THE GREAT MAN MILLINER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10653, 14 May 1895, Page 2

THE GREAT MAN MILLINER.

AN ANECDOTAL SKETCH OP HIS CAREER. “CANTERBURY TIMES.”] London, March 15. The famous man-milliner. Worth, who died of the current epidemic on Monday last, at the age of seventy, was an undoubted genius, and in his own line quite unapproachable. Forty year sago he conquered Paris, and became the dictator of Fashion. His away was/.absolate wherever French dress was worn., He.madeforall the Courts of Europe, and for the richest and most distinguSoi America’s daughters. There are “ Worth et Cie’s ” now all over the world, in Bond Street and. Boston, in Vienna, in New York, and possibly (for all I know) in Melbourne tob.People who patronise these firms are mostly undef the delusion that they are “ dressed by Worth,” and unquestionably pay through the nose as though they were. But really, as a recent law case established, the “ Worth et Oie’s ” of Bond street and elsewhere, have absolutely no connactionwith the famous Paris atelier in the an easy thing to be " dressed by Worth.” Latterly, indeed,.the,old man gave personal attention only. One of his best customers used to he Queen Maria Pia. She spent hours consulting the manmilliner. The Empress of Austria troubled him seldom. She.wears jerseys and tailormade dresses mostly. It is said, however, that on one occasion years ago, when she ordered a court dress from him, her Majesty failed to recognise herself in the mirrors of the throne-room. - "What a nice-looking woman, and how beautifully she's dressed,” she is declared tohavasaidl

Curiously enough M. Worth was not a , Frenchman at all, but a : pure-hrad Briton,, born at Bourse, in Lincolnshire. Having heard much of French fashions lie, after, an apprenticeship in the great Regent Street house of Swan, and Edgar, went to Paris. Mrs Crawford gives an interesting sketch of his personality. She says: He was a determined-looking man, rather rude, or at any rate downright in manner* and resembled Prince Bismarck. The resemblance < was even strong. Like Prince Bismarck he found that “blunt frankness answered. If he had not been a dressmaker he' might have been a great artist, the sense of plastic beauty being strong in him, and allied «with the sense of colour. Ha was first employed whan little more than a boy in. a wholesale silk warehouse in the Rue du Sentier. It was found that he got most orders, and that this was due :to his instinctive talent for draping and otherwise arranging stuffs hehad to sell. He seemed to juggle with his silks and satins in showing off their hues and textures. This was during Louis Philippe’s reign. Worth went from the Rue du Sentier to Gagelin’s in the Rue de Richelieu. Gagelin’s was then the place where ladies of quality went to shop. Itwas a large place for the time, but not a "universal provider’s.” Its specialities were stuffs for dresses, shawls, linings and laces. Qagelin’s set up to provide style, and was supposed to furnish the best goods of the kind in which it dealt. The Comtesse de Montijo and her daughters were among the customers. Moat of the ladies of the Theatre Franqsis used to buy materials for their dresses at Qagelin’a and take them to a couturiers to be made up. Very grand couturieres were not then above working in this way. Worth made himself known to the firstrate patronesses of Gagelin. He was bound not to set up as a rival to that house. It was this which drove him into the dressmaking line as a rival of Mdme. Vignon, who made for the Empress, and was exclusively employed up to 1860, when Worth opened his famous dressmaking, rooms in a first floor fiat in the Rue de la Pais:, He was in partnership with a Swede, who kept the books and was general business manager. Worth devoted himself to measuring ladies, giving "consultations,” and obtaining orders. The Princess Metternich was fresh to Paris, and had an exquisite figure of the slight supple sort. She started on her career of fashion bypatronising Worth. As she went-in for a striking style of dress which necessitated constant change, she was a most valuable patroness. Worth “ suggestionised,” and went on a track of his own. On days on which there were to bo Court dinners or other functions, ladies who had ordered gowns for them came to him to be dressed. First come, first served; but there was a wait-, ing room with choice refreshments—a very necessary arrangement, for a fair customer might have to wait seven or eight hours.. When her turn came she entered the consulting room. Worth stood there armed with a pair of scissors. Two women stood beside him. They undressed the lady behind a screen, for her petticoat* were to the skirt of the gown what the skeleton is to the flesh. When her toilette so far was complete, the new gown was donned, and she emerged from behind the screen, to be passed in review by Mr Worth. Ha was particular about the cut and plastic points. Ha criticised aloud, worked hare and there with the scissors and pins. _ The women acting on hie orders also pinned and plied their needles. Glasses of wine were administered when nerves had run down from long waiting. _ Most of those who waited came with their heads dressed by Auguste, who went ho their houses in a handsome private carriage of hisown* ■ and'required a fee of 40f. When Worth was satisfied with a 'dressythe wearer might ha sure that it was as it should be. Ha- had really a strong• feeling of the idiosynoracies ,of his. different customers, and their dresses suited 1 their dispositions# Nobody batter knew how to disguise * defect. He hated lean women, and sent away hundreds because they would not do credit to his art. , _ The r Empress a,, corsages - fitted her like a Jouvin glove. As he liked to mould the figure, he detested padding. He. w«« a despot, and those who submitted to hia despotism paid heavily for it. _ A, 1 plain black silk gown, worth, in regard to the cost of stuff, JB7 or £B. would cost at Worth’s 1250, but itwas admirably cut iujia had style. In five years, ao rapidly dia his business grow, he had 600 workmen. He had 870 whan he died. He had to buy the whole of the establishment in the Euo de la Paix, and then another equally large house in a less leading street for his workrooms. -, There was no better employer than Mr Worth; He paid liberal wages all round*' aqd was kind and even generous to those in his employment who fell ill. He went direct to the manufacturers for all hia, stuffs. The fancy materials ware copyrighted by him for three or six months, to prevent them becoming common at once.' One could know Worth’s customers as well from the quality and hues of their garments as from the cut. The uprise of a number of great couturier, did not take from his business. He never desired to have more business than he and hia son could attend to themselves. I think he was m genuine and very honest person. He had; to take the world as he found it, and to deal with rich fools according to their folly. He remained a staunch Protestant, and sat for years under Pasteur Barsier. The funeral was celebrated in the French Protestant church in the Avenue de la Grande v Arm£e, where he had s sitting. Hia son is of French nationality, and as soft in manners as Worth was bluff.. Worth must have left a great fortune. He was not ostentatious, but was liberal. He was born in 1825.