Fashion &... Poiret

The King of Fashion, Le Magnifique, Paul Poiret!

We’re kicking off Season Two of Fashion &… by looking at a Parisian Master Couturier who, throughout the first few decades of the 20th century, challenged the established conventions of fashion, defined the Avant Garde and created one of the first lifestyle fashion brands

Paul Poiret dominated Parisian and international fashion during the first 2 decades of the 20th century.

He is often credited with overturning Belle Epoch fashion values, freeing women of frivolous petticoats and corsets in favour of looser, cleaner lines however, he was not single-handedly responsible for these radical changes.

Other designers such as Madame Vionnet and Lucile (also known as Lady Duff Gordon) were also instrumental in implementing these changes.

Between 1903 and the start of WW1, Poiret experimented with various styles that accentuated the natural female form.

Orientalism became a defining signature of the House of Poiret and the designer established a long tradition of appropriating motifs from Middle Eastern and Asian cultures.

Although today, Paul Poiret’s style is considered as cultural appropriation, his designs were symptomatic of an era now firmly in the past. If these clothes were produced today, there would certainly be a backlash against his use of Japanese, Middle Eastern and Asian design elements.

Despite this, his Avant Garde designs, extravagant lifestyle and shameless self-promotion were successful in ensuring that his name was stamped into the history books as the Great protagonist of Modernism in the early 20th century fashion.