevertheless, the two formed a coherent whole, since both were part of an industrial system based on purchases by customers.