William K. Vanderbilt House

Many of his great creations have been lost to history, but there are a number of Worth gowns from the Gilded Age that survive today in museums and archives, so we can see the exquisite fabrics, detailed handwork, and costly effects that went into some of his creations.

But there is one dress, a worth creation to be sure, that has become legendary in the tales of the Gilded Age, and that is the dress, often called the Electric Light Dress, that Alice Vanderbilt wore to her sister-in-law Alva Vanderbilt's grand costume ball that opened Alva's Petit Chateau on Fifth Avenue on March 26, 1883.

Alice knew that she had to make a statement at that ball.

Alva, her sister-in-law, was jockeying for social power.