In case you do not know too much about Paul Poiret, I invite you to read this short biography of this amazing 20th century designer. Paul Poiret was born in 1879 in a village near Paris, in a middle-class family. As a chiild, he would work in the atelier of an umbrella maker. He would collect the silk left from the cutting of umbrella patterns and he would make clothes for a doll that he received from his sister.
His first clients would buy his drawings, including Madame Madelein Cheruit, among other important Parisian fashion houses. In 1896, Jaques Doucet hired him and in 1903 he opened his own fashion house.
During the World War I, Poiret enrolled in the army. when he returned to Paris in 1919, he was already out of the market because it had been taken over by the new designers, like Coco Chanel, whose clothes were more confortable, simble, yet very stylish( chic). In 1926, the Poiret fashion house was completely closed and the leftover dresses were sold as rags. He died in 1944.
Paul Poiret is responsible for the first Art deco fashion movement; his designs were truly avangardist and modernist for the beginning of the 20th century. He brought the slim, high-waisted silhouette and the less-structured cut. He was inspired by the Persian style and by Orientalism. His style can be described as exotic, elegant and extravagant. He used light silks, he introduced the golden tassels in haute couture, turbans, tunic dresses, kimono coats, bold use embroidery and harem trousers.
Paul Poired was the first couturier to launch a perfume linked to a fashion house- Parfums de Rosine, named after one of his daughters.
Paul Poiret was an eccentric, he was not only an innovative designer, but also a great merchant, who combined pleasure with business: history remembers him for the exorbitant and opulent parties that he would throw in order to draw attention upon his designs.
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