Credited with developing the bustle, Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895) rose from humble beginnings to create the first fashion empire. He dictated his style preferences to the crowned heads of Europe during the mid-nineteenth century.

Charles Frederick Worth was the founder of Paris haute couture--high fashion. A talented designer with a savvy head for business, his fashion empire spanned the nineteenth century, growing amid the increasing opulence, wealth, and luxury of France's Second Empire, the reign of Britain's Queen Victoria, and America's Gilded Age. Raised in the Age of Reason, he used the technology of the industrial era to transform the decoration of women from a cottage-based craft into a major industry.

Family's Poverty Results in Unexpected Career

Worth was born October 13, 1825, in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. While he was descended from several generations of attorneys and was raised to assume a life of affluence, his comfortable lifestyle was...