Rose Bertin
(1747-1813)
Rose Bertin was born Marie-Jeanne Bertin in Abbeville, France in 1747. At a young age she was apprenticed to a marchande des mode (fashion merchant). By 1772 she worked in the exclusive rue Saint-Honore in Paris, where she opened her own shop under the name of the Grand Mogol.
She quickly won the patronage of several influential courtiers, such as the duchess of Cartres and Louise Marie Adelaide de Bourbon, who introduced her to the newly crowned queen, Marie Antoinette, in the summer of 1774. In addition to Marie Antoinette, Bertin dressed the queens of Spain, Sweden and Portugal; the Grand-duchess Maria-Fedorovna of Russia; and many European aristocrats.
Bertin overcame all obstacles and made her name and her creations known throughout the world. When the merchandes de modes of Paris were incorporated in the year 1776, Bertin was elected as the guild’s first mistress. In this post, she earned the right to dress the life-sized fashion doll that toured the mercantile centers of Europe and beyond, advertising French Fashion. In 1777, Bertin had a staff of 40 employees not including dozens of subcontractors and suppliers.
By 1778, Bertin had grown so powerful at court that the press would refer to her as France’s minister de modes, or “Minister of Fashion.” Bertin’s partnership with the queen ensured her success, but it also also destroyed her. As Marie Antoinette’s popularity faded, so did that of Bertin. Courtiers were outraged by Bertin’s privileged place in the royal circle, unprecedented by a commoner. By demanding star status and a star’s salary, Bertin helped elevate fashion from a trade to an art.
She was blamed for encouraging Marie-Antoinette’s excesses, which she continued to do right up until Marie Antoinette’s imprisonment.
By the time Bertin returned to Paris, she was out of business and also out of fashion. She died at her country retreat in Epinay-sur-Seinve, just a few months before the restoration of the monarchy in 1814.
