
24/05/2025
« Worth the Visit: The First Fashion Dictator Takes Over the Petit Palais »
If fashion had a monarchy, Charles Frederick Worth would be its very first crowned king…
The Petit Palais’s latest exhibition celebrates Charles Frederick Worth, the Englishman who single-handedly invented haute couture. Yes, you read that right — the French may have given us the word couture, but it took a very British gentleman to turn fashion into an empire of rules, labels, and silk-bound power.
Arriving in Paris in the mid-19th century, Worth didn’t just make dresses — he made the rules. Forget modesty: he branded his gowns like an artist signs a canvas. He was the first to sew labels into garments, establishing a name that screamed « exclusive » long before Instagram hashtags ever existed.