The Worth house is told in an exhibition entitled “Worth-invent Haute Couture” presented at the Petit Palais from May 7, 2025. The opportunity to discover more than 400 pieces, clothes and accessories, ranging from the Second Empire to the interwar period, from this large haute couture house, symbol of French luxury.
For the first time, Maison Worth is the subject of an exhibition presented at the Petit Palais, in collaboration with the Palais Galliera, in Paris. She returns to the history of one of the symbols of French luxury, the one that is even described as inventor of haute couture, the British Charles Frederick Worth.
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A house founded in 1858 which has gradually become the symbol of French refinement and know-how and which even dressed the Empress Eugenie and many crowned heads.
A style characterized by opulence, theatricality and historicism
At Worth, dresses are silk and velvet sculptures, embroidered with gold and silver threads, where each pearl is placed by hand, carefully, like a jewel on the skin.
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Charles Frederick Worth is considered by many historians as the “father of haute couture”. © Laura Laplaud
A structured and innovative style that Sophie Grossord, general conservative of the Galliera Palais and co-commissioner of the exhibition. “”The Worth style is made of very large opulence, theatricality, parts embellished with garnishes, ribbons, which make them unique pieces but almost, a style also made of borrowing in past periods, there is a lot of mention of historicism in its creations “, she details.
-In the shoes of a woman for 24 hours
In the 1920s, the Worth house produced several hundred models per year. “Very few have been kept, this is where we measure that what we have in the collections is tiny,” continues Sophie Grossord, who still presents more than 400 rooms from the house at the Petit Palais.
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Worth creates clothes adapted to the different moments of the day. From day dresses to opera coats, including ball outfits, the house dresses women for 24 hours.
From day dresses to opera coats, including ball outfits, Worth house dresses women throughout the day. © Laura Laplaud
It is undeniably an icon of fashion but remains unknown to the general public. And it is to him that we owe the foundations of haute couture, as specified at the microphone of Europe 1 Annick Lemoine, Director of the Petit Palais. First of all, “L‘Use of the living model, it is first his wife, then then the models or the first sellers who will parade in his salons on rue de la Paix, to present the creations to his customers. It’s completely new and that’s what we know today With large parades “.
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The inventor of the seasonality of the collections
Charles Frederick Worth also establishes the seasonality of collections and invents modern fashion. And if his original dresses now sleep in museums, their sumptuous copies, they still shine today in films and series. “It was time to celebrate it and make it known, to enter this fashion world which is still that of today, that of haute couture which is inspired by what invented the Worth seam”, adds Annick Lemoine.
This exhibition, entitled “Worth, invent Haute Couture” is to be discovered at the Petit Palais in Paris from May 7 to September 7, 2025.
