Worth. Inventing haute couture

Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895), born in England, was a key figure in the history of fashion and the founder of a fashion house that became the epitome of Parisian luxury. At the origin of haute couture, Worth founded his eponymous house at 7 rue de la Paix, whose history spans four generations and almost a century.

Spread over 1100 m2 in the grand galleries of the Petit Palais, this retrospective brings together more than 400 works - clothing, objects and accessories, paintings and graphics - to create a vast fresco of the creations of the House of Worth, as well as the protagonists who have written its history. It promises to be an exceptional exhibition, given the fragility of the pieces on display, the number of silhouettes (almost 80) and the way in which a world in the making and its legacy are portrayed, based on extensive documentation.

From the Second Empire to the Roaring Twenties, a page of history is being written: that of the invention of the figure of the great couturier and of the mechanisms for creating and marketing fashion that are still in force and whose foundations were laid by Worth at the end of the 19^th century.

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General curators

Annick Lemoine, Chief Curator, Director of the Petit Palais
Miren Arzalluz, Director Emeritus of the Palais Galliera

Scientific curators

Sophie Grossiord, interim director of the Palais Galliera, General Curator, in charge of the collections of the first half of the 20th century at the Palais Galliera
Marine Kisiel, in charge of the 19th century collections at the Palais Galliera
Raphaële Martin-Pigalle, curator in charge of the Modern Paintings Department (1890-1914) at the Petit Palais

assisted by Alice Freudiger and Jacqueline Dumaine