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High Fashion: When It All Began
By: Staff Writer
Photo below: From the Lagerfeld Gallery Spring 2004 collection
Photo by Javier Mateo

PARIS, Jun 21, 2003/ FW/ --- Paris, the center of the fashion universe. The city where it all began.

Charles Worth, the first ever couturier was an Englishman who flourished in Paris. Before him, every one who dealt with clothes and fashion was called a seamstress, tailor or dressmaker.

Charles Worth changed that by signing his name on the label, and the first one to use live mannequins whom we call "models" today.

He is historically considered the father of Haute Couture.

During the Second Empire of France and the Gilded Age (1860-1918) in America (about the time of the Industrial Revolution) wearing a Charles Worth gown is a status symbol.

Although Charles Worth is credited with the beginning of haute couture, the growth of fashion in Paris predates him.

Marie Antoinette was one of the biggest supporter and perpretator of Parisian fashion.

Yes, the world remembers her more with her infamous line, "Let them eat cake," during the Bread Riots in France.

But Marie Antoinette kept the fashion industry in France going even during the time of war.

She insisted that persons carrying "fashion dolls," the progenitors of modern day mannequins which could measure from 18 inches to life size be allowed safe passage through war zones.

Even when England and France were at war during her reign, the Queen of England and Marie Antoinette exchanged fashion dolls so that the ladies in their court and themselves could wear the latest craze or fad.

At first look, what the two monarchs were doing might seem frivolous. Yet, if you look into it deeper, the exchanging of fashion kept a lot of people employed and kept their respective countries' economy going.

This is an oversimplication of the socio-political fashion history. And some might even disagree.

Yet, one of the "by-products" of exchanging fashion dolls are still currently used today - the mannequin!

Because although historians cannot really pin point who created the first mannequin, the French has always credited with its invention.

Centuries had passed since the time of Marie Antoinette and Charles Worth and Paris still remain the center of Paris as it has been for the past several hundred years.