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Article: The Haute and Mighty.(fashion in Europe)
- Article from:
- Europe
- Article date:
- November 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Delegation of the European Commission. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The French will want to strangle me with an Hermes scarf for divulging this, but haute couture was started by an Englishman. Charles Frederick Worth, born in 1825, became fascinated with the French flair for clothes design while he was working in a large London fashion store. He set off for Paris when he was twenty-one and spent a couple of years struggling along in classic 'starving artist' mode, before he found a wealthy Swedish sponsor who set him up in business. He opened a boutique on the oh-so-fashionable Rue de la Paix and established his own couture house there in 1858.
The wife of Austrian statesman Prince Metternich was so delighted with the clothes he ...