Inside the illustrious life and times of paul poiret, world’s first

By Adam Hencz. He epitomized Art Deco fashion and is credited with freeing women from corsets as well as introducing new silhouettes like the hobble skirt, harem pants, and lampshade tunic. Much of modern fashion was born with Paul Poiret, from the spectacle of the runway to the idea of fashion brands as a means to promote a luxurious lifestyle.

Inside the Illustrious Life and Times of Paul Poiret, World’s First Fashion Hyphenate Dubbed “the King of Fashion,” this acclaimed fashion designer and Schumacher collaborator reinvented .

Influenced by the sleek lines and draped constructions of the Japanese kimono and Middle Eastern caftan, Poiret also introduced a new dramatic palette and unprecedented combinations of colors to fashion design, elevating the status of couture to an art form. He would ultimately become dubbed as the King of Fashion of his time, to the extent that his memoirs, My First Fifty Years , released in , was also published as The King of Fashion.

However, as the years went on, his inability to adapt to new movements in modernity led to the collapse of his company. Paul Poiret was born on April 20, , in Paris. As a son of a cloth merchant, Poiret lived with his parents and his three sisters in an apartment above the merchant shop. Their interest in the arts and fashion was evident throughout the household as his parents embellished their home and country house with whatever artworks they could afford.

Poiret was already interested in fashion and found pleasure in scanning magazines and catalogs; he also enjoyed going to the theater and art exhibits. After his graduation, at the age of 18, he apprenticed to an umbrella manufacturer, where he would start sketching and creating small dress models using the discarded silk scraps.

He began with the body, liberating it first from the petticoat in and then from the corset in Although constantly shifting in its placement, the corseted waistline, which had persisted .

His fashion design career began at the turn of the 20th century, selling drawings of his fashion designs to couture houses that would use them as inspiration for their collections. He was snatched up by Jacques Doucet, one of the most prominent couturiers in Paris at that time. To his disappointment, Poiret was expected to design and create practical garments there.

It was in fact the lack of creative freedom that prompted him to found his own Maison de couture in in Paris. In , Poiret married Denise Boulet, a slender and youthful woman he had known since his childhood. While expanding his brand worldwide, Poiret would go on tours with fashion models presenting his clothes, from America through Europe and Russia to the Middle East.