Paris fashion with shine
Paris was the fashion capital of the Western world from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, although other cities, such as New York, London and Milan, also became important centers of fashion. The clothes we wear today owe a lot to Paris, even if it was designed (and almost certainly manufactured) elsewhere in the world.
By the eighteenth century, wealthy foreigners were traveling to Paris to have their clothes made, or they employed seamstresses and tailors to copy the latest Paris fashions (which were described in the newspapers of the day), exclaiming all the while at how quickly the fashions changed, how expensive everything was, and how outré the fashions had become. These intertwined themes- eagerness to follow the latest Paris fashions, and outrage over their extravagance, expense, and immorality-were to characterize foreigners' attitudes toward Paris fashion for centuries. Meanwhile, the high-quality tailoring of London (where men's dress was increasingly based on country and sporting clothing, rather than on "Frenchified" court fashions) began to make its influence felt on the continent, and men of fashion throughout the Western world began to dress in English style.
Haute Couture Emerges
The leadership of Paris in women's fashions accelerated during the nineteenth century, with the rise of what became known as the haute couture. It was not merely that the arts of fine sewing, cutting, and the myriad other techniques necessary for the production of fine garments flourished in Paris.
The structure of the industry also evolved, as dressmaking moved from being a small-scale craft to a big business. Prior to the middle of the nineteenth century there were no fashion designers, as such. Dressmakers, assisted by specialized skilled workers, collaborated with their clients to produce garments in the latest styles (which were widely publicized in the burgeoning fashion press). The first true couturier was the Englishman Charles Frederick Worth, a dynamic and enterprising man whose skills at clothing design and dressmaking were matched by his skills for merchandising and self-promotion. He portrayed himself as an artist and an arbiter of taste, whose function was to understand what his clients should wear and to dress them accordingly-a far cry from the old system under which dressmakers basically executed their customers' orders. Meanwhile, the new Paris of grand boulevards shone even more brightly as the setting for fashionable display.
This article is taken from the site