House of Worth
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[edit] History of Worth Paris
Charles Frederick Worth is the father of what the modern fashion business knows as ‘Haute Couture'.
He was born in 1825 in the market town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, England. Worth apprenticed as a draper in London for 6 years at Swan & Edgars (a specialist in fine wools and silks). His fascination with beautiful silks led him to move to Paris in 1845 with a desire to create ladies fashions. He became an assistant draper at Maison Gaglin, where he remained for 10 years, rising to premier commis. At Gagelin’s he met Marie Vernet, a demoiselle de maison who demonstrated the features of the cloths as draped on a moving woman. They were attracted to each other very early on, but owing to their limited incomes they did not marry until May 1851. Maison Gagelin showed several of Worth’s designs there and although they caused great consternation in their departure from current fashion, Gagelin was awarded a gold medal for France.
In combining the classic with innovation, Worth created the first luxury brand synonymous with fashion and style in 1858, and within 10 years, he had become a highly influential and respected couturier dressing royalty, nobility celebrity and the notorious. He established the custom of sewing personal labels into bespoke garments, created at Worth’s atelier in Paris, and would prepare a portfolio of dress designs that would also be shown on live models at the House of Worth. Clients would attend these shows, selecting a design, and specific colours and fabrics, so a duplicate garment could be tailor-made in Worth’s workshop.
Worth combined his individual tailoring with a formula and standardization more characteristic of the ready-to-wear clothing industry today which back then was just beginning to emerge. In 1936 the House Of Worth showed a first collection at 120 rue du Faubourg Saint Honore, under the direction of a fourth generation of the Worth family, Jacques and Roger.
Following his death in 1895, his sons Gaston-Lucien (1853–1924) and Jean- Philippe (1856–1926) took over their fathers business and succeeded in maintaining its high standards.
The revival of the House is an initiative by House Of Worth Ltd. which can trace its intellectual property rights back to the House of Worth started by Charles Frederick Worth. Charles Frederick Worth was followed by his sons and grandsons into the Couture business, and by accounts, it was not until the third generation, which a separate fragrance business was set up in 1932. The Worth fragrance business has traded continuously since then. A member of the fourth generation of the Worth family, Roger Worth, son of Jacques, was active up to the Second World War.
[edit] About the Designer
Giovanni Bedin was first commissioned to design for WORTH in 2003 and has remained Principal Designer ever since. Bedin was born in Vicenza in 1974 to a family of tailors specializing in the art of made-to-measure for men, then in pret-a-porter for menand women. Fashion was Bedin’s destiny.
Bedin showed an interest in tailoring before he could read and write. His parents nevertheless pushed him to get a degree in accounting, just in case. The five-year course turned out to be a clever balance between deciphering balance sheets and financial analysis, learning languages and scrawling fashion sketches. Once he turned 19, and had gained his degree, Bedin set of to Paris to dedicate himself to his passion for style.
To begin with, he enrolled on a course at the school of the ChambreSyndicale de la Couture. He stayed there a year, just longenough to perfect his sewing technique. Then for three seasons he became an assistant to Karl Largerfeld. He explained that working with Largerfeld was, “A wonderful experience that taught me a lot about ways to work as well as a way to live”, After a quick season working alongside Thierry Mugler, Bedin went back to launch his own brand.
“When the House Of Worth approached me to lead the revival of the pioneering label of Haute Couture by means of a couture lingerie collection, I felt privileged and very excited. Nowadays the boundary between lingerie and clothing is very fine. The corsets, masterpieces of manual technology, seem to like the perfect link with the name that has remained engraved in fashion history as a synonym dedicated to women of exception”.
Since working for the House of Worth, Bedin has explored the immensely rich archives which have been a fundamental inspiration behind Bedin’s recreations of the essence and elegance of Worth’s era.
[edit] Worth’s Je Revien Fragrance
Charles Frederick Worth and his couture house was one of the first to extend its name to luxury perfumes. In 1924 Les Parfums Worth launched the first fragrance, Dans La Nuit, and recognized that presentation was crucial. Rene Lalique, the world renowned glass-maker was commissioned to design the bottle.
Worth’s grandson Jacques continued the tradition and with the perfumer Maurice Blanchet, struck on the romantic notion of a fragrant love poem comprising five individual scents: Dans La Nuit (1924), Vers Le Jours (1925), Sans Adieu (1929), Je Reviens (1932), and VersToi (1934).
Je Reviens launched in 1932, remains the most famous and revered of Worth’s perfumes. Encapsulating the romance and elegance of Paris in the 1930s, the perfume reached formidable acclaim in the 1940s when it becomes a favoured gift from soldiers to their sweethearts. It is truly a timeless classic, transcending style and trends.
[edit] Worth Couture S/S 2011
A year after premiering his first ever complete Worth Couture collection, designer Giovanni Bedin introduced his Night & Day Couture collection, which opened a new cycle.
The work was completed with the work of original proportions and creations of Monsieur Charles Frederick Worth. Giovanni Bedin re-interpreted the volumes of the garments, and defined his own 65 cm length dress, incorporating other distinguishing notes typical of the House Of Worth Couture codes. The creation and exploration of this new collection started with corsets, which merged into a series of redingotes and for S/S 2011it concluded with ballerina tutus for the finale of the trilogy.
The starting point for the S/S 2011 collection began when an unprecedented and unexpected discovery was made of a private collection of Worth gowns, elegant and eminent as those worn at Court in the nineteenth century. One glorious gown in particular, typical of the masquerade parties of Worth’s era, captured a surrealistic theme of the elements of night and day, portrayed in a myriad of poetic symbols similar to a poem by Keats; butterflies, bats, bees, lovers’ faces and flames or passion. These distinctive motifs recreated onto the Night & Day dress, were originally captured from two elegant porcelain vases, which belonged to a Countess of eminent elegance.
The Worth Couture S/S 2011 pieces recount this celestial tale with charm, wit and countless hours of handwork to embroider and reconstruct the minutiae on every dress: as a collection, the dresses all reflect the brands loyalty and passion for craftsmanship typical of haute couture ateliers.
Rich embroidery adorns each garment: golden bees that seem to fly from dress to dress settling delicately in the layers of tulle of the jupons. Fine gold thread runs through the collection like rays of sun in which the bright colours, such as fuchsia and aqua green reflect like a rainbow- the dress comes alive, and even the darkest black in the dress shines like moonlight.
[edit] Worth Couture: A/W 2011-2012
The Worth Couture A/W 2011-2012 collection is at a glance, a striking creation, ‘a one and only’ inspired by the famous couturier’s passion for panniers and structured cages which gave the silhouette to all his creations. Today Giovanni Bedin has brought this inside functionality to the outside, with designs reminiscent of golden cages, but with his input created out of black velvet, nude satins, pure white grosgrains laces and silks.
Boned petal bows scattered around free-floating cages form the shape of the dress are nesting both on the outside and the inside. It presents an inside-outside affair with the undergarments, the panniers and ribboning being worn as architectural belts around the couture garments: structured outlines are made interesting with the use of velvet shapes, and other pieces are a complex structure on boned velvet bands of ribbon crisscrossing around the body to form cute short, carefree mini dresses for today’s woman. All accessories by Worth are bespoke.
[edit] Worth Pret-a-Porter A/W 2011-2012
Fashion historians, lovers of fashion and couture, and all who celebrate true artistry react with a mixture of pure emotion ad raw passion to the world-renowned name of Worth.
Still sustained by the energy and vibrancy of Charles Worth’s philosophy and creativity 150 years on, the House Of Worth, which dates back to Paris in 1858, has re-emerged at the forefront of luxury. A network of inspired individuals drew on Worth’s approach to couture and read-to-wear, revitalizing la maison, and successfully presenting three Worth Couture collections which started with the Summer 2010 collection, and two Worth Paris Pret-a-Porter collections, blessed by the worlds media and opinion leaders.
The House Of Worth presented its very first A/W 2011-2012 Pret-a-Porter collection in the occasion of Milano Moda Donna, designed around the themes, complexities and elements of the Worth Winter Couture collection.
The Pret-a-Porter tailoring bears references to the built-in concept of the corset-jacket designed for the Couture collection and can be seen throughout in the neat sharp silhouettes. They key element within the collection reflects on the attention to the anatomy of the body: the dresses are fitted to the body profile, and are softly structured. They outwear coats and jackets are soft and comfortable, although the materials have a graphic interplay, which is very bold.
A mix of textures is captured in the wool and lace-mix in the coats, creating a soft, romantic element lifted by the verve of rouched leather. Lace detailing enriches both the inside and outside of the garments. The colour palette takes inspiration from the colours of the A/W Couture collection: ivory-creams, golds and blacks.
[edit] Worth Couture Lingerie
The Worth lingerie range is an in-depth study of how the Father of Couture, Charles Frederick Worth structured his garments around the feminine silhouette; a talent which led him to be historically acclaimed for his creations. Also, it is not generally known, Worth created underwear garments for his very special clients and it has been said, also for Queen Victoria.
Today, Giovanni Bedin, as a designer or Worth Couture, carries with immense responsibility of this heritage, and has designed a lingerie collection for a fine and private silhouette while personalizing the collection in his own unique way. Much like the allure of the leading ladies pictured in the UK masterpiece, ‘Downtown Abbey’ he has captured the famously intricate desires of the era, bringing them into today's context, portraying a refined feminine lifestyle, running with the deeply passionate undercurrent harnessed by their dress code.
The exquisite collection showcases the juxtaposition of emotions with pieces of black netting contrasting with virginal white Chantilly lace. The power and strength of woman is emulating in the structure of these garments; underwear is worn as outerwear so as to showcase the beauty that is normally hidden beneath the clothes. Meanwhile, the conservative flirts with the sensual, with materials such as velvet, satin and tulle are combined for a hedonistic approach to this seasons couture. This is refined Worth Couture Lingerie at its best- a collaboration of contrasts.
