CHINHOYI UNIVERSITY OR TECHNOLOGY

TERESA MARAMBIRE C19140144G

ADELIDE MUSIKWAIPA C19140306L

PANASHE MUCHIBWA C19139209S

OPRAH TAUYA C19138590U

MODULE CUCFD101

PROGRAM BSCFD2

LEVEL 1.1

LECTURER DR E MUTUNGWE

PRESENTATION:GROUP 1

QUESTION:DESCRIBE THE CONTRIBUTION OF PARIS TO FASHION DEVELOPMENT.

History of French Fashion in Paris

-Paris has been the fashion capital of the world basically since the industry began hundreds of
years ago. They were the first to recognize clothing as a business, and have been exporting their
products since the 17th century.

King Louis XIV and French Fashion

-King Louis XIV(reigned 1643-1715), was nicknamed the Sun King. He understood fashion as
an important weapon in establishing France’s cultural preeminence.

-Under King Louis’ reign, the creation of the fashion press thrust France into the spotlight, and
was the first of its kind to separate different styles into seasons.

-He had an obsession with elaborate wigs of curled hair and even created a black market for
human hair.

-by the 18th they employed seamstresses and tailors to copy the latest Paris fashions (which were
described in the newspapers of the day)

-recognizing the importance of luxury goods to the national economy, Louis brought a number of
artistic industries including the textile trade under the control of the royal court, which became
the world wide arbitor of style

-exclaiming all the while at how quickly the fashions changed, how expensive everything
was ,how outre the fashions had become.

Marie-Antoinette: French fashion icon

Marie-Antoinette
-After King Louis XIV, comes his son, King Louis XVI and his wife, Queen Marie-Antoinette.

-Before this pair was known for going to the guillotine during the French Revolution, Marie-
Antoinette was infamous for her sense of style! This is one of the major reasons why the French
people despised her, as she seemed to have cared more about getting the latest dresses, shoes,
and wigs, than feeding her people.

-Marie-Antoinette popularized sky-high wigs, putting feathers in her hair, and custom made
dressed by designer Rose Bertin. These custom made frocks were just the beginning of the style
category Haute Couture.

The Incredibles and Marvelous

-The Incredibles were the name for the men of the group, and the Marvellous were the women.
This group of Parisians emerged after the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror with a want
and need to cut loose and take fashion a little less seriously than their predecessors of the French
court.

-Their style consisted of styles that resembled Greek or Roman tunics, and were made of linen
and gauze, and they wore sandals to match. They wore wigs with hair dyed green, clue, purple,
and pink, and were generally known to dress as silly as they acted.

Haute couture

-Haute Couture got it’s start in the courts of Marie-Antoinette.

-In the late 19th century, it made a come back, thanks to an Englishman named Charles Frederick
Worth, who founded The House of Worth, the first modern couturier house in Paris.

-Prior to the middle of the 19th century there were no fashion designers as such. Dressmakers’
assisted by specialized skilled workers collaborated with their clients to produce garments in the
latest styles (which were widely publicized in the burgeoning fashion press).

-The first true couturier was the Englishman Charles Fredrick Worth, a dynamic and

enterprising man whose skills at clothing design and dressmaking were matched by his skills for
merchandising and self-promotion opened his business on Paris’s Rue de la Paix.
-Haute Couture was (and still is!) special, as each piece was custom and made to order
specifically for the lucky person who worked with the designers to make a piece that was perfect
for them, and them only.
-He came up with the idea of actually sketching the design before producing an expensive
sample garment.

-Famous designers of the time included Jeanne Paquin, Paul Poiret, and the House of Patou.

The first fashion shows

-It is also thanks to The House of Worth that fashion shows began. Worth would create a
portfolio of designs that he was hoping to sell. He would then produce the designs, and put them
on live models to be displayed in his showroom so that his clients would pick and choose which
designs they were interested in having. The fashion show is born!

-by the late 19th century the garment industry , embracing both couture and confection and
including ancillary activities such, distribution ,merchandising , journalism and illustrating was
one of Paris’s most important industries, employing tens of thousands of workers ad workers
and making major contribution to the French national economy.

-fashion was prominently featured in numerous international exhibitions held in Paris

-in the years between the two wars mostly women, created styles that were feminine and body
conscience and imitated all over the world.

-by the early 20th century, the fashion show with its now familiar parade of models wearing the
season’s new outfits had become the standard means by which designers introduced their new
collections

-fashion photography which by the end of the 1930s had decisively displaced fashion illustration
as the preferred means of representing fashion in additional and advertising copy also gave
rapid publicity to new designs.

-Paris fashion attracted more journalists than the show in New York and London. The Paris
shows now include increasing numbers of designers from countries as diverse as Brazil and
Korea.

-Following Worth was Paul Poiret and Madeleine Vionnet

Gabrielle Coco Chanel and Vogue

-of these fashion houses, arguably the most famous as remains the case today was that of
Gabrielle (coco) Chanel . she completely deconstructed women’s clothing as it had been known
by eradicating the corset, an incredibly painful undergarment which manipulated the upper-body
into the culturally-idealistic shape.

-The fashion magazine giant Vogue was published in Paris for the first time in 1920, and not far
behind, in 1925, designer Coco Chanel debuted her first collection.

-Chanel’s boyish, simple, and elegant designs were embraced in contrast to the usual designs
meant for full-figured women. Chanel reigns to this day as a major player in the luxury fashion
world. It should come as no surprise that it got its start in Paris, where innovations were always
accepted.

Gabrielle Coco Chanel

-She produced the first unabashedly synthetic scent, which contributed to its image of modernity
and named it No.5 because it was the fifth in a series of samples she had to choose from.

Rise of Christian Dior (1950)

-He presented his now famous “New Look” designs. The New Look included a collection of
dresses with very small waists and full skirts.
- He realized that luxury could be repackaged as a mass product. He considered it the key to the
survival and profitability of a brand.

- Pierre Cardin followed in his footsteps and produced more than 800 products around the world
bearing his name.
REFERENCES

 Valeria Steele and John S. Major, Paris Fashion, 1998

 Milbank, Caroline Rennolds. Couture: The Great Designers. New York: Stewart, Tabori, and

Chang, 1985

 Molli, History of French Fashion in Paris, January 24, 2019

 Discover Walks Blog

 Encyclopedia.com