French haute couture, set by famous fashion designers, has only existed since the middle of the 19th century. Before that, it was usually the kings of France who decided what was fashionable, and that sometimes led to rather ridiculous results.
How did the wig become fashionable?
Take Louis XIII (1601-1643), who started losing his hair in 1624 and is responsible for bringing the wig into fashion. His son, Louis XIV, inherited his father’s baldness and turned the wig into a fashion item across all of Europe. In the 18th century the wig became white because as the king aged and what was left of his hair turned white, the aged look itself became very fashionable.
Luckily for us, by the end of the 18th century the French Revolution and the British wig tax helped the wig disappear from fashion, which means we don’t have to wear wigs today. Unfortunately, though, not every ridiculous fashion created in the days of Louis XIV vanished into the mists of history. One of them still haunts us to this day: the necktie.
Why does the necktie keep strangling us to this day?
The king of France employed quite a few mercenary soldiers from various countries for his many wars, among them a regiment of Croatians who, for some unknown reason, used to tie a scarf around their necks. One day in 1660, Louis XIV noticed this and got so excited about the item that he decided to adopt it, and that is how the necktie was born. In French it is called “cravate,” which is actually a corruption of the word Croate (Croatian).
If you thought a man wearing a white wig looked silly, take a look at pictures of French men from the early 19th century. At that time the necktie was essentially a piece of fabric that wrapped all the way around the neck, so that whoever wore one could not move their neck at all and had to turn their whole body just to look sideways. The most dedicated gentlemen even wore a double necktie, which meant they had to employ the services of a servant who walked around with a mirror so they could see to the sides.
Unfortunately, the necktie is still with us, but it has gone through a few transformations, and these days at least the person wearing one doesn’t look like they’ve just been in a car accident…
The king is dead, long live the fashion designer!
Louis XIV also had a say in women’s fashion. In his time, the women of the court wore dresses whose train grew longer the higher a woman’s standing rose at the king’s court (which I find rather ironic, since quite a few women at Louis XIV’s court actually rose in standing by taking their dresses off).
Just like men’s fashion, French women’s fashion conquered all of Europe starting in the 17th century, and it gave rise to the French haute couture industry. French tailors were considered the best in Europe, but they had to wait until the 19th century to become fashion designers.
Ironically, like quite a few inventions considered thoroughly French, such as Champagne, the concept of haute couture is also credited to an Englishman. The creator of modern French fashion was Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895), who started his career as a cloth merchant. Since he was strongly drawn to fashion design, he came to Paris to work for a textile merchant who also dealt in dressmaking.
While working for the textile merchant, Worth designed his first dresses, which won awards at the exhibitions of London (1851) and Paris (1855). These wins allowed him to open his own business in 1858 on rue de la Paix (7 rue de la Paix). Unlike other professionals in his field, who worked in the service of fashion created by kings, nobles or their mistresses, Worth was the first to create fashion of his own. And so, instead of him going to his clients, the clients began coming to him.
Among his most famous clients were Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, the famous courtesans Cora Pearl and Catherine Walters, and Pauline von Metternich, wife of the Austrian ambassador in Paris. All of them made him rich and kept his business alive even after his death in 1895. So what was the secret to Worth’s success?
His success can be traced to three innovations. The first was the branding of his dresses. Worth was the first to add a label to every dress reading “Worth, 7 rue de la Paix,” branding them as works of art rather than simple garments. The second innovation was using live models instead of mannequins, to show his potential clients how beautiful they would look wearing his clothes. The last innovation was the fashion shows he held to let his clientele know what they would be wearing next season.
In 1868, Worth founded the French haute couture association, and as we all know, once a French professional association is formed, nothing in that field will ever change again… And so, to this day, whether we are talking about the fashion houses of Chanel, Christian Dior or Yves Saint Laurent, they all stick to the same basic model: create a new look, infuse it with Parisian exclusivity, and get people to worship you.
Want to read more about French fashion?
Here are a few more articles that might interest you:
- The Mistress, the Shirt and the Poison by Ariella Goichman-Garber
- A Clean Sweep: The Story of the Wig in France by Ronen Sas
- Parisian Chic: How to Bring Parisian Fashion into Your Own Closet by Nathan Avergrin
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