paul poiret

Paul Poiret

Paul Poiret (b.20.4.1879 – d.30.4.1944, Paris) was during the ?Belle Epoque?(just before the start of the First World War)a prominent lady?s tailor from Paris. As a drawer, he worked also for a haute-couture designer Jacques Doucet. In 1994 he finished his tirocinium at the famous House of Worth and begun to run his own fashion company, which proved to be an instant success – till 1907 he created an original and highly innovative style. He was the first in the world of fashion who completely abandoned the the gentle late Edwardian style and, instead, he started to use “sappy“ basic colours.

In ' My Fifty First Years' he confessed about his 'hobble' skirt that "in the name of Liberty" he expressed "the fall of the corset and the adoption of the brassiere".

Poiret was also a producer of the plushy Art Deco and oriental-style outfit. He was the first fashion designer to release not only his own perfume (he named Rosine who was his eldest daughter), but also culotte, stockings in the colour of the skin, the suspender belt, and new-fashioned brassiere.

Poiret's subscriptio was the rose, which was also an embellishing item of his trade name and even nowadays it can be seen – from time to time – whenever on his fashion products. He was very proud of his personal sign – it was an inseparable part of his creations, sometimes even adding the grace to his collections. The already mentioned rose was a 'comission' designated by a graphic-and-jewelry designer Paul Iribe. The simply-drawn image of a rose was accompanied by the text which read: "Paul Poiret a Paris".

There was also another thing which brought Poiret a fame – his luxurious parties, at which sometimes virtually all the guests had to wear rose-labelled Poiret's outfits( for example "The Thousand and Second Night" thrown in 1911, which was a variation on The Arabian Nights). The requirement of coming dressed “orientally“ was meant so seriously that some of the three hundred guests had either to “re-dress“ or leave the party.

Writing utensils for the Poiret brand were in 1909 (as a commission)designed by Raoul Dufy ; he created various cloth patterns for the company's clothing collections as well.