, 1889-03-17

A FEW WORDS ABOUT WORTX

A FEW WORDS ABOUT WORTH
The celebrated man miIliner Worth is a
person Of every day mention in the news.
papers, and yet it is remarkable how little
is known about the man personally. We
were considerably interested the other day
in reading a short biographical sketch Of
the gentleman which was published in a
Boston paper. His name il appears is
Charles Frederick Worth, He was born
in Lincolnshire, Eng, in which section
his forefaihers had long lived. His par
ents appreciated him to the priIters'
trade, but he disliked the business from
the first as he had, as he himself states,
an instructive r%epugnancc to soiling his
fingers. he only remained seven months
at the business, at the end of which time
his ambition to get to London was graft
fed. He entered a leading dry goods
house in that city and and remained with
the firm for seven years.
For a time he was kept pretty closely
confined u desk work. which was rcp1g-
nant to him, but spent his leisure in the
dress goods department in seeking infor-
nation from the statesmen and in studying
French. Recognizing Paris as the fashion
center OF the world, he finally became
feyerishly anxious to go to that city. With
this object in view he gave up his position
and without any prospect in view started
to the French capital. Here he was for,
tuuate enough to secure almost immediate
employment in the great house of Gagelin
Il Co. Tais was in 1916. Two years
later Louis Philippe was dethroned. He
advanced BY rapid gradations, was placed
IN charge Of the cloak department and
ultimately taken into partnership.
AT that time" he continues, telling
his own story. the Maison Gagelin did
not make dresses. it being considered
~derogatoy to the dignity of the house to
do so. The few, therefore, that | sup
piled were made outside under my super
vision, by a dressmaker in my own en-
ploy. In fact, my actions were subjected
TO so many restrictions, and such vehe-
ment objections were made to all my
efforts to extend the business, that |
finally quilted the firm and went into bust
ness for myself. This was in the year
1858. My partner was a Swedish gentle
man, NJ. Boberrh, and the firm continued
to be Worth & Bobergh till the Franco
German war, which saw i~naugurated my
house as Worth alone.
Before | left the Maison Gagelin the
firm counted many clients at the imperial
court although the house was looked up.
on as decidedly Legitimist in character,
as 1t dated from the days OF Marie An
toinette, and had hanging on the walls of
its chief reception room a drawing in
India ink of that queen coming to the
shops there soon after the accession OF
Louis XVI. 1t was extensively patron
lied by the ladies OF the Faubourg St. Ger
main, and one of them introduced me to
the Countess de Pourtales, through whose
influence | first submitted one of my ere
ations to the empress. 1t was a walking
dress in gray t%affetas, trimmed with black
velvet ribbons, the skirt and jacket made
to match, which was her an entirely new
idea, though the style has since become so
universal. The empress admired it ex-
trcmely.
Before this epoch | had taken medals
at the international exhibitions of London
in 1852 and Of Paris in 1855. This was
while | was still at the Maison Gagelin.
My exhibit at the first Paris exhibition
was a court train in white moire antique,
the ground almost entirely disappearing uu-
der embroidery in gold thread and pearls,
the pattern of which was my own design
ing. 1t represented a series of graduated
~iounces in gold lace, spreading out in the
form of a IN, and even at that epoch of
low prices, when 500 was considered an
~extravagant amount for a lady to pay for
a magnificent dress, was valued at Sc, 600.
Two things at the beginning Of the
empire combined to give the feminine
dress an added importance. One was the
invention OF the crinoline and the other
was the age for fancy costume balls"
Worth has, Of course, grown immensely
wealthy, but he claims to still give close
personal supervision to all of the work
credited to bis establishment.
WHILE the church memhera og Son