The couturier who lost to Coco Chanel: Why the great French fashion designer Paul Poiret died in oblivion. “Nothing is more important than appearance,” - fashion king Paul Poiret

Paul Poiret's influence on the global fashion industry is often compared to Picasso's influence on the development of painting. Poiret freed women from corsets, returned interest in antique silhouettes with a loose cut, and became the first French couturier to launch a line of signature perfumes. Despite all his career ups, at the end of his life Poiret was poor and died in oblivion, and the luxurious outfits he created were sold by weight, like ordinary rags.

Paul Poiret in his workshop.

Paul Poiret was born into an ordinary family, his father was a textile trader. As a teenager, Paul got a job in an umbrella sewing studio, where he developed a hobby - making outfits for his sister’s dolls from leftover pieces of silk. At the same time, the aspiring designer dared to show his first sketches to the eminent designer Louis Cherui, who then headed one of the famous fashion houses in Paris. Louis was delighted with what she saw, bought a dozen sketches, and before Paul Poiret had time to look back, he had already begun collaborating with the leading couturiers of France.


Models inspired by oriental aesthetics.

Paul Poiret revolutionized French fashion.

In the house high fashion Charles Worth (House of Worth), which was rightfully considered one of the largest in Europe, Poiret was developing practical and convenient models dresses. The founder of the brand, Worth, called such outfits “french fries,” a “side dish,” which favorably set off the exquisite and sophisticated models of ball gowns he created. This did not last long, since it soon became clear that Poiret had remarkable talent, could compete with recognized masters, was looking for his own style and claimed to be absolutely independent.


Models of Paul Poiret.

Shoes from designer Paul Poiret.

After leaving his job at the Worth Fashion House, Poiret took up individual creativity. After some time, he presented the Russian princess Baryatinskaya with a coat, which was cut like a kimono. According to one version, the princess was horrified and said that this coat reminded her of a bag into which the severed heads of slaves are thrown. The impressionable nature allegedly explained that when annoying commoners run too long after the prince’s sleigh, they get rid of them in a cruel way - they are killed by beheading.

Models of Paul Poiret.

Most likely, Baryatinskaya made a sarcastic joke to hurt Poiret’s feelings, but he did not get upset and continued his creative search. The first thing that came to his mind was to free women from the shackles of corsets in which they had languished since the Renaissance. Poiret took Greek, Japanese and Middle Eastern models as the basis for the new silhouette, shifting the emphasis from strict lines to the art of drapery.


Exhibition of works by Paul Poiret.

The models created by Poiret became a real revolution in the fashion world. S-silhouette, emphasizing all the advantages female figure, began to confidently win sympathy. At the same time as Poiret, other fashion designers worked on creating such dresses, but it is his name that is still associated with this type of dress. Poiret's other inventions included cocoon coats, lampshade dresses, flowing skirts, harem trousers, fringed capes and turban hats. The designer drew inspiration from the culture of the East. All these models were further successfully developed by Yves Saint Laurent in the 1960s and 70s.


A series of perfumes from Paul Poiret.

Paul Poiret was the first couturier to introduce the concept of a “brand as a lifestyle”. He launched his own line cosmetics and perfumes, and also offered the services of designers who decorated any room in the “Poiret fashion house style.” The appearance on the market of new products from Paul Poiret was certainly accompanied by magnificent presentations, which Parisian bohemia talked about for months afterwards. For example, in order to introduce the French to the Persian Night perfume, Poiret organized an event called One Thousand and One Nights. He gathered the guests in a garden decorated with lanterns and tents, and exotic birds were specially brought there. Poiret himself greeted everyone dressed as a sultan and handed each guest a bottle of perfume.


Presentation of perfume *Persian Night*.

Bottle of perfume *Persian Night*.

Poiret also distinguished himself by being the first to use photography to demonstrate his models; previously, couturiers limited themselves to sketches only. In April 1911, the publication Art et Decoration published the first fashion photo shoot by Edward Steichen. The models wore Poiret outfits.


Fashion photo shoot of Paul Poiret models.

First World War became disastrous for Poiret's career. At first, he was forced to take up a position as a tailor in the French army and, instead of exquisite outfits, design military uniform. When Poiret returned from the war, he learned that his business had gone bankrupt. French fashion began to focus on simplicity, convenience, functionality, there was no talk of luxury models - people were poor, and ideas of emancipation penetrated deeper into the minds of women. Coco Chanel basked in the rays of glory when she created the concept of the little black dress. Paul Poiret tried to stay afloat, but he had already lost the battle for the public's favor. Having once met a rival, Poiret tried to ironize whether she was wearing mourning, always appearing in black dresses. To which I received the answer: “Yes, I wear it, and this mourning is for you!”


Sketches by Paul Poiret.

Poiret began to be accused of being too aesthetic, many business partners turned away from him, scandals became more frequent with his wife, whom the designer always called his muse and with whom he lived for 23 years, and the couple decided to divorce. Left with nothing, Poiret was forced to close his fashion house.


Fashion house of Paul Poiret.

IN last years During his life, Poiret worked part-time as a street artist, offering his drawings to visitors to French cafes; his outfits were sold for pennies by weight. Members of the Paris Haute Couture Association wanted to help Poiret, but Paul’s longtime rival, Charles Worth, opposed this.

Produced by Paul Poiret.

Paul Poiret did not die of hunger only because from time to time he was fed by a former employee of his fashion house, France Martano. Another one close girlfriend Poiret - Elsa Schiaparelli - also supported him during his lifetime, and after his death she paid for the funeral of the great, but forgotten couturier, and made sure that the outfits he created ended up in museums and private collections.

Portrait of Paul Poiret.

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Fashion innovator, creator of a new style and completely new ideas and forms. Without him, the history of fashion in the 20th century could have turned out completely differently. Paul Poiret was born into a Parisian family of a clothing merchant in 1879. His father and mother wanted to make him an umbrella maker and apprenticed him to an umbrella manufacturer. But since childhood, Poiret was interested in fashion, clothing, and drew sketches of outfits for his sister’s dolls. Then I started sewing dresses for them from leftover fabrics for umbrellas. He was so confident in himself that he went with his sketches to the Raudnitz Fashion House to see Madeleine Cherui and convinced her to buy his sketches. This is how his work as a “freelancer” began.

Already in 1896, Poiret went to work at the Doucet fashion house. Having gone through the school of Jacques Doucet, he was imbued with the spirit of haute couture. On the advice of his mentor, Poiret himself began to adopt the manners and clothing style of representatives of high society and soon he could be seen in English suits at fashion parties. Luxurious muslin dresses, chic clients, exquisite furniture of the 18th century and a magnificent collection of paintings - all this made such an impression on Paul that upon returning from the army he knew that he would only be a fashion designer and the best. Poiret gets a job at the most prestigious and oldest of the Fashion Houses - the Worth Fashion House. Old Worth was no longer alive, Paul worked with his sons Charles-Philippe and Gaston Lucien. Having achieved some success with Worth, Poiret decides to open his own enterprise.

With money borrowed from his mother, he opened his own company in September 1903 at 4 rue Aubert, Paris, not far from the Grand Opera. His success was stunning. Poiret goes down in fashion history as a great reformer. He changed the silhouette of women's dresses and introduced new colors and fabrics into fashion. Poiret created much more than new clothes - he created a new style And new image life. An important stage in fashion and style for Paul was that he freed women from the shackles of a corset with a cinching waist. This was in 1906. He raised his waist higher, under his chest, thereby lengthening his legs. This forced women to watch their figure and lose weight.

A year earlier, Poiret married Denise Boulay, a slender 19-year-old girl. She became his muse and inspiration for creating new images and silhouettes. “It’s great to find a man who is your spouse,” she said, “who also dresses you as if you came from a magical land.” Together they created what is called a creative tandem. In each of her appearances there was a sign of a new trend and shockingness that reached the point of scandalousness. These were the first sprouts of advertising that are still alive today.

In 1908, Poiret published the first booklet in fashion history with drawings of dress models, and thus further strengthened his reputation as the most influential Parisian couturier. Thanks to his beloved and his own innovation, new fashion items from Poiret poured out of a cornucopia. A skirt, a trouser skirt and, of course, the notorious lampshade dress.

The designer organized many lavish and costumed parties. When Poiret came up with this lampshade dress in 1911, guests agreed to wear it just to get to a party in the style of the Arabian Nights fairy tales. Poiret was at the party in the role of the Sultan, and Denise was the Shahini. The newspapers wrote: “The odalisques from Poiret’s harem caused such delight among our ladies that now even the honorary spouses of politicians are ready to give up everything and go to the Turkish Sultan, just to have such outfits.” But the press also spoke about the influence on his work of Bakst’s drawings and sketches created for the Russian ballet seasons in Paris. Although the designer himself denied this influence.

In 1911 Poiret Once again explodes fashion by presenting a “lame” skirt to the public, which caused a real sensation. Tight skirts were no longer new; they appeared at the beginning of the century. But what Paul offered exceeded all expectations. The dress fell in soft folds from the chest to the knee, and then sharply tapered downward, so that the woman could only mince her feet like a geisha. This corresponded to his ideal of an oriental female courtesan and was very much in the spirit of the East, which Poiret loved so much. “Lame” skirts became the center of everyone's attention. They became the subject of condemnation and caricature, but nevertheless, fashionistas wore them in full, adding furs, collars, narrow sleeves and long narrow gloves, which enhanced the effect of the sheath.

Over the next few years, Poiret lived rich life. He released the perfume “Rosine” (le Parfums de Rosine), named after one of his daughters, traveled all over Europe with shows, opened the School of Decorative Arts, and named it “Martin” (Atelier Martine) in honor of another daughter.

But in the 1920s, a time of dark change and decline began for Poiret, and this was connected with women’s emancipation and a new rhythm of life, which the master did not take into account. New competitors appeared, which also became trendsetters: Lanvin, Patou, Vionnet, Kahlo Sisters. But his biggest enemy was Chanel. She hated him for his former successes and the title of emperor of Parisian fashion. And Poiret couldn’t stand her little black dresses. Chanel not only creates different images in fashion, but also releases a new fragrance that is gaining wide popularity. These are the famous Chanel No. 5. Once, having met at the Grand Opera, Poiret asked Chanel: “Mademoiselle Chanel, you are always in black dresses. What is this, mourning?” Resourceful and sharp-tongued, Chanel replied: “Yes, according to you!”

But Poiret’s real financial decline began in 1924, and in 1927 he had to close his fashion house altogether, and Chanel’s simplicity soon reigned in world fashion. The era of theatricality is over, and the fall of the great meter showed that luck can turn away even from the greatest master.

In 1929, Denise Poiret divorced her bankrupt husband. However, she retained a collection of his models and interior sketches, as well as decorative arts. Poiret himself, completely ruined, leaves for Cannes, where he takes up painting, thinking that this way he can improve his situation and delivers bottles of vintage wines to elite restaurants on a bicycle. Having gathered his courage, he writes the books “Dressing the Epoch” and others. This slightly improves the current position of the fashion designer. At the beginning of the Second World War, Paul Poiret moved back to Paris and signed up for the labor exchange, where he died on April 28, 1944 in complete oblivion.

But as often happens, geniuses are remembered after death. Since the late 1950s, there has been a revival of interest in his work. And in the 1960s - the era of hippies - a fashion arose to wear vintage items from Poiret. In May 2005, a huge auction sale of Poiret's items took place, where over 500 lots were sold for a huge amount of money within 2 days. Poiret's path continues.

Paul Poiret

Paul Poiret, who freed women from corsets

He was called the emperor of French fashion. The name of Paul Poiret had such magic that thousands of women on Earth, from St. Petersburg to Rio de Janeiro, at the beginning of the twentieth century were only thinking about how to get an amazing dress from the great master of fashion. Admiration for him was combined with imitation. Many stunning contemporary fashion houses - Paquin, Drekol, Callot Sisters, Cayue - tried to be at least somewhat like him. It got to the point that the mother of the French writer Romain Gary, being in deep need, decided in 1918 to open a fake “branch” of Paul Poiret in Vilna - and was a success! Magic magic The creations of Paul Poiret have not faded even a hundred years after he opened the Fashion House in Paris.

Paul Poiret was born in 1879; his parents traded in textiles - and it is not surprising that Paul Poiret's sisters also became famous fashion creators. Nicole Groult, née Poiret, successfully developed her house in the 1910s and 1920s, in some ways rivaling her brother, although she never achieved his fame or grace. Another sister, Madeleine, was a popular and original hatmaker - and her work deserves more attention.

Paul Poiret's first steps are connected with the Raudnitz fashion house; then, from 1899, he worked for Jacques Doucet, a recognized virtuoso of the belle-epoque style. This was followed by two years of work at the House of Worth for the children of the creator of haute couture.

Paul Poiret was entrusted with creating not only collections of day dresses, but also street coats - and he achieved his first successes. When in 1903 Paul Poiret opened his first fashion house on Rue Aubert near the Paris Grand Opera, fate smiled on him. The windows of his small store were decorated so originally and with such elegant taste that many of Worth and Doucet's clients began to dress at Poiret's. In 1905, Paul Poiret married the elegant beauty Denise Boulet, who became the mother of his three children and the first fashion model in his House. On next year Poiret proclaims a “fashion revolution” and creates the first dress without a corset, which he called “Lola Montez”. Two years later, albums with his models by Paul Iriba, a talented artist who later became Coco Chanel’s lover, began to be published. By the way, the relationship between Chanel and Poiret has always been very bad. Once, a few years later, when Chanel’s black dresses were already noticeable in fashion, Paul Poiret, meeting her at a reception, asked: “Why are you always in black, Mademoiselle Chanel, is this mourning?” Chanel, with her characteristic insolence, replied: “Yes, mourning for you!” One cannot help but see an omen in this.

Bright colors became the leitmotif of Paul Poiret’s work, and what he could combine into one bouquet was and still is amazing with the courage of his decisions. Another step towards orientalism in his models was the skirt-pants he created in 1911, which turned out to be a real sensation. They became very popular after the oriental costume ball “1002 Nights”, organized by Poiret in the garden of his luxurious Parisian mansion.

In 1913, a young St. Petersburg artist, fashion illustrator Roman Tyrtov, who took the pseudonym Erte and later became famous under this name, went to work for Paul Poiret. Erte’s famous creation for Poiret was the “lampshade” skirt.

The First World War ruined the creative plans of the great couturier. His exotic and extravagant toilets did not fit in with the new realities, and besides, he himself was drafted into the army. The finances of the House of Poiret fell into disrepair, and its revival in the 1920s proved very difficult. Poiret's models no longer seemed as comfortable and practical as the models of his competitors. It was still looked upon with adoration, but not bought as much as before.

Things got so bad that in 1925 he sold shares of the House of Poiret to the general public and almost went bankrupt by creating the extravagant Love, Orgy and Pleasure pavilions on the occasion of the Art Deco exhibition in Paris. In addition to the fashion house, Poiret also had successful houses of designer perfume "Rosina" and printed fabrics and home accessories "Martina" - named after the names of his eldest daughters. But they didn’t save the matter either. Since 1927, Poiret practically stopped showing haute couture. This is followed by a painful divorce from his beloved wife and a move to the Cote d'Azur, where Poiret tries to create a small business, which, after the crisis of 1929, was not successful.

In the 1930s, Poiret wrote books and memoirs and sold fine wine. He died, forgotten by everyone, in Paris in 1944. During the war, in search of income, he even went to the labor exchange, where he indicated the place of his last job: “Paul Poiret.” But the young clerk said that he knew nothing about such a House. Is this how earthly glory passes? No, it doesn't go away. If you are truly talented!

The Russian Hour of Paul Poiret

When models from Paul Poiret were sold at the Drouot auction in Paris in 2005, the eyes of many fashionistas around the world were riveted on them.

Over the course of two days, over 500 lots of items from the personal wardrobe of Paul Poiret's wife, Denise, and their daughters, Rosina, Martina and Perrina, went under the hammer. Today, finding things bearing the stamp of this great master of fashion, who opened his house more than a hundred years ago, is both troublesome and expensive. But, let's tell the truth, the prices at the auction in Paris were not low - collectors and museums from all over the world were waiting and hunting for Poiret. The Paris Fashion Museum of the Galliera Palace and the Museum of Fashion Art on the Rue Rivoli bought especially a lot.

Now dresses with the signature stamp of this master, who at the beginning of the last century revolutionized ideas about female beauty and who removed the corset from our grandmothers or great-grandmothers, cost from seven to sixty thousand euros and sometimes reach one hundred thousand euros.

Today we talk a lot and often about the influence of Diaghilev’s ballets on the work of Paul Poiret, about Bakst’s colorism and orientalism, which can be traced in his work after the premiere of Fokine’s Scheherazade in 1910. However, Russia’s influence on the master’s work was not at all limited to the ballet stage. Attracted by the splendor of the Russian court and the wide opportunities that Russia then, as now, gave to foreign fashion designers, Paul Poiret and a group of fashion models in 1911 went with shows to Moscow and St. Petersburg. He loved Moscow! The reason for this was his friendship with the outstanding Moscow fashion creator Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova, whom Poiret had previously known from Paris. Judging by his memoirs, Lamanova fed the couturier well and showed him the Kremlin, the Shchukin Museum of Modern Painting and the flea market on Sukharevka. Poiret was delighted with Russian folk costumes - sundresses, braids, kokoshniks, kicheks, shawls and scarves and brought a fair amount of them to Paris. The flowers and ornaments of these bright Russian products greatly inspired the couturier, and in Paris in 1911 he created the world's first collection of dresses on a Russian theme, called “Kazan”. This collection of Russian embroideries and headdresses, boots and sundresses was sold in Paris, and I personally managed to buy and become the proud owner of seven lots.

How sad it was to realize that not a single domestic museum decided to acquire for its collection a single item that should be a source of pride for national fashion. After all, the fashion for Russian clothing came to us from Paul Poiret, and its echoes were the works of Lamanova and Russian emigrants in Paris in the 1920s! There were no sponsors in our country to purchase these unique, incomparable models! The auction, which raised a total of about one and a half million euros, included items from the collection of the master's family, which his granddaughter decided to part with.

In 2007, another auction took place, where this time three times fewer lots were offered. For the first time, representatives of Russian museums were at the sale, but, alas, their financial capabilities were not up to par. But museums from the USA, Japan, Latin America, and France have added to their collections. Now the whole world admires them.

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