Recollection: Mother’s Youth and the House of Worth

Sunday May 30th is Mother’s Day in France. On this occasion I used to give my mother a hydrangea plant (hortensia.) One year it would be a white plant, the next a pink then a blue.

Click on any picture to enlarge it

She liked this flower, in any color, and planted them later in the back yard.

This year would have been her hundredth birthday as she was born in May 1910. Last year, on her birthday, I wrote a post on my grandparents and my mother’s childhood. This is a continuation of that post – you can read it here.

Avenue de l’Opéra, Edouard Léon Cortes, French 1882-1969

1910 had not started as a good year for Paris. After much rain in the fall the river Seine in Paris flooded in January 1910 its height raising to 8 meter 68 (28.30 feet.) The city as well as many suburbs were paralyzed. Twenty thousand buildings were flooded and 150,000 left homeless. The metro, trains and public transport stopped; people used boats. There was no clean water, electricity, gas or telephone. My grandfather who collected postcards gave me about 16 postcards on the Paris flood. Below are some of them:

From left to right: Porte de Bercy, Gare St Lazare, Quartier de Javel, Rue de Verneuil, Bois de Boulogne, boat ferrying passengers for 5 cents between Rue Alboni and Pont de Passy. Click on the pictures, and click on each picture again

My mother was born in Paris about 3 months after the water receded. My grandmother, as it was done in those days, sent the baby to Normandy to stay with a wet nurse. Mother is with her wet nurse in the picture below.



She rejoined my grandparents when she was about 15 months old. She had pale red hair and light blue-green eyes, a shade of aqua. Here is a picture of mother when she returned to Paris.

Last year on her birthday I talked about mother’s childhood until she was attending school in Paris. Her parents would have liked her to keep studying but after receiving her Certificat d’Etudes (a primary school certificate abolished in 1989) she decided to go into apprenticeship to become a dressmaker. Because of World War I my grandmother had lost her dry cleaning shop and my grandfather’s job was not paying much. My grandmother dreamed to have a small house built and saved on everything to that end. Mother, an only child, loved sewing and wished to help her mother achieve her dream. My grandmother had started to work as a drycleaner specialist in the clothing department of the Galeries LaFayette, a large department store in Paris. She had a degree in chemistry which helped as at that time there were not many dry cleaning products available. Below is a picture of grandmother in 1925.



Both my grandparents liked politics and grandmother joined the French suffragettes. Her group organized a strike in front of the Galeries LaFayette in 1925 to demand voting rights as shown in the picture below. It was not until 1944 though that French women obtained the right to vote.

Grandmother and her suffragettes on strike, grandmother is in the middle, second row, feather on her hat

Mother started her sewing apprenticeship as a “petite main” (little hand) in a high fashion house in Paris. She explained to me that at first the only thing she did was to pick up stray pins. She then went on to learn how to cut, apply trim, beads and laces, sew a variety of styles with different fabrics, how to drape and finish. She worked her way up in the workroom to hand finisher and then Première d’Atelier. (Top person in the high fashion studio.)

Atelier de Couture, Brindeau, French, 1867-1943

Not all designers know how to draw, cut and sew. The Premiere d’Atelier, who heads the studio, is the designer’s right hand and the link between the workroom and him. It is a very important position as it is her job to take the designer’s original sketch and translate it into a prototype pattern that can be made by the dressmakers in the workroom. She must know all the techniques required to execute the design and have the ability to translate the designer’s idea into the right fabric, buttons, etc. Mother worked hard but she also went out dancing often with her friends.

1920s’ flapper (from the internet, unknown author)

Mother worked for the House of Worth, one of the top high fashion houses in Paris at the time. Charles Frederic Worth came from England and in 1858 opened a high fashion house in Paris. His original idea was to present his collections to his clients by having models wear them in a live show. The fashion from his house was identified by his name. He had a new fashion show each year. Since then almost every high fashion house has continued to organize their business like Worth. He is known as the “Father of Haute Couture.” Frederic Worth’s clients included Queen Victoria, The Russian Tsarina and many high celebrities. By the 1920s, when my mother worked there, the House of Worth was operated by Worth’s grandchildren, Jean-Charles and Jacques. The clientele still included the international nobility, celebrities and wealthy high society of the time.

Below are some of Worth’s creations from the ‘20s. Drawing by George Barbier.

The House of Worth's creations were dramatic, elegant and superbly crafted with a high quality finish. They were works of art that could be worn.




With mother’s help my grandparents were finally able to have “un petit pavillon” (a small detached house) built in Courbevoie, a small suburb then 5.1 miles (8.2 kms) from the center of Paris. Below is the house upon completion. Later on when I visited my grandparents there were many shrubs and plants around the house. But years later, their house was condemned by the government as was the whole neighborhood to make a business park. Later on the Arche de la Defense was built close to where their house once stood.




Mother went to the French Riviera, in Juan les Pins, at that time (the late ‘20s) on a special high fashion assignment. There were many wealthy patrons living there. The designs were created on the human figure to fit the client’s measurements and then manipulated for a perfect fit. She still had time to go to the beach and dance the tango some afternoons.

Mother is on the right

My grandparents drove south to visit her.

I believe she stayed on the Riviera for 6 months, then came back up to Paris and to her parent’s home.

She loved her job but she also had fun with her friends. She would go with them to the “Thé Dansant” (tea dancing.) These took place in many dance halls in Paris for a couple of hours in the afternoon and were quite popular. The king of tango from Argentina, Carlos Gardel , had played in Paris several times and become very successful. Everyone danced the tango. In my next post I’ll continue on mother’s youth – and tango.

Mother with one of her friends (mother is on the right)

Paris was a wonderful place in the early 1930s for a young woman. It was a time of freedom and many experiences. Mother was surrounded with sophisticated people, the jet set as well as the little Parisian dressmakers. Everyone had fun. The radio and cinema were popular. Jazz had arrived from America accompanied by many American expat writers. Paris had become the capital for freethinking intellectuals and avant-garde artists.

Arc de Triomphe, 1932, by Tavik Frantisek Simon, Czech, 1878-1942

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The hydrangeas on this post were photographed two days ago in LaGrange in Georgia. There are many types and colors of hydrangeas in this town which will celebrate its 10th year Hydrangea Festival the second week-end of June as explained here.