KING OF FASHION: Paul Poiret

Paul Poiret born in 1979 was a French fashion designer during the early twentieth century; he set a new standard of artistic significance to his fashion by introducing the free-flowing dresses and replacing tight corsets with brassieres.

Poiret was born in Paris and lived with his parents and three sisters in an apartment above the shop, his father worked as a cloth merchant. Paul’s family had an interest in art and decorate their home with affordable art works. The family also owned a country house in Billancourt, where Poiret spent his time pressing petals from the garden, construction fountains and gathering bits of metals and junk for his antique collection. When Poiret was 12 his family moved to Rue des Halles in Paris and there he attended Ecole Massillon. However Paul was sent to a boarding school when his sisters contracted scarlet fever in order to avoid the illness.

Poiret started showing an interest in fashion as he was often seen scanning through magazines and catalogs, he also was known to enjoying and attending theatre and art exhibits. However at the age of 18 Paul graduated and was sent to an umbrella maker by his father, he still continued to pursue his fashion interest by drawing designs and sewing them using the small wooden mannequin his sister gave him.

Poiret’s first fashion job came when a friend persuaded him to take his designs to the Maison Raundnizt Soeurs to a woman called Mademoiselle Choruit. She was impressed with Poiret’s work and bought 12 of his designs. Poiret then started to gain clients and visited a variety of dress houses. Later in 1896 a designer named Doucet offered Paul a full time job which he accepted. When Poiret told his family the news, his father was in disbelieve and Paul had to take him to Doucet’s studio to convince his father.

Poiret blossomed during his time at the Maison Doucet; his first design was a red cloak which sold 400 copies and customers demanded it in different colours. At Doucet’s, Poiret created new designs every week, which were displayed by ladies at the horse races on Sundays. He also designed costumes for a variety of theatrical productions.

People started to recognize his name and his designs which encouraged him to venture out into Parisian society, while doing so Poiret met Madame Potiphar; with home he began a love affair. Also Paul’s relationship with his father hit a difficult patch and became tense as a result of Poiret starting to experience independence. His relations with Doucet suffered as similar tension as a result of professional impetuosity, this led to Poiret Maison Doucet, but his relationship with Doucet improved after a while.

Following Poiret leaving the Maison Doucet, he joined the army and spent the next year doing military services. Not enjoying the time he spent there, Poiret returned to Paris to do what he loved and enjoyed most. In his autobiography ‘King of Fashion’ Poiret explained “the study of what pleased me: feminine elegance”.

After returning to Paris, Poiret accepted a job offer at the Maison Worth (ran by two brothers, Gaston and Jean Worth), which gave him the opportunity to design dresses for the general public, instead the high-society ladies of Paris. Poiret’s new simple Designed dresses freed women’s bodies from tightened forms and featured a classical high waste-line style, tubular shape and long skirts. The very small designs colours’ were plain and bold, which were becoming popular at the time. The Worth brothers had different opinions on Poiret’s work, as Gaston was pleased with the profit Poiret’s designs brought, while Jean was less impressed with the lowering standard he noticed Poiret bringing upon the Maison Worth. While working for the Worth brothers Poiret presented some of his designs to the princess of Russia, who wasn’t impressed with them. Lacking the ability to please the high-society clients and loving working for the general public, Poiret left the Maison Worth and started working on his own.

With some financial help from his mother, Poiret opened a shop at No.5, Rue Auber in Paris. Poiret gained the attention of by-passers by displaying modest, complex and colourful designs on his shop’s window display. While his shop became popular, Poiret perfected the design that the princess rejected and gradually it became very popular. In his autobiography he called the cloak “Confucius” and quoted “every woman bought at least one.” He also stated that the design was the beginning of the Asian influence in fashion.

Poiret was not a fan of the corset and he introduced the brassiere, allowing women more comfort and freedom. However in contrast of his thoughts on corsets, Poiret created the popular tight skirt. Eventually Poiret’s business grew bigger and the shop was too small to fit his new ideas and collections, therefore Poiret moved into a house of Rue Pasquier. Although Poiret raised many eyebrows regarding his choice of his business’s practices, however the criticism never affected Poiret’s growing reputation.

Poiret stated in his autobiography “People have been good enough to say that I have exercised a powerful influence over my age, and that I have inspired the whole of my generation. I dare not make the pretension that this is true …” however he thought of his creative work to be inspired by artists, he says It was in my inspiration of artists, in my dressing of theatrical pieces, in my assimilation of and response to new needs, that I served the public of my day." Poiret continued to reinstate that the artist as an important and creative force in fashion through his career. Poiret worked with Paul Iribe, they produced les Robes de Paul Poiret, recontees par Paul Iribe, with Iribe creating drawings of Poiret’s dress collection. Two years later Paul Poiret also produced a similar album with Georges Lepape titled Paul Poiret vues par Georges Lepape. Both productions were extremely successful, which led to Poiret to helping artists developing their talent and increase exposure amongst the public, this increased the popularity of fashion illustrations and literature.

Poiret also mentioned how hard he had to work in order for his collections to be well known, he says "I did not wait for my success to grow by itself. I worked like a demon to increase it, and everything that could stimulate it seemed good to me." Poiret toured around Europe with nine models to promote his designs, which gained him recognition around the main capitals in Europe.

Poiret established a school of decorative art in 1912 as he expanded his interest in painting art; he named the school Martine which was later used for the Maison Martine founded by Poiret. The school gave Parisian women the opportunity to learn about different designs and to be creative with their designs as there was a non-structured curriculum and no criticism. The school also caught the eye of artists, such as Raoul Dufy and Poiret’s friendship with Dufy struck up quickly. Poiret later sponsored Dufy’s artistic activities, leading him to experiment the world of art exhibition in 1924. However Poiret’s experience was unsuccessful and he didn’t pursue it further.

Poiret’s career ended temporarily when he was called into the military service during the World War I. he then travelled to Morocco after he was released from service in1917 to deal with the aftermath of his experience in the war. By the time Poiret returned to Paris to continue his dressmaking business, he had discovered his interest in perfumery and interior decoration.

Poiret also developed a passion of organizing parties since he was a child. Poiret’s parties were sophisticated and well attended as they fulfilled all the aspects of entertainment, including dancers, orchestras, a party was said to featuring a python, monkey merchant, a garden full of wild animals. Some parties were attended in the “Oasis” a theatre Poiret created in his garden and others were based on themes. Poiret also planned parties and balls for other people. Paul Poiret died in 1944, spending his last years pursuing in his love of painting.