WHAT IS FASHION:

FASHION:

Fashion as an industry so well established and illustrious, it's no surprise it doesn’t have humble beginnings. Fashion currently is a big business player, firmly cemented in the both the cultural and economic world, interwoven like veins breathing life into society as fashion both allows expression and individuality as well being a large benefit to the nations pockets, with the UK’s industry alone being worth £26 billion.  But, despite the current prominence of the evolving industry it had to start from somewhere.

Where has fashion come from?

It is considered ‘fashion’ took it’s first steps to becoming an industry in 18^th century France, under the reign of Louis the XIV. At the time, amongst French society, the belief of “outside appearance reflected not only one’s personality but social status” was already with standing – and the king built upon this ideology to birth his new regulated society. Louis wanted to make France an influential country and with the place of Versailles as the epicenter to all his extravagance, Louis the XIV (or Louis the grand as affectionately known) devised a culture using fashion as a tool to provide power. The king held a variety of different events at his court in Versailles for his courtiers to attend, social status depended upon the circles you ran in and the peacocking tendencies of courtiers to flaunt their wealth Louis XIV took advantage of – creating ‘Etiquette’, formalizing fashion rules to make it necessary for each occasion to require a different code of dress and certain behavior, this in a way developed an industry as the purchase of various outfits for the events would have been required for social acceptance, and with Louis XIV overseeing production introducing notions such as the Seamstresses Guild to regulate who could legally produce court attire. The attendees were in fierce competition with one another as their clothing ensemble conveyed their wealth and level of nobility – status was defined by what was on your back.

Where was the first centre of fashion?

 Fashion as a movement was born through the reign of Louis XIV, starting as a form or social acceptance and a method to allow a foot in to the inner circles of nobility when attending court in Versailles. Versailles as Louis XIV home and place of court created a fashion epicenter, as it was in the city of where the best fabrics and lace of the time were created as well as being the home to the best tailors: Paris. The location of persuaded nobility to attend and congregate to be closer to the monarchy, attending the events held by King allowed opportunities to flaunt your personal wealth and status, this was conveyed through how elaborate and avant-garde your dress was. The frequency of such events kept attendees in Versailles, and soon a circle of entrapment was created cementing courtiers stay in the capital: the best tailors were in Paris, the events all at Versailles, extortionate amounts spent to buy the best tailoring therefore the money kept with Paris. King Louis decision to drive the production of fashion to Paris through banning importation of textiles was economically advantageous for the city, it allowed lower class employment and French fashion reputation was spreading, the elaborate style spreading across Europe creating a culture as  Versailles as the ‘place to be’ fashion wise.

When and why did the age of the designer occur?

Before the age of the designer, all dressmaking was the work of individual bespoke tailors and seamstresses working on a item for a client. In a modern sense the first designer is considered to be Charles Frederick Worth, an English tailor whose worked was produced in Paris. Whilst working at a drapery firm, he began creating simple dresses for his wife which customers would ask him to duplicate. He then founded his own establishment ‘Worth and Bobergh’ in 1858, his work began attracting many notable clients however, his practice was unusual as instead of designing garments bespoke to customers preference he would create showcases four times of years of models wearing a selection of designs which he would then create to fit the client. He was considered the first designer as he was the first to create a ‘fashion house’ (House of Worth) – an establishment generating replicated designs in the form of haute couture.