The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

April 20, 2015

April 20, 1879


Paul Poiret (April 20, 1879 to April 30, 1944) designed women's clothing, and his designs were the epitome of high fashion in his (pre-1914) day. He is credited with freeing women from the corset, though he does not claim sole credit for this. His fame can be glimpsed in the fact that an American poet, Elinor Wylie (once considered on an artistic par with Edna St. Vincent Millay), specified she be buried in her Poiret gown. 

Poiret's significance is summarized at this website and I quote from Lotusgreenfotos, where we learn he "made-over western fashion in the style of the Japanese. " Poiret handled the lines, the cuts of  the dresses for which he is famous,  made out of a fabric whose pattern Raoul Dufy may well have designed.

...[I]t is astonishing to do a little research into women's fashion in the 1800s. It was quite literally not until the final half decade of the century that colors, other than black and white, were allowed in the door-and it was past the century mark itself before color and pattern beyond calico showed on the well-dressed woman. and at the very same moment, the whole shape of the fashions changed as well...[G]one were the corsets and the bustles and stays. [Y]es, there were 'hobble skirts,' also Poiret's doing, but for the most part women's bodies had been freed.


[Poiret used]...Dufy's designs ...created using woodblock prints, thereby using both method and themes he [Dufy] found in Japanese art. Poirot, ever an entrepreneur, commissioned some of Paris's newest and best artists to paint portraits of his dresses for publicity purposes.... Dufy's designs were very different from the available printed silk fabrics which had small paisley or polka dot designs. Dufy's fabrics were stunning and Poiret used them extensively in his fashions, creating magnificent coats, capes and dresses in sumptuous silk brocades block-printed with large designs; and when Poiret took his models to the races to publicize them, they were the center of attraction.

Here are Poiret's own words (En Habillant l'Epoque, 1930) as to his use of Dufy's designs.

Dufy designed and carved woodcuts for me based on the illustrations he had just created for Apollinaire's Bestiaire. I made dresses with the sumptuous materials printed from them.


And here is a sample of the work Poiret references:





Vive le japonisme.








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