Even the French acknowledge this English designer, Charles Worth (1825-95) as the founder of French haute couture. This new biography by the author of 1000 Years of Annoying the French tells for the first time the full story of Worth's often-underestimated wife Marie, who was his muse, chief saleswoman and the first-ever full-time fashion model.

Writing with the help of the Worth family, Stephen Clarke is able to correct received wisdoms about Charles' and Marie's early life, their methods and their relationship.

Coincides with the bicentenary of both Charles Worth and Marie Worth née Vernet.

The story in brief:

1845: an impoverished Englishman arrives in Paris. Jobless and speaking almost no French, Charles Worth has recently completed an apprenticeship as a fabric salesman in London. After a year of sweeping floors, he gets a job

at a chic Parisian fabric shop, where he meets a salesgirl, Marie Vernet, also newly qualified.

The ambitions of this lower-class Anglo-French couple arouse fierce jealousies in snobbish Paris, but together they will lay the foundations of the modern fashion industry:

- Charles invents himself as France's first male fashion designer and dictator of style.

- Marie becomes the first full-time fashion model, on the first-ever Parisian catwalk.

- They create the first must-have designer label in history, worn by the 19th century's most glamorous women.