ロンドンはいかにしてファッションの中心地の座を失ったか

Chander Ramesh Folks from New York, Milan, and London might have half-hearted protests, but the reality is that Paris is the undisputed fashion capital of the world. From its storied history (Balenciaga, Coco Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton) to its long-standing traditions that still dominate the fashion world today, like the Paris fashion week. Even COVID didn’t do much to change Paris’s grip on fashion.

But how did it come to be? Up until the twentieth century, only the rich dressed well (and only some of the rich did so fashionably). It wasn’t until wealthy men in the Americas started to order clothes from London tailors that the fashion ‘industry’ even began. In the 1790s, Beau Brummell standardized men’s fashion and became the de facto judge of what was allowed in Regency England, which ultimately became the standard internationally. And, for a while, London would remain the epicenter of men’s fashion.

Paris’ dominance in fashion is rooted in women’s fashion, and it all began with an Englishman by the name of Charles Frederick Worth. He made the rather contrarian choice to set up shop in France of all places.

p]:mt-0 [&>p]:mb-0 [&>p]:text-muted-foreground"> Britain was the world center of the textile trade (except for silk) and was the first country to establish large department stores, so it is curious that Worth, who was enormously inventive, methodical, and businesslike, did not choose to make London the center of high fashion.

As in most things, it came down to government. Queen Victoria was a good, God-fearing woman and even prior to her widowing, she was certainly not interested in dresses or fashion. The aristocratic women of England, taking her cues as unspoken law, soon followed.

Empress Eugene, on the other hand, was very passionate. It’s not clear who did the begging, but by 1860 Worth was appointed as her official dressmaker. It was not an appointment without merit: he was exceedingly innovative. Almost everything we take for granted in modern fashion was invented by Worth:

p]:mt-0 [&>p]:mb-0 [&>p]:text-muted-foreground"> [F]or the first time, he began to make for her entire multi-dress outfits, one set in January for the spring and summer, and another in July for the autumn and winter. This determined the cycle of the Parisian dress year; and since the empress rarely if ever wore the same dress twice, and certainly never wore a dress from the year before (and since all the Parisian rich followed her example), Worth greatly expanded the volume of what he called haute couture. The system demanded seasonal change to make clothes from the previous season look out of date and therefore unwearable. Worth responded with astonishing ingenuity and ruthlessness. He invented “planned obsolescence” a century before the term was coined. Among his novelties were: the antique over-tunic (1860); the shorter, ankle-clearing walking skirt (1862–1863); the flat-fronted cage (1864); light-colored spotted and striped summer dresses (1865); and fur trimmings (1867). In 1868 he abolished cages completely and with them the long-lived crinoline — a dramatic step that achieved the first real coup in fashion history. In 1869 he brought back the bustle, another audacious step that paid off.

After Worth, his son, Gaston, took up his father’s mantle and continued to make France the capital of women’s fashion (and soon, all of fashion). Gaston was arguably more important than his father, because it was the son who established the close links between Paris and the rest of the textile trade (Lyon’s silk makers for example). By 1910, Gaston had Paris firmly cemented as the global capital of fashion (over 110 fashion houses at the peak of Parisian history).

p]:mt-0 [&>p]:mb-0 [&>p]:text-muted-foreground"> There is, however, an interesting historical point, which is not sufficiently grasped by those who study fashion. There was no intrinsic reason why women’s high fashion should be centered in Paris rather than London. Paris became the center essentially because Empress Eugénie provided client-leadership and Worth responded with designer leadership. If Victoria had died in, say, 1870, and Alexandra, an unusually handsome woman with a fine figure, had become queen and offered client leadership, Worth would have responded by transferring his house to Mayfair, and the whole story would have been different. Design was, and is, international, and a good dressmaker can operate anywhere if the market is encouraging.

Even the dressmakers of Paris at the time recognized that their industry had essentially been handed to them on a silver platter by England’s poor policies.

p]:mt-0 [&>p]:mb-0 [&>p]:text-muted-foreground"> In 1938 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Paris, and the dressmaking industry there celebrated the fact that England had a jolly and delightful but dowdy queen, no threat to their interests, by giving the two princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, a collection of dolls