DAY 94: A White Wedding

Worth Wedding Gown, 1879

A fashionable nineteen-year-old raised in Paris went to only one dressmaker for her wedding gown: Charles Frederick Worth.

Born a Cockney and apprenticed as a child to a linendraper, Worth reinvented himself in Paris as the father of haute couture. Married to a Frenchwoman and in command of an atelier full of artisans who could embroider anything for a price, Worth commanded enormous sums for his one-of-a-kind gowns. In the weeks leading up to Jennie Jerome's April, 1874 wedding, the House of Worth ran up twenty-four of them for her trousseau.

Here is another period Worth wedding gown (1878) shown with veil, fan and gloves, and again in a closer look at same gown's jacket detail:

Notice the gorgeous embroidery on the skirt of this Worth wedding gown from 1880. 

Worth was the first to employ women to model his gowns in his Paris salon, so that clients could view his  work in a realistic setting. One windowless room was lit only by candelight, the better to showcase mannequins draped in evening and ball gowns.

Interior of Charles Frederick Worth salon, Paris

For more images from THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN, visit the  Pinterest board behind the novel.