Art Eyewitness Book Review: Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast

 

Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast

By Marie-Sophie Carron de la Carrière

Thames & Hudson/272pages/$65

Reviewed by Ed Voves

How have the mighty fallen! 

These familiar words supply the refrain for one of the most time-honored topics in literature and history - the rise and fall of daring, high-stakes risk takers. 

From the ancient Greeks, with their concepts of hubris and nemesis, to "rich today, broke tomorrow" financial magnates, stories of those who defy the odds - and the "gods" - are fascinating and unnerving. Life can be very, very unkind to most people at some point in their lives, but especially so to those with the ambition to gamble everything for fame, power and riches.

Paul Poiret (1879-1944) was the protagonist in such a cautionary tale. Poiret chose to roll the dice of fate in the competition between haute couture fashion houses rather than on an actual battlefield. But the end result for Poiret le Magnifique was the same as for Napoleon at Waterloo.

Unknown photographer, Portrait of Paul Poiret, c. 1913

Poiret was the subject of a recent exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, June 2025 to January 2026. It was the biggest art show dedicated to Poiret since the celebrated Met Gala exhibit of 2007. Over five hundred dresses, evening gowns, coats, fashion accessories and works of art were displayed. The majority of these were donated to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs by Poiret's wife.

There are, sadly, no plans to bring a version of Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast to the U.S. museums. Thanks to Thames & Hudson, the companion book to the exhibition will keep fashion enthusiasts from rending their garments in despair. Even by T&H's exalted standards, this volume is a brilliant integration of beautiful full-page views of Poiret fashions, vintage photographs and cogent analysis.

Page spread from Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast, published by     

Thames & Hudson, showing Poiret's Mosaique Evening Gown, c. 1910

Special strong points of the T&H book are the extraordinary fidelity to color tones - Poiret loved vivid hues, especially green (above) - and the close-up details of dress ensembles such as the hand-embroidered silk crepe designs on the 1911 Flammes Shawl and Culotte-dress.

Page spread from Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast, showing Poiret's Flammes Shawl and Culotte-dress 1911

With such a dazzling repertoire, it is not hard to understand why Poiret rose to be the "King of Fashion." Rather more puzzling is how he toppled from his throne.

This begs the question, which the book's lead author, Marie-Sophie Carron de la Carrière, raises.

Who are you, Paul Poiret?

Paul Poiret was born in 1879 to a Parisian family engaged in the fabric trade. Such a background in fashion was hardly extraordinary. Poiret's sisters became successful designers, as well. But Poiret was not content with merely expanding the family business or working in concert with talented siblings. From the start, he had visions of la Grande Couture Française, with himself as its champion.

While still in his twenties, Poiret began selling designs to leading fashion "houses" in Paris. In 1898, after being hired by the firm of Jacques Doucet, one of Poiret's designs, for a theatrical costume used by the actress Rejane in the popular play Zaza, earned him widespread accolades.

After a mandatory year's service in the French Army, Poiret joined the celebrated House of Worth in 1901. What should have been a dream job lasted but a short interval. Like the "wild beast" painters, Matisse and Derain, Poiret wanted to redirect French fashion along unconventional paths. 

In 1903, Poiret opened his own fashion house, with designs emphasizing comfortable, body-configuring lines. In a series of radical moves, Poiret discarded rustling petticoats and the constricting corset which had held women in a tight-grip of stylish discomfort for decades.

Like most great cultural figures, Poiret was a man of contradictions. He boasted about liberating the bodies of women from corsets but claimed credit for introducing the leg-hugging "hobble" skirt, with a hem so-tight that it made walking nearly impossible. The original inspiration, incredibly enough, was to design a skirt to enable women to fit into the cockpit of an airplane.

Most of Poiret's other designs were comfortable, ravishingly beautiful - and highly priced. Cost-cutting was never an option for Poiret. The ultimate expression of his taste for rare, expensive materials and exquisite, painstaking stitchery is worth noting here, though it came late in his career.

 Paul Poiret, Marrekech Evening Gown, 1924

The shimmering Marrekech Evening Gown, dating to 1924, featured silver strip embroidery done in the Tsel stitching technique from the Berber people of Morocco. At the hem, Poiret affixed a wide band of chinchilla fur. The South American animals whose pelts provided the fur had been hunted almost to extinction until a 1910 protective treaty preserved the species. This saved the furry rodents but sent the prices of available fur soaring. 

Expense was no concern to Poiret. Chinchilla fur was added to the bottom of the gown, making it a symbol of luxury for the sake of luxury!

Poiret in a remarkably short interval after opening his "house" became France's leading fashion designer. But he did not succeed through high-priced gimmicks. His clothes were striking to behold and - hobble skirts aside - comfortable to wear. 

What today we would call the Poiret "brand" evolved into a mindset focused on grace and beauty, a life-enhancing experience that buyers brought home with the stunning garments they purchased at his shop.

Two of Poiret's creations from his pre-World War I heyday speak for the glittering fashion array which was displayed at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and now appear on the pages of the companion book published by T&H.

The Evening Coat, from 1910, was made of a material known as gros de Tours, with brocade design in gold and silver strips, trimmed in fur at the collar, shoulders and wrists and fastened at the waist by six ingeniously-placed silver buttons. Elegant and sensual, the coat also kept the woman who wore it warm on cold, damp winter evenings in Paris.

Paul Poiret, Evening Coat, 1910

If the 1910 Evening Coat was a masterpiece, so was 1912 Melodie Dress. Poiret's focus with the Melodie Dress was on a more natural, organic state of elegance.

At first glance, with its triangular pinafore, made of silk velvet, and side pocket, the Melodie Dress almost looks like a work tunic or leisure attire. But this apparent simplicity could not disguise its "groundbreaking silhouette that is both straight and flowing," to quote Marie-Pierre Ribere, one of the curators from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. It was a revolutionary moment in fashion design.

Paul Poiret, Melodie Dress, 1912

Two years after introducing the Melodie Dress, Poiret was involved in designing truly functional garments. These were uniforms and overcoats for the French Army engaged in World War I. Poiret served in the army and there are photos of him, looking like a battle-hardened poilu. Though he did not fight in the trenches, the war left its mark on him. The glittering, glamorous world before the war was gone forever.

Poiret was not ready in 1919 to move-on, emotionally, from the pre-1914 milieu which he had dominated. He was not alone. Jean Cocteau, who knew Poiret well, wrote an influential essay, Le Rappel à l’ordre: discipline et liberté, calling for a return to classicism in all forms of cultural expression.

Poiret was only too willing to oblige. Too willing, if fact. Thus began his decline and fall as France's "king" of fashion.

Thérese Bonney, Paul Poiret and the model Rénee, 1927

As Poiret struggled to maintain his supremacy during the aftermath of the "Great War", he created fashion designs of unsurpassed beauty. Of those which appeared in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs exhibition, none exemplifies Poiret's post-war efforts better than the Martinique Dress of 1922.

This reinterpretation of the kimono, made of crepe-marocain and printed crepe de chine, was truly of a work of art. However, women in the 1920's, especially young women, increasingly valued dresses that made them feel vital, alive and sexy - not just look beautiful.

Paul Poiret, Martinique Dress, 1922

For all of its breathtaking allure, Poiret's Martinique Dress would not become the signature fashion design of the 1920's. That honor belongs to Coco Chanel's "Little Black Dress" - in its various incarnations. I saw one of these "flapper" dresses in the 2017 Jazz Age exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt. Even on a mannequin, Chanel's evening dress was the show-stopper of the exhibition.

The success of the"Little Black Dress" has helped to create the myth that the House of Chanel was built on the ruins of the House of Poiret. This is only partly correct, as revealed by several 1920's Poiret dresses in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When directly contrasted with the Chanel evening dress from the Cooper Hewitt show, Poiret's "Arrow of Gold" (1925) more than holds its own in terms of lithe, sultry elegance.

Ed Voves, Photo (2017) Chanel's 1926 Evening Dress & Underslip; Poiret's "Arrow of Gold" Dress, 1925, Metropolitan Museum collection

Earlier, I commented how Poiret, in the pre-World War I era, created fashion designs which exuded a "life-enhancing experience that buyers brought home with the stunning garments they purchased at his shop." This is exactly what Chanel did in the 1920's. But there was an added bonus to Chanel's achievement - she was a stylish, savvy, independent woman who managed to make a success of her own bold endeavor.

To women in the 1920's, finally able to vote and with memories of their vital contributions to the war effort, Chanel was a major role model. Poiret might match Chanel's fashion designs, but how could he, a giant from an earlier epoch, respond to her appeal to the "new" woman of the Jazz Age?

The tragedy of Poiret's fall from grace was that he was wed to a beautiful, talented woman who could have helped him recreate the House of Poiret in the changed circumstances of the 1920's. In 1905, Poiret married Denise Boulet (1886-1982). It was a love match and, for many years, a successful marriage, though saddened by the death of two of their children during the war years.

 Denise Poiret wearing the Melodie Dress by Paul Poiret, 1913

Denise Poiret was her husband's best model. Poiret's fashions never looked better than when Denise wore them. She accompanied him on his tours throughout Europe and to the U.S. Audiences, especially Americans, were fascinated by the winning combination of Denise's devotion to her husband and her mysterious allure.

As far as the business-end of the House of Poiret, that was as far as it went. Poiret spent staggering amounts of revenue during the 1920's to reverse the dwindling fortunes of his business. At the same time, he ignored the public cachet and abundant talent of his wife. Instead, he treated Denise, in one case literally, like an exotic bird in a gilded cage.

Why did Poiret marginalize his wife, rather than give her a proactive role? Poiret admired Coco Chanel. He was the first to believe in Elsa Schiaparelli's fashion sense and mentored her during the early years of her career. Yet, he failed to capitalize on the many gifts of his own wife or give her scope for creative endeavor.

In 1928, Denise Poiret, worn-out by her husband's increasingly abusive behavior and, sad to relate, infidelity, sued for divorce. Fate, waiting in the wings, turned its full fury on Poiret. First bankruptcy and then everything fell apart. By the time he died in 1944, Poiret was destitute, living in his sister's apartment in Paris, a vanquished hero from a bygone age ...

... but not a forgotten genius. Elsa Schiaparelli, who paid for his burial expenses, called Poiret the "Leonardo of Fashion." So will you, after even a brief look at the wonderful T&H book, Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved.

Introductory image:

Cover art of Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast by Marie-Sophie Carron de la Carrière, 2026. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson

Unknown photographer. Portrait of Paul Poiret, facing left, c. 1913. Library of Congress collection: LC-USZ62-100840 (b&w film copy neg.) photographic print.

Page spread from Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast, showing Poiret's  Mosaique Evening Gown, c. 1910. Collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson

Page spread from Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast, showing Poiret's Flammes Shawl and Culotte-dress, 1911. Collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson

Paul Poiret (1879-1944) Marrekech Evening Gown, 1924. Collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

Paul Poiret (1879-1944) Evening Coat, 1910. Collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

Paul Poiret (1879-1944) Melodie Dress, 1912. Collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

Thérese Bonney (1894-1978) Paul Poiret and the model Rénee at his fashion house at 1 rond-point de Champs-Elysées, 1927. Gelatin silver bromide print. From the negative by l’ARCP. Paris. © Bibliotheque de la ville de Paris

Paul Poiret (1879-1944) Martinique Dress of 1922. Collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

Ed Voves, Photo (2017) Coco Chanel's Evening Dress and Underslip, 1926, from the Kent state University Libraries, Borowitz collection; Paul Poiret's "Arrow of Gold" Dress, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection.  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Arrow_of_Gold%22_MET_DP145111.jpg

Unknown photographer. Denise Poiret wearing the Melodie Dress by Paul Poiret, 1913. Gelatin silver bromide print. Paris. Bibliotheque national de France. Prints and Photography department, inv. OA-702-FOL