Marie Augustine Worth

Marie Augustine Worth

Marie Augustine Worth (born Vernet ; born August 23, 1825 in Clermont-Ferrand , † 1898 ) was the wife of the fashion designer Charles Frederick Worth and the first mannequin .

Marie Vernet was a young saleswoman at Gagelin et Opigez , a Parisian trading house for high-quality silk fabrics. In 1846 Charles Worth, a cloth seller from London , got a job there and quickly began to make a career. There he got to know and appreciate Marie Vernet and began to make clothes for her. Customers soon began to take notice of the elegantly tailored clothes of the young saleswoman and asked if something similar could not be made for them. Worth therefore suggested to Gagelin's management that a department for women's clothing be set up, which could be headed by Marie Vernet. After initial hesitation, a small women's clothing department was established. Marie not only worked there as a saleswoman, she also demonstrated the clothes, making her the first mannequin in the history of fashion.

Until then, women's clothing (as well as men's clothing) was made on the basis of a template or a drawing and after selecting a suitable fabric and adapted to the customer in several sessions (usually six). The seamstress came to the customer's house for this purpose. Worth changed this way of working in every single point. Garments were presented by a living model and no longer selected on the basis of a picture or draped on a doll. The customer now came to the tailor and instead of six sessions, only one was enough. In addition, men were hardly represented in the women's clothing sector until then.

In 1858, Worth went into business for himself with a Swedish partner and established a women's clothing store at 7 rue de la Paix in the center of Paris. Business was slow at first, however, and so it was that Marie Worth (the two had married in June 1851) began to act in what would now be called a Brand Ambassador . First of all, the Empress Eugénie , who was the determining center of fashionable taste in the Second Empire , was to be won as a customer. Worth therefore sent Marie to Princess Pauline von Metternich , the wife of the Austrian ambassador in Paris, a very fashion-conscious lady and friend of the Empress. Marie succeeded in arousing the interest of the princess, to whom she presented an album with her husband's designs. The princess ordered two dresses which caught the attention of the empress at a reception. Empress Eugénie and with it a wide range of prominent women from all over Europe soon became customers of Worth, including Queen Victoria , Elisabeth "Sissi" of Austria , Lillie Langtry , who was celebrated for her beauty , the actress Sarah Bernhardt , the soprano Nellie Melba and the demi-world lady Cora Pearl . Many of his customers took a long journey to Paris to be dressed by Worth.

In the years that followed, Marie continued to work for her husband and to win new customers by visiting salons and appearing at events where the fashionable world met, and on these occasions, of course, wore the clothes of the House of Worth. Over time, she and her appearance gained an independent significance and weight in the world of fashion.

Two sons, Gaston and Jean-Philippe, emerged from his marriage to Worth. After Worth's death in 1895, Marie Worth ran the company with her sons until her own death in 1898.

literature

• Uche Okonkwo: Luxury fashion branding. Trends, tactics, techniques. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2007, pp. 52-55.
• NJ Stevenson: The History of Fashion. Styles, trends and stars. Haupt, Bern et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-258-60032-1 , p. 50f.

Web links

• The Amateur Casual: The Parents of Modern Fashion: Charles & Marie Worth February 24, 2011