Designul cu povestile sale ( I ).

I - parte

Designul  - este de origine engleză şi înseamnă-proiect, desen, schiţă.

Termenul de "design" a apărut in 1851, in legătura cu complicatele realităţi ale producţiei industriale. Este o concepţie şi o metodă de creaţie care urmăreşte să asigure fiecărui produs un înalt randament funcţional. În toate epocile de înflorire umană a existat o corelare între posibilităţile materiale, nivelul tehnologic, relaţiile economice interne şi externe, orizontul spiritual exprimat prin gustul artistic şi capacitatea de creaţie. Mai mult tehnologul şi artistul se confundau într-o singura persoana.

Arta, tehnica si ştiinţa nu sunt domenii incompatibile, contradictorii sau concurenţiale, ci doar specifice şi solidare. Ele se implica şi se condiţioneaza. Designerul trebuie să mai ştie că funcţionalul, ergonomicul, esteticul si economicul vor trebui să conlucreze pentru a se ajunge la eficienţă.

Primul designer de modă, care nu a fost doar un simplu croitor de haine ci creatorul conceptului şi al noţiunii de couturier a fost, fără îndoială,  Charles Frederick Worth (1826-1895), un englez care a prosperat in Paris, fiind considerat La Pere (The Father) de (of) Haute Couture. 

Înainte ca acest negustor de haine  (draper – eng.) să-şi fi creat propria sa maison couture (casa de moda) in Paris, designul şi realizarea concretă a îmbrăcămintei era creaţia unui număr mare de croitorese anonime, iar aşa-zisa modă era copiată după hainele purtate la casele regale.

Succesul incontestabil al lui Worth s-a bazat pe puterea de convingere a acestuia care ştia să impună clienţilor săi ce să poarte, în loc de a asculta şi executa ceea ce aceştia doreau sau ar fi dorit să poarte. Datorită succesului său de neegalat până la idea sa revoluţionară, clienţii săi erau în situaţia nu numai de a purta haine deosebite de cele obişnuite, realizate la  House of Worth, dar şi de a fi mândri de a purta haine având o anume marcă specifică.

De fapt,  House of Worth a avut o existenţă incredibil de lungă în lumea din ce în ce mai aglomerată şi mai competitivă a  haute couture, existând mult după moartea fondatorului acesteia din  1895 şi ieşind din arena designului de modă doar în  1952, când a fost închisă de stră-stră-nepotul lui Charles Frederick Worth.

Paul Poiret, fostul ucenic al lui Worth, pentru care a repurtat nişte succese majore în moda timpului, şi-a deschis propria sa  casa de mode în 1904, fiind unul dintre acei remarcabili designeri de modă care a ştiut să armonizeze stilurile Art Nouveau si Aestheic Dress  cu moda Paris-ului şi cu cerinţele clienţilor săi. Creaţiile sale timpuri, realizate în maniera Art Deco alături de invenţiile sale în domeniul lingerie feminine  intime au fost puternic şi rapid îmbrăţişate de toate femeile, pentru că erau realizarea practică a ceea ce Poiret teoretizase, eliberarea trupului femeii de constrangeri.

După deschizătorii de drumuri, Worth şi Poiret, apariţia unor couturieri ca Jean Patou,  MadeleineVionnet, Mariano Fortuny, Jenne Lanvin, Coco Chanel,Main Rousseau Bocher, Elsa Schiaparelli, Cristobal Balenciaga si Christin Dior  a făcut parte din dezvoltarea normală a perioadei "clasice" a designului de modă.

                           

 

Charles Frederick Worth, the designer who dominated Parisian fashion in the latter half of the nineteenth century, was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England, on October 13, 1825. As a young man, Worth worked as an apprentice and clerk for two London textile merchants. In addition to gaining a thorough knowledge of fabrics and the business of supplying dressmakers during this time, he also visited the National Gallery and other collections to study historic portraits. Elements of the sitters' dresses in these paintings would later provide inspiration for Worth's own designs, for both fashionable ensembles and masquerade costumes. 

Worth relocated to Paris in 1845. Despite early struggles, he found work with Gagelin, a prominent firm that sold textile goods, shawls, and some ready-made garments. Worth became Gagelin's leading salesman and eventually opened a small dressmaking department for the company, his first position as a professional dressmaker. He contributed to the reputation of the firm with prize-winning designs displayed in the Great Exhibition in London (1851) and the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1855). The designer opened his own firm with a business partner in 1858. 

Success in Paris
Worth's rise as a designer coincided with the establishment of the Second Empire in France. The restoration of a royal house in 1852, with Napoleon III (1808–1873) as the new emperor, once again made Paris an imperial capital and the setting for numerous state occasions. Napoleon III implemented a grand vision for both Paris and France, initiating changes and modernization that revitalized the French economy and made Paris into a showpiece of Europe. The demand for luxury goods, including textiles and fashionable dress, reached levels that had not been seen since before the French Revolution (1789–99). When Napoleon III married Empress Eugénie (1826–1920), her tastes set the style at court . The empress's patronage ensured Worth's success as a popular dressmaker from the 1860s onward. 

Worth's designs are notable for his use of lavish fabrics and trimmings, his incorporation of elements of historic dress, and his attention to fit. While the designer still created one-of-a-kind pieces for his most important clients, he is especially known for preparing a variety of designs that were shown on live models at the House of Worth. Clients made their selections and had garments tailor-made in Worth's workshop.

Although Worth was not the first or only designer to organize his business in this way, his aggressive self-promotion earned him the titles "father of haute couture" and "the first couturier." By the 1870s, Worth's name frequently appeared in ordinary fashion magazines, spreading his fame to women beyond courtly circles.

The House of Worth
The large number of surviving Worth garments in the permanent collection of The Costume Institute, as well as in other institutions in the United States, is testament to Worth's immense popularity among wealthy American patrons, as well as European royalty and aristocrats. Many clients traveled to Paris to purchase entire wardrobes from the House of Worth. For the wealthy woman, a complete wardrobe would consist of morning, afternoon, and evening dresses  and lavish "undress" items such as tea gowns and nightgowns, which were worn only in the privacy of one's home. Women also looked to Worth to supply gowns for special occasions, including weddings (C.I.41.14.1) and ornate masquerade balls 1994, a favorite entertainment in both the United States and Europe. Worth's clients also included stars of the theater and concert stage. He supplied performance costumes and personal wardrobes for leading actresses and singers such as Sarah Bernhardt, Lillie Langtry, Nellie Melba, and Jenny Lind.

The House of Worth Continues
With his talent for design and promotion, Charles Frederick Worth built his design house into a huge business during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. His sons, Gaston-Lucien (1853–1924) and Jean-Philippe (1856–1926), took over their father's business following his death in 1895 and succeeded in maintaining his high standards. Jean-Philippe's designs in particular follow his father's aesthetic, with his use of dramatic fabrics and lavish trimmings 1976. The house flourished during the sons' tenure and into the 1920s. The great fashion dynasty finally came to an end in 1952 when Charles Frederick Worth's great-grandson, Jean-Charles (1881–1962), retired from the family business.

A superb example of dressmaking from the House of Worth, this dress exhibits the aesthetic of the last years of the nineteenth century. The fashionable reverse S-curve silhouette of the dress and the dramatic scroll pattern of the textile reflect the influence of the Art Nouveau movement. The striking graphic juxtaposition of the black velvet on an ivory satin ground creates the illusion of ironwork, with curving tendrils emphasizing the fashionable shape of the garment. In order to achieve this effect, the textile was woven à la disposition, with the intent that each piece would become a specific part of the dress. With this technique, the design of the fabric is intrinsic to the design of the dress.

Evening dress, 1898–1900
House of Worth (French, 1858–1956)
Silk

Employing a textile design that mirrors itself from selvage to selvage, this dress is pieced into a perfectly symmetrical image at the center front. Impeccable finishing details such as this distinguish the couture garment from the countless products of the ready-to-wear market that flourished in the mid- to late nineteenth century as a result of the Industrial Revolution. The use of the textile pattern to emphasize the woman's fashionable hourglass silhouette, achieved with the help of a steel-boned corset, further demonstrates the mastery of dressmaking technique at the House of Worth, as do the tiny handstitched cartridge pleats at the shoulder that create voluminous sleeves. The design of this sleeve, broad at the upper arm and fitted at the lower arm with the sleeve extending over the back of the hand, refers to sixteenth-century dress styles.

 

Wedding dress, 1898
House of Worth (French, 1858–1956)
Silk, pearl 

In addition to day and evening fashions for upper-class society women, Worth also created clothes for special occasions, such as the as-yet-to-be-identified fancy-dress ball to which this dress would have been worn. Composed of a separate bodice and skirt executed in shocking pink and black taffeta with paste buttons, machine lace trim, and pleated silk chiffon fichu, this gown illustrates the fashion for eighteenth-century revival, a popular theme for extravagant costume parties of the period. The narrow sleeves of the garment, along with the double-breasted masculine tailoring, imitation cut-steel buttons, lace fichu, and open front skirt, refer to fashionable women's styles of the 1770s.

Evening dress, 1893–1900
Charles Frederick Worth (French, born England, 1825–1895)
Silk

The silhouette suddenly deflated in the 1870s, from a broad dome to something more akin to a right triangle. This silhouette developed in part because of the need to absorb the voluminous skirts, which had been worn over the domed cage crinoline. The solution was to pull the excess fabric behind and create a bustle which was elaborated with trimmings and supported with steel or cane hoops that projected backwards from the body. The waistline during this period was still in approximately natural position, but the torso overall had taken on a new shape in the advent of the spoon busk. Curved outward over the abdomen, the spoon busk allowed the fullness of the belly to be expressed below a compressed waist. The rounded lower torso in combination with a supported bust above formed a curvaceous hourglass silhouette.

Ball gown, ca. 1872
Charles Frederick Worth (French, born England, 1825–1895)
Silk

Ball gown, ca. 1872
Charles Frederick Worth (French, born England, 1825–1895)
Silk

Worth rarely scrutinized or adapted forms from the East. More often, he was an instrument of a Western taste that was projected globally via imperialism; for instance, he is said to have created 250 dresses on commission from Empress Eugénie for her appearances at the opening of the Suez Canal in 1868. But in this unusual example from his oeuvre, he emulated Middle Eastern enamels. The gown was worn by Mrs. William De Forest Manice, the donor's grandmother, at both the French and English courts during the reigns of Napoleon III and Queen Victoria. When worn on such occasions, the dress had a detachable brocade train, since destroyed.

Charles Frederick Worth's two sons, Jean-Philippe and Gaston, carried on the high standards of design and technique at the House of Worth following the designer's death in 1895. By the 1920s, a completely different, slim boyish silhouette had emerged as the new fashion, as the simple shape of this dress illustrates. Constructed with a minimal amount of seaming and shaping, the chemise dress suggested the body was flat in front and back, with no discernible articulation of the chest, waist, or hips. The lavish ornament of this example, however, provides a clear link to earlier examples executed by Charles Frederick Worth. Side slits and the shortened hemline reveal glimpses of gold lamé. The use of this opulent fabric for both the underdress and lining of the train, as well as the intricate beadwork, recall gowns made by the House of Worth in the previous century.

Evening dress, 1925
House of Worth (French, 1858–1956)
Silk, glass, metallic threads

Both of these evening dresses provide examples of the quality of dressmaking for which Charles Frederick Worth and the House of Worth were renowned among society women worldwide by the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Both feature lavish textiles and ornamental embroidery picked out in metallic thread and glass or crystal beads. Textiles for dresses such as these were often woven or embroidered à la disposition, as separate pieces designed to become specific parts of the dress, such as a center front skirt panel. Significant design details, such as the beaded stars at the hemline of the dress on the left (C.I.49.3.28a,b) and the asymmetry of the skirt drapery, differentiate Worth gowns from the countless imitators of the period.