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
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 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 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 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 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
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,
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 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 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 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 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 is a production of our Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot com and is produced by Tyler Playing or more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.