Courtesans and Couture

Watching the Academy Award ceremony last night and the parade of gorgeous dresses made by skilled artisans made me think about the history of couture. I had to correct the assumption of a male friend who dismissed the artistic value of those dresses. Couture dresses are handmade by highly skilled women and men in ateliers, not sweatshops as he erroneously believed. Many of the frocks take months to create, with every bead and bit of sequin carefully attached to the fine fabrics. This is a dying art form, unfortunately, as haute couture is replaced by pret-a-porter designs, which do not require nearly as much skill.

But how many people know where couture started and most importantly, some of the women who put it on the map? The average person probably thinks couture is always preceded by the word “Juicy”. Charles Frederick Worth is widely regarded as the “Father of Haute Couture”. He started by designing beautiful, ornate, fashion-forward gowns for famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) courtesans such as Cora Pearl and La Paiva. The courtesan’s combination of elegance and lack of “propriety” gave couturiers the opportunity to try more risque designs that, say, Empress Eugenie would never have worn. Thanks to them, long before the red carpet at the Academy Awards, there was the informal fashion show at Longchamps during thoroughbred races. Though disdained by proper society at times, the courtesan dictated fashion.

The House of Worth released a fragrance in 2006, their first in 25 years, called “Courtesan”, acknowledging the history of Charles Worth’s association with courtesans.

It is described by the House as, “…an intoxicating mix of exoticism and sensuality” and “…seductive and sophisiticated” in the fragrance family of floriental. Courtesan is only sold in select stores, such as Harrod’s, though there are other stores carrying it around the world. So continues the history of the courtesan as muse.