English-born Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895) founded his house at 7 rue de la Paix in Paris in 1858. He transformed the world of dressmaking into a new art of “haute couture” by launching signature dresses, introducing seasonal collections and catwalk shows. He dressed the most famous women in the world, from Empress Eugénie of France, Princess von Metternich, Lady Curzon, the “best-dressed” lady of the Belle Epoque, Countess Greffulhe, Russian aristocrats, Gilded Age Americans and stars of the stage. The house of Worth continued its dazzling career under the direction of Charles Fredericks’s son, Gaston and grandson Jean-Charles into the 1920s and beyond.

The exhibition brings together 400 artefacts from 1850 to 1950, including 80 costumes from prestigious international collections, (the V&A, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Palais Galliera, Paris), objects and accessories in dialogue with fashion plates, paintings and society portraits of the period. An unprecedented opportunity to see these fragile masterpieces of historic fashion brought together for the first and possibly last time.