Haute Couture and Charles Frederick Worth

Considered the father of haute couture, an Englishman named Charles Frederick Worth moved to Paris in the early 1850s and began working as a sales assistant at the famous Parisian fabric store, Gagelin-Opigez et Cie. At the time, Gagelin-Opigez et Cie was similar to today’s fabric stores. The customer would select the fabric, make it herself, or take it to her dressmaker, and give her instructions for making the dress she wanted.

Worth persuaded his employers to allow him to open a new and revolutionary department with a few dressmakers. By combining his extensive