Like most great designers throughout history, high fashion started from the humblest of beginnings. Born in the back alleys of Paris, it has grown up into a global business that commands the attention of millions. From the very first haute couture house to the evolution of the dress form mannequin as a symbol of modernity, the history of fashion is full of triumphs, failures, and controversies.
The Birth of Haute Couture
Modern luxury fashion was born in France in the mid-nineteenth century when a British immigrant named Charles Frederick Worth established his Paris clothing business. Like so many other shops around the great city, his store made garments for the crème de la crème of French society, only Worth’s outlet came with a revolutionary twist.
A Brand is Born – Rather than slavishly follow current trends, Worth decided to imprint his own sense of creativity on the clothes he produced. With just enough hubris to style himself a “designer,” as opposed to a simple dressmaker, he pioneered the idea of the branded fashion house. In the process, he became the world’s first true couturier.
Catering to the tastes of the style-conscious upper-class women who dominated the Paris social scene, Worth began to make a name for himself. Where once a customer would demand a certain dress in a certain cut, Worth would instead recommend a look, making himself (and not the people he dressed) the final arbiter of taste. His creations were so distinct that when a woman wearing one of his designs walked into the city’s fashionable salons, onlookers could say, “There goes a Worth dress.”
Thus emerged the concept of haute couture, although the phrase itself wouldn’t appear until 1908. For well into the next century, French designers would dominate this world of high fashion.
A City of Fashion Luminaries
French superiority was nothing new. The center of everything chic since at least the seventeenth century, Paris had long been the world’s foremost trendsetter. Throughout the eighteenth and well into the nineteenth century, every well-to-do woman desired nothing but the latest Paris fashions.
Members of high society from Saint Petersburg to Virginia would make regular trips to Paris to copy the latest fabrics, cuts, and dyes. For those who couldn’t make the arduous journey, there were always fashion dolls, the precursors to modern dress form mannequins. By shipping these dolls from capital to capital, the rich and powerful of the day could show off the latest Paris looks to friends in distant climes.
France wasn’t the only beacon on the horizon. The British also exerted their influence, particularly on men’s dress. Even so, London never could match the seductive charm of the French capital. For centuries, women throughout Europe saw Paris as the epitome of vogue.
An Elite Game – The nineteenth century brought added advantages to Parisian dressmakers—namely the creation of cultural institutions designed to protect the high standards and elite image of the best Paris fashion houses.
It began in 1868, a mere ten years after Worth opened his fashion house, when Le Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture rose up out of the bourgeoning Paris fashion scene to become the official guardian of all things exclusive. From the moment of its inception, Le Chambre and only Le Chambre would decide what was and what was not “high fashion.” Henceforth, designers would have to earn the right to wear the coveted couture label.
Fashion for All, All for Fashion
At the other end of the social and economic spectrum, new attitudes and technologies were facilitating the democratization of the garment industry. It had to do with the rise of confection, or ready-to-wear clothes.
At the same time Charles Worth was transforming the high end of the market, the industrial revolution was shaking up the low and middle ends of the industry. New manufacturing techniques allowed for the mass production of clothes. Of course, those pre-made garments had to be displayed somewhere.
The Birth of the Mannequin – That somewhere was in the windows of department stores of the world, where signature pieces were placed on mannequins, positioned under new electric lights, marked with a fixed price, and shown off to potential customers. Wooden dress forms had been in use by royalty since the days of King Tut, but now the first full-bodied modern mannequin, unveiled by the French in 1870, became enlisted in the cause of accessible fashion.
The whole world came to gaze and gape at these new figures adorned in the latest fads. No longer did women have to belong to the best society to admire the latest cuts. In spite of the occasional meltdown (wax mannequins did have a tendency to dissolve under the glare of a powerful lamp), business flourished. While haute couture houses set the trends, fashion now began to trickle down to the rest of society, and the mannequin helped bring it there.
From Temperamental Men to Hard-Headed Women
Here Come the Tyrants – In those first heady days of high fashion, the business was dominated by male designers like Paul Poiret. Along with Worth, Poiret originated the archetype of the exalted and tyrannical couturier. Ruling over his shop like a dictator, he was extravagant, temperamental, egotistical, and demanding. Like so many fashion designers today, he garnered at least as much attention as his attire, and not all of it favorable.
From Poiret’s exotic, Arabian Nights inspired line of dresses to his groundbreaking foray into the world of fragrances (now a staple of the industry), the irascible Frenchman helped to establish the pattern that would come to define haute couture for over a century.
Step Aside, Gentlemen – Following in Poiret’s wake, a new generation of female designers would carry the industry well into the twentieth century—and an entirely new era in high-end attire.
It started with names like Jeanne Lanvin, whose rather conservative and noticeably feminine style would make hers the longest-running fashion house in the world, and Madeleine Vionnet, whose sensually free-flowing designs helped free women from the dreaded corset (one of at least three designers, including Poiret and Coco Chanel, to lay claim to that rebellion).
Protecting the Brand – Vionnet was also one of the principal agents in the creation of L’Association de Protection des Industries Artistiques Saisonnieres (PAIS), an institution designed to protect the intellectual property of Paris’ couturiers.
Vionnet, who would use her 80cm-high wooden dress form mannequin to design each piece of apparel with painstaking care, was angered by attempts of plagiarists to copy and sell her one-of-a-kind designs. Then one day she had an idea: She would use her treasured mannequin to photograph her pieces from every angle. That way, no one could steal her designs with impunity. Thus, some of the very first dressmaker forms helped cement the position of some of the very first designers.
The Most Famous Name in Fashion – As the twentieth century progressed, so too did fashion, and it matured under the tutelage of figures like Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, arguably the most famous designer ever to walk the face of the earth.
Chanel, a hard-headed woman who rose from abject poverty to stunning success through a series of amorous liaisons, helped pave the way for fashion to enter the world of big business. With the advent of the fashion show, the expansion of photography, and the ever-widening circulation of magazines, the world grew smaller and business grew bigger.
Chanel, among a number of others, took advantage of these trends to imprint her own style on the clothes of the day. Her emphasis on simplicity, and her hatred of all things fussy and frilly, combined with her desire to liberate women from the impediments of elaborate dresses, left its mark and culminated in that enduring staple of modern chic: the little black dress.
As outfits evolved, so too did the mannequins that displayed them. From the big-busted and tiny-waisted models of the corset-wearing nineteenth century to the stylishly debauched figures of the roaring twenties, these mock-ups reflected the changing tastes (and controversies) of the new century.
Fashion in the Here and Now
With the dawn of World War II came trouble for the French fashion industry in the form of German occupation and increased competition from abroad, particularly the United States. After the war, the country made a comeback with Christian Dior’s “New Look” collection, but things had changed, and everyone knew it.
Throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the industry went through its fair share of ups and downs. From the freestanding boutique of Yves Saint Laurent to the mod styles of London’s Carnaby Street (the miniskirt, anyone?), vogue began to take on a whole new meaning.
By 1970, stricter high-fashion guidelines had knocked a number of fashion houses off the haute couture list. The recession of the early twenty-first century also forced designers like Gianni Versace to eliminate fashion shows for almost a decade.
A Big and Glamorous World – With the dawn of yet another era, fashion has begun to emerge from the troubles with as much luster as ever. These days, a new generation is leaving its footprint on the industry. Nowadays, young faces are placing a greater emphasis on diversity and inclusivity. With the debut of Rad Hourani’s first-ever unisex couture collection, the rise of plus size dress forms, and the launch of the first Shanghai fashion show, today’s industry is all about breaking boundaries.
Newer, Better Dress Forms – It’s also about perfecting the art of making clothes. With a wealth of resources at their disposal, designers now have more options for bringing the latest fashions to a wider range of people. No longer do mannequins melt in the sun or come in one, model-thin size. Today, PGM Dress Form offers a full range of figures with realistic body shapes, high density felt coverings, and sizes that range from little girls to plus-sized men and women, so designers can shape garments that fit every individual.
With more opportunities and better materials for aspiring fashionistas—designer, fashion magazine editor, brand representative, visual merchandiser—the industry still lures plenty of ambitious up-and-comers from all over the world. There is little doubt these newcomers will continue to revolutionize the world of fashion, much like the trailblazing couturiers who went before them.
For information on how to measure a dress form, visit our industry grade dress form page.