In the collection of the Fenton History Center is a ball gown which was owned by Frances Pierce of Canandaigua. The gown came to her nephew, C.F. Pratt, in a trunk of her possessions sent to him from Albany. She must have worn it as a young woman, since it is dated from about 1880-1890, the information states that she lived into her 90s. Nothing tells us for what occasion she wore this beautiful dress. Mr. Pratt donated it to the Fenton History Center in 1979.

What makes this gown remarkable is that it was made by the world-famous couturier Charles Fredrick Worth. His name and address of 7 Rue de la Paix, Paris, are printed on the waist stay of the top of the gown.

Charles Frederick Worth was born in 1825, and was apprenticed at age 13 to Swan and Edgar’s, a firm in London which specialized in ladies’ dress fabrics. This apprenticeship lasted seven years. He then found employment at Lewis and Allenby, the most fashionable fabric business in London.

In 1845, at the age of 20, he left for Paris where he worked menial jobs until he learned the language. After a year, he was hired by Gargelin’s, which offered the finest fabrics as well as mantles and shawls. He was promoted to salesman, married one of the shop’s models, Marie Vernet, and made dresses for her to wear while she modeled the wraps. When customers enquired about the dresses she wore, Worth suggested a small department to sell dresses he designed, made from the fabrics which Gargelin sold. The idea was vetoed, but in 1850 they relented. Frustrated that Gargelin would not offer him a partnership, in 1856 he and Marie formed a partnership with a wealthy Swede named Otto Bobergh at 7, Rue de la Paix in Paris.

Worth sent his wife with a sketchbook of designs to show the Princess de Metternich, wife of the Austrian ambassador, and a close friend of the Empress Eugenie. She liked the designs and ordered two dresses. One of these she wore at court and the Empress summoned Worth and ordered dresses also. Thus it became a “mandate” for all of society to be dressed by Worth. His were the first garments to carry the label of the maker. Among many innovations in dressmaking, Worth developed the cage crinoline and the princess style of seaming. He died in March of 1895 and his two sons, Gaston and Jean-Phillipe, took over the business which continued to the fourth generation and didn’t close until World War II.

The Worth gown in the Fenton’s collection is too fragile to be displayed. The silk fabric from which it is made is “shattered” which means that it is shredded into strips. The cause of this is the practice of “weighting” the silk fabric. The fabric is treated with metallic salts to increase the weight. Metals used in this process included, among others, iron, lead and particularly tin. Also, some fabrics were treated with arsenic, making them a hazard even today. Silk is a strong fiber, but the process of weighting damages the finished goods. It wears out quickly, and is easily susceptible to perspiration, salt and tears. It becomes brittle and breaks. The practice was widespread in the 19th century earlier silks were not weighted. The Smithsonian has said Martha Washington’s gown is in much better shape than those from the last half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Silk fabrics from 1890 to 1939 were more fragile and readily damaged than much older silks. To date there are no conservation treatments for weighted silks, though various methods have been tested.

The Fenton will keep the Worth gown from Mr. Pratt for study purposes. It’s not every day that a genuine Worth gown comes to Jamestown.