What is a “Worth” Worth? Developing a Methodology of Historical-to-Modern-Day Price Conversions for Dress

When people think about the cost of goods and commodities over time—whether the subject is t-shirts, eggs, or childcare—it is common to compare prices in the past to prices in the present. Often, this is accompanied by the phrase “in today’s dollars” or even by how many hours of work it would take to afford a given commodity, such as rent. But what are “today’s dollars?” Is it simply inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, or is there a more nuanced way to interpret buying power over time? For fashion historians, curators, or reenactors, how would one explain the equivalent price of something worn in the past to someone in the present?

In the classic monograph Baroque and Rococo Silks, Peter Thornton makes the following observation comparing historical clothing prices to their mid-twentieth century counterparts in a way his readers could understand: “…the richly embroidered suits were more on a par…with a smart car than with a well-tailored suit from Savile Row.” [1] Though Thornton was discussing eighteenth-century attire, his analogy likening the cost of a suit to that of a car has persisted into modern times, especially when attempting to explain historical fashion prices in accessible terms. Yet there is a readily visible problem with such equivalencies. Car prices have changed significantly over time. Would a suit made in eighteenth-century France still be equivalent to an automobile today?

A more quantitative approach would also enhance interdisciplinary studies, especially in fields that are more math-driven, such as economics. Finally, a quantitative model strengthens the impact of public education, such as through historical reenactment or museum tours.

The ambition of this paper is to showcase an alternative tool for fashion researchers to translate and explain historical fashion prices to a contemporary audience beyond simple Consumer Price Index tracking. As the focus for this exploration, I am using a single Charles Frederick Worth court dress purchased in 1880 by Mrs. Lucius Fairchild for $365, currently in the archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The tool this paper proposes is named Measuring Worth and is “a service for calculating relative worth over time.” [2] Measuring Worth addresses monetary conversions along four axes: real price, compensation, relative wealth against per capita GDP, and cost of historical events or construction. I will immediately dismiss the last category as historical events and construction are not relevant to this study (here, historical events and construction refers to things like earthquakes and skyscrapers, not clothing). [3] I will also dismiss the third as I am not trying to convert the value of historical wealth, such as real estate or a stock portfolio. However, the two remaining categories are more relevant and will be addressed later in this paper.

Since its inception in the 1990s, Measuring Worth has been cited in hundreds of publications. The most recent list of citations from 2024 include The Journal of Economic History, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, The Economic History Review, The American Historical Review, The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, History of Political Economy, Journal of Communication, UCLA Law Review, Early American Literature, Journal of International Money and Finance, Gender & History, Business History, and many others. [4] It is a recommended resource by the Library of Congress, [5] PBS, [6] and the United States Postal Service. [7]

Measuring Worth’s founder, Sam Williamson, is a professor emeritus from University of Miami and started the site with a grant from the National Science Foundation. Measuring Worth’s current executive director is Sam Allen, a professor of economics at Virginia Military Institute. Its board includes professors from North Carolina State University, City University of New York – Queens College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Washington and Lee University, Vanderbilt University, and University College London. [8]

As the above evidence shows, Measuring Worth is a well-regarded tool. However, during my research, a notable pattern, or lack thereof, was observed. Measuring Worth has not been cited in dress, fashion, or costume history journals. Some of the most “fashion journal adjacent” articles include Véronique Pouillard’s “Design Piracy in the Fashion Industries of Paris and New York in the Interwar Years,” published in a 2011 issue of Business History Review; [9] Mary Hafner-Laney’s “’I was tempted by a pretty coloured muslin’: Jane Austen and the art of being fashionable” from a 2010 issue of Persuasions; [10] Noel Cox’s "An Act to Avoid the Excess in Apparel 1554–5," a 2013 article in Transactions of the Burgon Society; [11] and Margaret Spufford’s “The Cost of Apparel in Seventeenth-Century England, and the Accuracy of Gregory King,” published in 2023 in The Economic History Review. [12] Other places the tool has been used include auction sites, [13] blogs, [14] museums, [15] and fashion forums. [16] Despite its adoption in other fields, Measuring Worth has been more or less neglected by academic fashion historians.

By the end of this paper, I hope to have convinced fashion researchers that Measuring Worth is a comprehensive, accurate, and reliable tool for the purposes of historical pricing conversions which offers new opportunities in interdisciplinary collaboration connecting fashion studies with other areas, such as finance and economics. Even if readers subsequently continue to use Consumer Price Indexing, I believe there is value in the awareness of another tool already respected by other historians, academics, and researchers in fields other than fashion studies. Finally, the ease and accessibility of a 100% free tool are other reasons to recommend it.

Before proceeding, it is important here to note that this paper concerns the matter of conversion, not valuation. Conversion interprets the value of currency from one period in time to its equivalent amount in another period of time. Valuation assesses the monetary worth of an item to a business or institution, such as an insurance firm, auction house, museum, or private collector. Historical conversion rates are not indicative or predictive of a modern-day valuation. Current concerns and interests that affect valuation—such as the popularity of the designer, condition of the garment, rarity, cultural importance, or market trends—are not relevant for conversion rates, which are strictly focused on historical equivalencies. This approach aligns with the way Measuring Worth is utilized in the papers cited above.

This paper begins with a brief biography of the designer behind my chosen garment, Charles Frederick Worth, and his role as a founding father of the modern fashion industry. [17] The paper will then address the original possessor of the garment, Mrs. Lucius Fairchild, and the role of dress in diplomacy. Next, the paper will discuss where the Consumer Price Index falls short, followed by an historical price conversion of the dress. After, the paper will link that conversion to real wages of the time to better strengthen the argument for why Measuring Worth is a useful tool. The paper ends with concluding remarks about the strengths of the tool for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Despite his influence and legacy on the fashion industry, Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895) did not keep a diary, write many letters, or compose his own biography. [18] Therefore, much of what we know is secondhand information from sources like his son Jean-Philippe Worth or historians like Diana de Marly. Though raised in England, Worth left for Paris when he was twenty with a little money from his family. [19] A year later, he spoke French well enough to apply at the department store Gagelin. [20] Worth spent the next eleven years at Gagelin, from 1847 to 1858. [21] His career progression at the store consisted of three distinct phases. In the first, he worked as a shop assistant handling bolts of cloth. In the second, he worked sales in the modelling room, which is where he met his wife Marie Augustine Vernet, who he married on June 21, 1851. [22] [23] In the third, he began designing dresses for his wife and having them made at Gagelin. “Thus,” his son Jean-Philippe Worth writes, “the first Worth gowns were designed by love.” [24]

Customers who saw Mrs. Worth in the shop would ask where she purchased her gowns and request similar garments. Worth eventually convinced the heads of Gagelin to open an in-house dressmaking shop. [25] The shop became so successful, he was given permission to create a larger department devoted solely to dressmaking. In 1858, Worth left Gagelin. [26] [27] Shortly thereafter, with an investment from a Swedish man named Otto Bobergh who had a similar position to Worth’s at the store Compagnie des Indes, the dress shop Worth & Bobergh was born. [28] Worth immediately recognized the need for a star client to launch his fledgling brand to fame, which he found through Princess Pauline von Metternich, a friend of Empress Eugénie.

After devising a way for his wife to pay the Princess a visit, the Princess’ lady’s maid brought Worth’s design book to her. [29] The Princess was impressed, and agreed to let Worth make two dresses for her, one of which she wore to a state ball. Empress Eugénie noticed it immediately and asked who the maker was. When Worth was summoned by the Empress the next day, she requested a dress made however Worth would like. [30] Therefore in 1859, just one year after opening, the House of Worth made its first dress for Empress Eugénie. [31]

Empress Eugénie never wore the same dress twice and neither did her ladies, which meant a minimum of two dresses per day. [32] Furthermore, if the Empress wore Worth, the ladies of the court wore Worth, and those attending the court and its various events wore Worth as well. [33] [34] This resulted in the House of Worth making an astounding number of new dresses per season, [35] from ball gowns to court dress to dinner dresses, costumes, and beyond.

After the French monarchy fell again, the other royal courts of Europe did not abandon Worth.

He served “no less than three czarinas of Russia,” [37] which meant he also dressed the grand duchesses, princesses, and other members of the Imperial Court of Russia. [38] Diana de Marly says a single visit from a Russian princess with her ladies could easily result in an order for 100 dresses placed in the span of ninety minutes. [39] If one of these princesses was creating a trousseau for her daughter, he might find himself making upwards of fifty garments for one young lady alone. [40] At a time when a well-off professional man might make 500 pounds a year, Worth’s most luxurious creations could cost 5,000 pounds. He produced up to 7,000 gowns and 4,000 outer garments annually. [41] [42]

Worth reportedly told the journalist F. Adolphus that he liked to dress Americans because they had “faith, figures, and francs,” never asked for the price, and ordered duplicates of every dress he made for royalty. [43] [44] Worth was widely revered in the last decade of his life [45] and had by then earned the title of “first couturier.” [46] After his death, his sons Jean-Philippe and Gaston took over the business. [47]

There are several reasons why I chose a Worth dress as the focus of my research. Worth’s prodigious output—there are hundreds, if not thousands, of gowns attributed to him located in costume archives and private collections around the world—and famous name made it likely I would find not only a wide and varied range of garments for my research but also improved the odds I would find pricing information about at least one of them. In addition, Worth’s extensive American clientele and the fact that America’s cultural and economic centers were not destroyed by two World Wars increased the likelihood of finding both a dress and its accompanying historical record in the United States. [48] Finally, Worth’s familiarity makes him a topic of interest, even for those outside of the fashion industry or fashion academia.

Born in Detroit Michigan in 1845, [49] Frances Fairchild (born Frances Bull) was the wife of Wisconsin governor Lucius Fairchild. [50] Unfortunately, little is known about her beyond her roles as a wife and mother. She and Colonel Lucius Fairchild married in 1864 after he was injured at the Battle of Gettysburg (he fought on the Union side). [51] The couple immediately moved to Wisconsin where Lucius Fairchild had been elected Secretary of State. Two years later, he was elected Governor of Wisconsin, an office he held from 1866 to 1872. [52]

After Fairchild’s time as governor, he served as a diplomat in Europe. He was first a consul at Liverpool, then a consul general in Paris, and finally U.S. Ambassador to Spain beginning in 1880. [53] Such an appointment meant his wife Frances needed to be presented to the Spanish royal court in full court dress. She likely placed an order for the gown at the start of 1880. On March 23, 1880, her husband wrote a check to Worth in the amount of 1,900 francs, which would have equaled $365 in American currency at that time. [54] In late November or December 1880, [55] Mrs. Fairchild was presented to the King and Queen of Spain in her Worth gown. [56] At the end of 1881, Ambassador Fairchild resigned his post. [57]

Why might Mrs. Fairchild have commissioned a gown from a European designer rather than hire an American? The Worth name had global cachet. As the Wisconsin Historical Society Catalog Report states, “The dream of nearly any fashion-minded wealthy American woman in the late 19th century was to own a gown especially designed for them by Charles Frederick Worth of Paris.” [58]

At the same time, Worth would have had intimate knowledge of the various courts of Europe as he was accustomed to dressing their royal families. Such familiarity would help ensure Mrs. Fairchild made no sartorial faux pas, including wearing something too closely resembling another member of the court or having a train too short. [59] When in Europe, do as the Europeans do, and the Europeans wore Worth.

The ultimate decision to choose the dress lay with its ironclad provenance, publicly available price information, and access to additional details through the Wisconsin Historical Society. The Wisconsin Historical Society was founded in 1846 and is a government-associated agency headquartered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. [60] As part of its archives, it has garments worn by significant state figures such as Mrs. Lucius Fairchild, as well as 50,000 pages of Fairchild family correspondence providing a primary, firsthand account of their lives. [61] I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to the Wisconsin Historical Society for their encouragement, support, and sharing of historical resources, and in particular to curator Tamara Funk and reference archivist and librarian Emily Noffke.

As a result of the work by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Mrs. Fairchild’s Worth gown has impeccable provenance. We know the dress was owned by Mrs. Fairchild through the end of her life and first accessioned into the Wisconsin Historical Society collection in 1925, the year of her death. [62] Certain details such as date, time, and place are not only corroborated by multiple primary sources—such as handwritten, contemporaneous letters written by the Fairchilds and copies of invitations to events the dress was possibly worn—but have also been independently fact-checked and cross-referenced. Such material makes this dress suitable for an exploratory research project as points of concern regarding authenticity or validity are handled.

According to the catalog report [63] sent by the Wisconsin Historical Society and as shown in the accompanying article images, Mrs. Fairchild’s court dress consists of two pieces: a bodice and skirt with train made primarily of purple silk velvet—Mrs. Fairchild’s favorite fabric—and lavender silk satin. [64] The dress is sleeveless, with an off-the-shoulder neckline and low cut bodice typical of late nineteenth-century evening wear, and the long train required for court dress. [65] The gown’s shaped bodice consists of ten individual pieces of deep purple silk velvet and is lined in white silk taffeta. Each of the nine seams of the bodice has whalebone (baleen) boning encased in white silk faille and two additional, silk-enclosed bones at the front of the bodice. The interior waist tape is white silk petersham ribbon with the text “WORTH/7 RUE DE LA PAIX PARIS” printed on it in green. The dress has cotton-fiber padded, silk-covered dress protectors sewn into the underarms. [66]

The silk velvet train is exactly 9.67 feet (3 meters) long beginning from the bodice waist and is made of three long widths of purple velvet sewn together. The hem is trimmed in box-pleated purple silk velvet and lined in lavender silk satin. The skirt was originally lavender silk satin but has since faded to off-white and has a panel of purple silk velvet at the front. The hem is trimmed in purple fringe bundles. The skirt has a waistband of gold silk ribbon and its own train that is thirty-two inches long, and there is an oval, horsehair-stuffed bustle pad covered in white silk sewn to the inner waist at the center back. The interior of the skirt has a white silk pocket. The front of the skirt is lined with golden tan silk, and the remaining trims include pleated silk organza sewn to the dress facing with white machine-made lace sewn to that. [67] The Wisconsin Historical Society indicates her accessories would have included “violet satin shoes, violet kid gloves, violet silk hose and a white silk veil.” [68]

When considering the significance of Mrs. Fairchild’s luxurious silk court dress, it is important to remember that it is not a simple ball gown or dinner dress, but a garment with a specific political function, namely the accumulation of influence through diplomacy. Lilach Gilady, political scientist and author of The Price of Prestige: Conspicuous Consumption in International Relations, underscores this point when she says, “…excess in international relations is often used as a means for demonstrating power and seeking prestige…it establishes that country’s place in an international social hierarchy.” [69] The purpose of the Worth dress isn’t to dress the body—it is “a communicative act…a social signal.” [70]

Mrs. Lucius Fairchild wasn’t just purchasing a gown with $365. She was purchasing prestige, or according to Gilady, “…a diffused form of power.” [71] The conspicuous display of yards and yards of multiple types of silk was the point and function of the court dress, which “straddles the material and the social.” [72] In this dress, Mrs. Frances Fairchild could stand toe to toe with the courts of Europe. [73]

A Worth gown was no throwaway piece, and Mrs. Fairchild wore her dress fifteen years later at an event alongside her daughter. [74] The dress was worn and photographed again by Mrs. Madge Goodland, another Wisconsin governor’s wife in 1945 before being reaccessioned into the Wisconsin Historical Archives under a new accession number. [75] Despite its original price tag, this dress, today, is priceless.

A key argument of my paper is that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is not always the best tool for understanding historical fashion prices. But why say that, especially considering the tool is often used by fashion historians? Broadly speaking, the Consumer Price Index, which was started in World War I by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is useful for the calculation of daily living expenses and the comparison of like to like, such as the average change over time of the cost of a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, a month of rent, or a car—collectively referred to as the “basket of goods.” [76] “The CPI measures inflation as experienced by consumers in their day-to-day living expenses,” and is used to adjust the value of US currency. [77] [78] However, one issue with CPI is that the collective basket of goods it measures has become cheaper now, relative to income, than it used to be. [79] A second issue is CPI data only extends as far back as 1913. [80]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York states “…CPI is not a reliable measure of inflation over long time periods.” [81] Measuring Worth notes, “…the almost uniform use of the CPI (particularly by itself) to measure worth over time is often misleading.” [82] Taken together, this all suggests, at minimum, that the Consumer Price Index is not always the best proxy measure for historical currency conversions.

One of my inspirations for this project was The National Archives of the UK, [83] which has a number of research tools available to the public, including a currency converter inclusive of the years 1270-2017. [84] One of the more interesting aspects of this calculator is that, in addition to giving a simple historical pounds to contemporary pounds conversion, it also offers appraisals of how many horses, cows, stones of wool, quarters of wheat, and days of wages a given historical sum would pay for. That is, information beyond what a basic, inflation-based currency conversion would convey—namely, a more robust understanding of purchasing power.

Unfortunately, as I live in America and am interested in USD-to-USD conversion, the National Archives Currency Converter could not help me directly; however, it did further my research by pointing me to the tool introduced at the beginning of this paper: Measuring Worth. [85] In addition to reviewing the citation lists on the Measuring Worth website to check for validity, I contacted the source used by the Wisconsin Historical Society for their initial currency conversion figures in 2007: Global Financial Data. [86] Global Financial Data (since renamed to Finaeon as of 2025) provides financial resources and historical data for hedge funds, pension funds, banks, and government, among others, and has databases on 150 different world currencies with primary source data going back centuries. Finaeon recommended Measuring Worth as the best resource for my paper. In sum, I found all this to be sufficient and convincing evidence that Measuring Worth was a reliable tool for my research.

The following calculations in this paper are based on the initial francs to USD conversion figure given by the Wisconsin Historical Society (via Finaeon) of 1,900 francs to $365 USD. As for relying on the work previously done by others, personally converting a sum from old francs to new francs to Euros to 1880 USD to 2024 USD is not only well beyond the scope of this paper, but also the scope of my capabilities.

“Real price” refers to the Consumer Price Index, described previously as the bundle of basic goods and expenses the average household buys and what the United States government uses to keep track of inflation. According to Measuring Worth, the real price of $365 1880 dollars today is $11,752.26. [87] That means $365 in 1880 could purchase the same amount of goods as $11,752.26 today. The labour value of $365, however, or the wage conversion of $365, is $121,666.67. [88] A difference of more than $100,000! Said another way, Mrs. Frances Fairchild spent what, for us today, would be approximately $121,000, on a single court dress.

Unlike Measuring Worth, the CPI does not consider wages as part of its equations. That is, the labour value of a purchase is not included in its calculations. With that in mind, let us add wage data to the analysis.

The utility of the above perspective regarding price conversions is further enhanced when 1880 wage data is introduced to the discussion. According to the United States Department of Labor’s History of Wages in the United States from Colonial Times to 1928, a typical seamstress in New York in 1880 made 67 cents per day. [89] To earn $365 would require 545 days of sewing. If a seamstress worked six days per week and somehow avoided paying for food, housing, or other necessities of life, it would still take her one year and nine months to afford Mrs. Fairchild’s single Worth court gown. While, as the literature suggests, historical price conversions can be fuzzy, I believe this wage data further affirms why Measuring Worth’s compensation calculator makes a good case for use in interpreting the real cost of a historical garment to someone living in the present day. [90]

A seamstress was a fair distance away from a wealthy woman, so let us instead ask how much a lady’s maid, the woman who would have dressed a Worth customer, would be paid. Though it was published a little more than twenty years later, in 1903, Mary Elizabeth Carter’s Millionaire Households and Their Domestic Economy reveals that a competent lady’s maid would receive $25 to $40 per month. [91] In 1880 wages, working backwards using the Measuring Worth Calculator, that’s $19 to $30, rounded up and rounded down to the nearest dollar, respectively. Even at the very highest end of the wage scale, and with having all room and board included in her pay, a lady’s maid would have had to work more than a year to afford Mrs. Fairchild’s Worth court gown. Connecting this to the wage compensation conversion in the previous section, $121,000 would be more than a year’s worth of wages for the average American today as well.

To summarize, in “real dollars” or CPI, $365 in 1880 equals $11,752.26 in the present day. However, a wage-based perspective gives a conversion of $121,666.67. [92] Stated another way, $365 in 1880 would buy $11,752 worth of goods today. However, that same sum would be the equivalent of $121,666 in wages today. I assert wages are a more accurate representation of how someone would interpret and perceive clothing prices in the past. The latter conversion offers a much more nuanced and relatable understanding of historical clothing prices in a way CPI is simply not flexible enough to accommodate. Though it has been habitual to compare historical garments to cars or homes, which can hint at their cost, there is something to be said about having a quantitative dollar amount directly connected to wages and compensation. After all, even though $11,752 is quite a lot of money, $121,000 is considerably more.

To end this section, I would like to do a quick calculation at the opposite end of the price spectrum utilizing a different primary source. A Montgomery Ward and Co. catalog price of $1 for a shirtwaist in 1900 could suggest that clothing was significantly cheaper than it truly was in the past, and, subsequently, that attire is overly expensive now. [93] However, the Measuring Worth calculator gives a real sense of its value.

As many of the finance and economics articles I researched stated, there is no perfect approach to historical currency conversion. However, there are options beyond CPI. The more tools there are—and the more tools we use—gives us new and perhaps even better ways of understanding and interpreting historical currency with regards to dress. Though the garment in my case study was made in 1880, the dataset for Measuring Worth extends back to 1790, [95] or 123 years further in history than the Consumer Price Index by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The broader social value of this research also lies in the mass accessibility of Measuring Worth as another free tool outside of academic siloes or the requirement of institutional memberships, which contributes to having a more diverse and inclusive fashion studies community. That ease of access also encourages collaboration and interdisciplinary studies across and between disciplines, fostering interactions outside of our field.

This paper should be considered an initial exploration into the topic, with the takeaway being that simple Consumer Price Index-based conversions are not always sufficient. Other metrics, like wages, may be more useful for expressing the cost of an item in a way modern day people can understand. I believe this is a course of analysis worth exploring and expanding upon. Measuring Worth has been used extensively in other subject areas; it is time for fashion studies to consider it as well.

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Author Bio

Article Citation

Harrington, Cora. “What is a ‘Worth’ Worth? Developing a Methodology of Historical-to-Modern-Day Price Conversions for Dress.” Unravelling Fashion Narratives, special issue of Fashion Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2025,1-25. 10.38055/UFN050110.