Although the art of Haute Couture has long been dominated by the French, it owes its inception to an Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth. He has been called the Father of Haute Couture and even the "Napoleon of Costumers." In contemporary memoirs, the Second Empire is often described as "l’époque de Worth".

He acquired a knowledge of fabrics and trimmings, developed a flair for salesmanship and studied the rules of bookkeeping. At twenty, Worth left London for Paris, where within a year he obtained employment at the fashionable drapery house of Gagelin and Opigez at 83 rue de Richelieu.

At this time, ladies' gowns were produced by numerous dressmakers who did not usually create designs or invent new styles; rather they constructed gowns to the client's specifications, using material bought by the client in fabric shops. Dresses were chosen from illustrations, fashion journals or the "modiste" followed the customer's wishes. The responsibility for being elegantly turned out was primarily the client's. It was just this aspect of fashion that Worth revolutionized.

In the changing society of Paris and with the recovery of the French economy in the early years of the Second Empire, the prerequisites were at hand for Worth to create Haute Couture. While employed by the Maison Gagelin, he designed a few plain dresses for his young wife, Marie Vernet, who was the store's model. Inquiries were made by customers about these distinctive clothes which led to Maison Gagelin allowing Worth to open a small department where the ladies could look at cloaks and simple dresses made up in muslin, which they could order constructed in any of the store's materials. The years between 1852 and 1870 were times of extravagance and vulgarity in French fashion and Napoleon III and his beautiful Spanish wife Eugénie presided over a society awash with new wealth and much of this was spent on dress. The young Worth absorbed all that he heard and saw regarding fabrics and fashion. Soon he began to experiment and one of the highlights of his career during this period was his work on a lady's court train which went on display at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 and won First Prize.

In 1858, Worth, who was by this time a junior partner, approached his employer with the idea of expanding the dressmaking department to include high quality made to measure clothes. The Maison Gagelin was very conservative and refused Worth's suggestions as they felt they would lower the tone of their business. Fortunately, Charles Frederick knew Otto Bobergh, a young Swede who had been trained in the drapery business and had a small fortune. They went into business as "Worth & Bobergh", opening its doors on the 7 rue de la Paix in 1858 with a staff of twenty. Curiously, Worth's son was later to say that Worth really went into business with Bobergh, at that time, so that he and his young wife, who was expecting their second baby, could have lunch together on the premises.

Many of Worth's clients followed him to the new address, but his success was assured when a gown he designed for the Princess Metternich, wife of the Austrian Ambassador to Paris, was worn to a court ball in the Tuilleries. The fashion-minded Empress Eugénie noticed the dress and became a customer, establishing Worth's reputation. This royal patronage over the years gave Worth the opportunity to become a dictator of fashion and style with his establishment in the Rue de la Paix became the centre of haute couture.

Worth's artistic genius easily matched the extravagance of the Second Empire. He also sent samples of his work to Europe's leading families and by 1865 he was dressing the nobility and the royalty of Russia, Austria, Italy and Spain. Behind the eye-catching details of his creations, the superb fabrics, colors and trimmings, there were engineering techniques necessary to produce the special shapes that are unique to each era. In this respect the couturier is an architect as well as a designer, and Worth was a supreme exponent of this in the formal, corseted world of the last half of the nineteenth century. He studied the principal movements of the body and designed clothes that gave a lady's figure the maximum of elegance. Worth thought of a gown as a three dimensional object and despite elaborate detailing, his clothes were bold statements of shape. His bodices were well fitted and the material in his skirts were cut either on the bias or straight to follow the silhouette of the period. Worth further introduced some mass production techniques for standard parts of a gown. Different sleeves would fit a number of bodices, which in turn were interchangeable with various skirt shapes. The innumerable permutations in diverse fabrics and trimmings made possible by these ingenious techniques testify to Worth's sober commercial sense without detracting from his artistry.

Inside his salon, on rue de la Paix, Worth was as majestic as any of his clientele. He dressed whom he pleased and turned away the rest , therefore setting himself up as the first "status" designer. He would create and re-create models in a flamboyant and dictatorial fashion, ripping near-finished dresses apart, to start again. Worth's dresses enhanced a woman's looks through clever cutting and superb fit. His designs were simple and clear, with flattering lines and unfussy embellishments. His mastery with sleeves, novel and tasteful decorations on the skirt and bodices seemed endless in its originality. But the crinoline was not his only success: he caused the demise of the deep-brimmed bonnet, or bavolet, which had hidden women's faces for so long; he created ankle-length walking dresses, which were a sensation when they appeared in the summer of 1860. After many futile attempts to dislodge it from favour, Worth was the only couturier with enough influence  to do away with the crinoline although he would have to effect the change gradually. In 1867 he introduced a modified version, the princess dress, flat at the front, and gathered into a long drape at the back, and the sheath dress. By 1868-9, customers had become adjusted to a new, slimmer silhouette, and the crinoline disappeared altogether. It was significant that Worth had been able to achieve this in spite of his great links with the French textile industry and, in particular, the silk manufacturers of Lyon whose business had expanded rapidly with the demand for luxurious fabrics to fill out the crinoline. However, his replacement fashions of the bustle and train would continue to keep their looms busy.

Soon after Worth succeeded in dissuading women from their hoop skirts, something more than the silhouette changed. Austrian troops menaced France and ultimately were to invade Paris. During this period of War the House remained inactive until it reopened in 1871, under the name of "Worth". Otto Bobergh, who had made a handsome return on his original investment, did not return to rue de la Paix after the war, preferring to retire to his native Sweden. Within three years of reopening, the Worth legacy was to be reinforced by Worth's sons, Gaston and Jean-Philippe, formally entering the family business.

Creations from the Maison Worth were notoriously expensive. The client paid for the privilege of wearing a Worth gown as well as for the yards of fine material that were necessary for its construction. A very simple crinoline used ten yards of silk and an elaborate one might consume over thirty yards of material. Worth used his connections with the Lyons silk mills to obtain beautiful new fabrics for his exclusive consumption and to improve the quality of traditional materials. He would use real laces , previously cherished only as heirlooms. On Empress Eugénie's dress he sewed Alencons lace, which had taken one family fourteen years to make by hand. When veritables proved insufficient, he sponsored machine-made imitations. Hence, Worth was an important buying-bridge between the dwindling French artisan and the growing factory system.

Worth dressed not only queens fabulously but himself too, in a velvet beret and coat, cameo rings, and mandarin mustache. Worth's personality was certainly part of his success and he would receive clients stretched out on a divan, smoking a cigar. A letter of introduction was needed before he would see a client. He reportedly read the Bible aloud each morning, thought only the French Emperor and God were above him, was charitable, tyrannical, and believed that the moon influenced business. Worth's private life was that of a respected and wealthy bourgeois. In his opulent and overstuffed villa at Suresnes, surrounded by his loving family, Charles Frederick indulged his taste for luxury, gourmet foods and fine wines. Although many of his clients were also his friends, Worth did not move in society, for he always considered himself a tradesman.

Charles Frederick Worth died in 1895 on March 10 - the Ides of March - a date for which he had always held a superstitious fear, ever since the death on that date of the Duc de Morny, one of the most powerful and influential statesmen of the Second Empire.

After the death of Charles Frederick Worth, his couture house continued to flourish under his sons Jean Philippe and Gaston.