CHARLES

See also:

• FREDERICK
• FREDERICK (Mod. Ger. Friedrich; Ital. Federigo; Fr. Frederic and Federic; M.H.G. Friderich; O.H.G. Fridurih, " king or lord of peace," from O.H.G. fridu, A.S. frith, " peace," and rfh " rich," " a ruler," for derivation of which see HENRY)

FREDERICK

See also:

• WORTH
• CHARLES FREDERICK WORTH (1825-1895)

WORTH (1825-1895)  , the famous dressmaker, was born at Bourne, Lincolnshire, in 1825 . His father, a country solicitor, having lost his money in speculation . Charles was sent to London as an apprentice to Swan & Edgar, drapers . Thence, in 1846, he went to Paris, without capital or friends, and after twelve years in a wholesale silk house he began business as a dressmaker in partnership with a Swede named Dobergh . His originality and skill in design won the patronage of the empress Eugenie, and, through her, of fashionable Paris . After the Franco-German War, during which he turned his house into a military hospital, his partner retired, and Worth continued the business, which employed 1200 hands, with his two sons John and Gaston—both naturalized Frenchmen . For more than thirty years he set the taste and ordained the fashions of Paris, and extended his sway over all the civilized and much of the uncivilized world . He died on the loth of March 1895 .