Paul Poiret at the Met : the enemy of the invisible Woman

The Metropolitan Museum of New York proposes, until next August 05 , an exhibition showing fifty Paul Poiret’s dresses entitled « Paul Poiret, King of fashion ». This unique artist introduced a real clothing revolution in the high society of Paris  between 1900′s and 1930′s. He is also the instigator of the concept of the haute couture as in influence for the mass clothing industry.

Liberation of feminine body

When Paul Poiret becames famous, in the early 1900′s , the majority of the women still wore in opaque stockings, long petticoats and corsets under plain mostly black and white dresses. The originality was mostlylimited  to some laces or embroideries touches or was excessively concentrated on hats. Paul Poiret eliminated this gear and invented a visible woman by betting on the fluidity of lines, comfort, fullness, colors and fancy. For the record, the innovation of the abolition of the corset is competed to Paul Poiret by Madeleine Vionnet, the other revolutionary of feminine fashion at the same period in France.

Fashion for daring persons and the invention of the commercial designer fashion  

Paul Poiret dressed strong feminine personalities like the actress Réjane by 1900, Josephine Baker in 1925 for the « Revue Nègre » or Peggy Guggenheim in the 1910s. We guess that these women did not wait for Paul Poiret to be « freed ». Other women rushed to imitate these original personalities by getting dressed at Poiret. The principle is always valid today as fashion designers lend dresses to movie stars hoping for commercial repercussions.

Creations for privileged people which will inspire the Street

Poiret’s creations was reserved to privileged persons. It was necessary to be socially rich and free to wear these originals clothes like this « harem » pants, these embroidered dresses in innovative silhouettes, these turbans surmounted by egrets  that seemed to come from the Topkapi Palace, these multicoloured shoes with long tongue, theses jupes-culottes or split dresses. These innovations and originalities became popular in the decades which followed.

Interbreeding of cultures and avant-gardes

While revisiting the Directoire silhouette, Paul Poiret draws his inspiration from all the exotic influences of the period: Russia for blouse, Japan for kimonos, India for turbans. He was also inspired by the avant-garde artists of Montparnasse : Man Ray was his photographer and he organized luxurious parties with, among others, Dunoyer de Segonzac, Marie Vassilieff, Van Dongen, Tamara de Lempicka or Max Jacob. Paul Poiret notably created costumes of Plus ça change, in 1922, a frenzied spectacular of Lucien Vogel or those of L’Inhumaine in 1924 with, among others artists on this shooting, Fernand Léger and Mallet-Stevens.

©05/2007.Pierrick Moritz