Rose Bertin, who designed most of the queen’s clothes, was probably the first fashion designer. Born in 1747, Jeanne-Marie Bertin came from a peasant family in Picardie, France. As her family was very poor, she started her apprenticeship in fashion at the tender age of 12. She worked at Mademoiselle Pagelles shop, the Trait Galant, as a delivery girl. Talented http://www.debeers.com/ and ambitious, Bertin made her own way in the fashion world very quickly.
Bertin soon opened her http://ift.tt/1H7r0nC own shop, the Grand Mogol, in the prestigious Rue St. Honore. Here her designs caught the attention of many aristocrats. These included the Duchess of Chartres who introduced her to the relatively new young queen, Marie Antoinette. Marie Antoinette, who was supposed to promote French fashion, was extremely impressed and soon became Bertins main client. Bertin also dressed other European queens, including the Queen of Sweden and Russian aristocrats, such as Grand Duchess Marie Feodorovna.
Rose Bertin, Couturier to Marie Antoinette
Soon the talented designer was visiting her queen twice a week with ideas for new designs. She made morning, afternoon, and evening dresses for the queen. One of her famous designs was the dress a la Suzanne. This consisted of a dress with a tight bodice, a fichu, and a white skirt with an apron. It was inspired by the play, The Marriage of Figaro. Bertin also designed the loose muslin dresses which Marie Antoinette used to wear at the Petit Trianon. She was also renowned for her fabulous hat designs with feathers and poufs, or high hairstyles.
Nicknamed the Minister of Fashion, Bertin had 40 employees by 1776. She was also the head of the guild of the marchandes de modes, or fashion merchants. She made most of the 150 dresses, which this post Marie Antoinette bought each year. She was making a fortune from Marie Antoinette and her other aristocratic clients.
Bertin became hated by much of the aristocracy who regarded her as an arrogant upstart from a check this out poor background and by her jealous rivals. She had a large ego and managed to insult many people. For example, she snubbed an aristocrat who wanted new fashions by telling her that she would show her the Queens last orders. Bertin also spat at a rival, Madame Picot, who immediately sued her. The revolutionaries also hated her because they blamed her for encouraging the Queens extravagance and because of her other aristocratic clients who indulged themselves while much of the country suffered from poverty and lack of food. This was mainly because France had spent too much money helping the Americans fight the American Revolution but the revolutionaries failed to understand this.
The famous dress designer managed to flee from the French Revolution in 1792. She continued her illustrious career in Brussels, Frankfurt, and London. Eventually she returned to Paris but many of her former clients had been killed on the scaffold and she failed to return to her former glory. She lived at her country home and died in 1813.
SourcesSteele, Valerie, Ed. The Berg Companion to Fashion, Berg, New York, 2010.Steele, Valerie, Paris Fashion, A Cultural History, Berg, New York, 1998.Woodhead, Lindy, Shopping, Seduction, and Mr Selfridge, Profile Books, 2007.Titillating Tidbits About the Life and Times of Marie Antoinette: Rose Bertin: The Queen’s Modiste
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