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

Fashion Statement: Art Eyewitness Tribute to Dilys Blum

Fashion Statement

                               Art Eyewitness tribute to Dilys Blum                                  

Curator of Costumes & Textiles at the Philadelphia Art Museum

By Ed Voves

The email messages of January 8, 2026 brought sad tidings for the new year. The Press Office of the Philadelphia Art Museum sent a release announcing the "loss of Dilys E. Blum, the Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles, who passed away on December 27, 2025."

The magnitude of the contributions of this supremely gifted curator and art historian was underlined by the words of tribute from Daniel Weiss, the director and CEO of the museum. Reflecting upon the brilliant life's work of Dilys Blum, Weiss noted:

Through decades of scholarship and curatorial rigor, she transformed this museum’s Costume and Textiles department into a program respected around the world. Her work expanded the very idea of what belongs in an art museum and ensured that these objects are appreciated as vital expressions of culture and identity. We are profoundly grateful for her contributions and the foundation she built for the future.

Portrait of Dilys Blum

Courtesy of the Philadelphia Art Museum

With a testimonial for Dilys Blum like this, further commentary may seem hardly necessary. Yet, one of the most telling proofs of human achievement is the effect on the attitudes of others and the ways that they incorporate these mental/emotional shifts in their own actions.

It is very significant in his valedictory words, that Daniel Weiss should have emphasized how Blum "expanded the very idea of what belongs in an art museum and ensured that these objects are appreciated as vital expressions of culture and identity."

I can truthfully say that the insights and influence of Dilys Blum and her fellow curators at the Costume and Textile Department of the Philadelphia Art Museum have had a powerful and positive effect on Art Eyewitness. Two 2018 exhibitions, both of which involved the Costume and Textile Department, influence the way that I now look at the correlation of the visual arts and the "material" world.

Before commenting on these 2018 exhibitions, a brief look at Blum's impressive credentials is in order. 

After graduating with a degree in art history at Connecticut College, Blum traveled to England to do graduate work at the University of Manchester and the prestigious Courtauld Institute. Blum returned to the U.S., joining the Costume and Textile Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (as it was then called) in 1987. There she stayed for nearly thirty-eight years, becoming the senior curator and leader of one of the most dynamic departments at the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Philadelphia Art Museum catalogs, written/edited by Dilys Blum

During her nearly four decades at the Philadelphia Art Museum, Blum curated over 40 exhibitions. These ranged from displays of high fashion design, like Best Dressed: 250 Years of Style (1997), to folk-art textile creations like Gee's Bend, the Architecture of the Quilt (2008). Especially notable were Shocking!, the 2003 exhibition devoted to Elsa Schiaparelli, the controversial designer whose clothing  reflected Surrealist art of the 1930's, and Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love (2014).

Shocking! the Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli made quite a "statement" back in 2003. That was a decade before Art Eyewitness was launched and years before I was able to appreciate the place of couture and textiles in the realm of art. 

 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Dresses designed by Elsa Schiaparelli, displayed in the Philadelphia Art Museum exhibition, Boom! Art & Design in the 1940's

Fortunately, during the spring-summer of 2025, visitors to the Philadelphia Art Museum were able to savor a taste of Shocking! in an exhibition curated by Blum, devoted to the design ethic of the World War II years and its aftermath.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

         The entrance to the Boom! Art & Design in the 1940's exhibition,         on view at the Philadelphia Art Museum, April to September 2025

Boom! 1940's featured a display of Schiaparelli-designed suits and evening dresses. These dated to the years, 1939 to 1941, an ominous time when the last flourishes of 1930's style gave way to wartime realities.

An added note, unsuspected at the time of the opening of Boom!, this was to be the last exhibition curated by Blum.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Dilys Blum at the press preview for Boom! Art & Design in the 1940's

Dilys Blum's death, only a few months after she retired, is indeed a great loss. However, it should be noted that great leaders, in whatever their respective profession, are those who plan and organize for the time when they no longer guide their organizations. In the closing of his tribute to Blum, Daniel Weiss underscored this in his praise for "the foundation she built for the future."

Evidence of Blum's "strategic" leadership, her ability to inspire and delegate responsibility, work with other departments and lay foundations for the future were a feature of her tenure as head of the Costume and Textile Department of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

The 2018 exhibitions which I mentioned earlier as striking examples of the contributions and capabilities of the Costume and Textile Department were: Modern Times: American Art 1910-1950, displayed from April 18, 2018 to September 3, 2018 and Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now, on view from October 16, 2018 to March 3, 2019.

These two outstanding exhibitions had several things in common. The exhibits took place during the renovation years at the Philly museum, when works from the museum's collection, rather than loans, were of critical importance. And both exhibits were not curated by Blum.

This may seem a strange way to applaud Blum's leadership. Yet, as I hope to prove, these exhibits did exactly that.

Modern Times, curated by Jessica Todd Smith, surveyed 20th century American art in all its diversity, from the era of the Armory Show to the Ab-Ex painters of the 1950's. It drew on the museum's rich collections of painting, sculpture and photos. However, what really brought the early years of the "American century" to life were the displays of period clothing from Costume and Textile Department holdings.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018)

 Gallery view of Modern Times: American Art 1910-1950,

 at the Philadelphia Art Museum, April to September 2018

One contrasting display of painting and couture was particularly striking. It paired Spring Sale at Bendel's (1921) by Florine Stettheimer with a mannequin clad in a contemporary red silk dress and an unusual "turban" hat, dating to 1920. It was such a seamless match that one almost could believe that the "lady in red" had just finished shopping at Henri Bendel's 57th Street Department Store and was waiting for a taxi!

A study in contrasts: Spring Sale at Bendel's (1921) by Florine Stettheimer, with a red silk dress and turban hat, ca. early 1920's.

This was definitely not the look of "Gatsby" era design that one associates with the Twenties. Additionally, I doubt that, when the red dress and the turban hat were added to the collection of the Costume and Textile Department, the opportunity to display them as seen here would been considered as a "match." Yet, thanks to careful collection management, these remarkable survivors from the Jazz Age helped bring the Modern Times exhibition to life in 2018.

The importance of collecting and preserving apparel and accoutrements in depth and across a wide range of historical eras is vital for a museum department like Costume and Textile at the Philadelphia Art Museum. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018)

 Victorian-era girl's dress, ca. 1867-68, from the collection of the Costume and Textile Department, Philadelphia Art Museum 

Not all museums maintain costume collections, while others have abandoned the effort. In 2010, for instance, the Brooklyn Museum bequeathed its impressive garment holdings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But Dilys Blum and the staff of her department redoubled their efforts and the dividends paid-off in the spectacular 2018 exhibition, Fabulous Fashion: from Dior's New Look to Now.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018)

 The entrance to the Fabulous Fashion exhibit, Oct. 2018-March 2019 

Fabulous Fashion was the exhibition which really opened my eyes to the vital importance of including couture - clothing, accessories, and textiles - within the realm of high art. Beginning with the inspired efforts of Christian Dior, Tina Leser and other fashion designers to bring a sense of beauty back to a war-ravaged world, the exhibition charted a timeline of creative achievement from 1947 to the present day.

 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018)

 Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion, showing designs by the Christian Dior gallery. At left, Woman's Suit, Jacket, Skirt, Belt & Camisole, Fall/Winter 1998. At right, is the Woman's Dress, Bodice and Skirt, Spring 1948.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018)

 Tina Leser's hand-painted Sea Fan Fantasy Evening Dress, 1947

Not only are these stunning creations beautiful to behold, but, in large measure, they were made by hand, or with the skillful use of technological means which heighten, rather than diminish, the role of devoted, hardworking garment makers.

As I mentioned above, Dilys Blum was not the curator of Fabulous Fashion. Rather, it was her talented colleague in the Costume and Textile Department, Kristina Haugland, who brought this magnificent 2018 exhibition to such a high degree of perfection. But I don't think anyone would disagree with me when I say that Fabulous Fashion was mounted in the signature style of the Philadelphia Art Museum during the Dilys Blum years.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018)

 Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion, showing (from left)

 Issy Miyake's Woman's "Flying Saucer" Dress, 1994; Charles James' Woman's Dinner Suit: Jacket and Skirt, 1955; Giorgio di Sant'Angelo's Woman's Ensemble: Bodysuit and Skirt, 1971 

While reading Daniel Weiss' valedictory for Dilys Blum, the second sentence struck a particularly significant note: 

Her work expanded the very idea of what belongs in an art museum and ensured that these objects are appreciated as vital expressions of culture and identity.

Dilys Blum treated rare Kantha fabrics from India with the same care that she devoted to a Givenchy evening dress. Such an attitude bespeaks of respect for people and cultures from all over the world and throughout the annals of time. 

Although I only met Blum once - that I can recall - I was much impressed. I hope, indeed, expect that her legacy will continue at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Hopefully, a major retrospective exhibition in her honor will be mounted, much as the Morgan Library and Museum did recently for its first director, Belle da Costa Green.

Of course, we need not wait for a special occasion to honor to Dilys Blum. We can do that right now. We can follow her lead by "expanding our ideas of what belongs in an art museum" and appreciating these precious talismans as "vital expressions of culture and identity."

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved.

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

Introductory image:

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018), Gallery view of the Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The dress shown is a 1962 palazzo pants ensemble designed by Irene Galitzin.

Portrait of Dilys Blum. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Philadelphia Art Museum catalogs, written/edited by Dilys Blum. Copyright of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Dresses designed by Elsa Schiaparelli, displayed in the Philadelphia Art Museum exhibition, Boom! Art & Design in the 1940's. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) The entrance to Boom! Art & Design in the 1940's at the Philadelphia Art Museum, April to September 2025. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Dilys Blum at the press preview for Boom! Art & Design in the 1940's. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018) Gallery view of Modern Times: American Art 1910-1950, at the Philadelphia Art Museum, April to September 2018.

Spring Sale at Bendel's (1921). Oil painting by Florine Stettheimer; red silk dress and turban hat, ca. early 1920's (photo by Anne Lloyd). Collection of Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018) Victorian-era girl's dress, ca. 1867-68, from the collection of the Costume and Textile Department, Philadelphia Art Museum. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) The entrance to the Fabulous Fashion exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 2018-March 2019.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018) Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now, showing designs by the Christian Dior gallery. At left, Woman's Suit, Jacket, Skirt, Belt & Camisole, Fall/Winter 1998. At right, is the Woman's Dress, Bodice and Skirt, Spring 1948. Collection of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Tina Leser's handpainted Sea Fan Fantasy Evening Dress, 1947. Collection of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From left are: Issy Miyake's Woman's "Flying Saucer" Dress, 1994; Charles James' Woman's Dinner Suit: Jacket and Skirt, 1955; Giorgio di Sant'Angelo's Woman's Ensemble: Bodysuit and Skirt, 1971. All dresses are from the collection of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now

Philadelphia Museum of Art

October 16, 2018–March 3, 2019

Reviewed by Ed Voves

If you ask art lovers about the term haute couture, most would likely resort to a list of familiar adjectives to set the visual tone of their reply. Stylish, elegant, classy, exquisite, sensual, hip, sassy, glamorous, etc., etc. Describing "fashion" is easier than achieving a satisfactory definition. 

All of the above "superlatives" are applicable to to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's just-opened exhibition. Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now is a superb exhibit, a feast for eye and mind. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018)  View of the entrance to the Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

There is an element of irony to the term haute couture, certainly relating to its second word. To American ears at least, couture denotes Old World sophistication. The basic meaning is quite mundane, a very "work-a-day" French word.

Couture means sewing.  

To be exact, a French haute couture garment is a unique, hand-fitted dress. However, the incredible amount of work involved in a high fashion "ready made" garment makes the distinction less meaningful than one would think. 

High fashion sewing, in either form, entails a great deal of meticulous work: creating patterns, handling fabrics, cutting, stitching, fitting and all the other delicate tasks involved in turning a fashion designer's concepts into reality. It is this "sewing" which makes these dresses "works" of art. 

In the case of the New Look of 1947, Christian Dior and his dedicated staff helped reawaken a sense of beauty in a war-ravaged world. Other designers, stressing femininity and romanticism, followed suit. Fashion tastes have certainly changed since then and the Sexual Revolution has challenged some of our conceptions of beauty. Yet, when we look to the models coming down the runways, we still expect to see beautiful people and beautiful clothing and our expectations are usually met.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Kristina Haugland, curator of Fabulous Fashion

Kristina Haugland is the Le Vine Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She organized Fabulous Fashion along thematic lines, much as a fashion house does when a new collection is introduced. Wisely, she begins with a comparison of two signature House of Dior ensembles.

The New Look began in 1947 with a striking two-piece dress (below, right) designed by Christian Dior. The trim waste and full skirt emphasized traditional feminine attributes. Made from pale pink silk and satin (which looks burnished gold in the exhibit), Dior's dress proclaimed that the wartime shortages of rich materials were a phenomenon of the past. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Fall/Winter Suit,1998, designed by John Galliano (left)

 Two-Piece Dress, Spring 1948, designed by Christian Dior  

According to the insightful exhibition text, Dior's New Look dress "redefined high fashion’s feminine ideal. To emphasize his new shape, the shirt has diagonal shoulder seams and stiffened tails that tuck in, while the skirt has a stiff lining and bands of topstitching." 

By comparison, the House of Dior Fall/Winter ensemble from 1998 stressed modern urban living, combining jaunty flair with a sense of luxury. A "ready-to-wear" outfit, it was created  from a wide range of materials, including dyed wool to resemble a fur collar. A lot of effort and skill went into this process, undercutting any negative comparisons about using "faux" versus organic components.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Tina Leser's Sea Fan Fantasy Evening Dress,1947

A surprising number of twentieth century fashion designers worked or were born in Philadelphia. Their creations are featured prominently in the exhibition. I was particularly impressed by the artistry of Tina Leser's hand-painted "underwater" design of large sea fans on a billowing blue blouse and skirt. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Detail of Tina Leser's Sea Fan Fantasy Evening Dress,1947

Made the same year as Dior's "New Look" dress, Leser's Sea Fan Fantasy shows how trends in fashion respond to wide-spread feelings or emotions, in this case a yearning for adventure and romance after the austerity and regimentation of the war years. 

              Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery View of Fabulous Fashion exhibit                  Ralph Rucci's 2001 Stingray Swan evening dress is at center

The full, flowing skirt continues to have a long life, outlasting the "conventional" 1950's by many years. Another Philadelphia-born designer, Ralph Rucci designed the Stingray Swan evening dress for the Chado 2001 spring/summer collection. Shown in striking midnight blue at center, this dress covers everything that the "mini" skirt left bare. Yet, it is one of the sexiest evening gowns of the Fabulous Fashion show.

Another sensational dress demonstrates that an eye for color and integrity of design can work with a short skirt or a long one. In 1952, Ellsworth Kelly utilized the hard-edged color blocks that had figured in his breakthrough painting the previous year, Colors for a Large Wall. The 1952 work was a set of panels made from brightly dyed cotton.

When he had completed his fabric art creation, Kelly had leftover material. With the help of designer, Anne Weber, he juxtaposed leftover strips of color on a simple, yet elegant sleeveless dress that reached down to the calves. Kelly declared his intention of of "getting color off the wall and having it walk around the room.” 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery view showing Brazilian designer, Francisco Costa's reinterpretation of a 1952 dress based on artwork by Ellsworth Kelly

The original dress based on Kelly's design has not survived. In 2013, Brazilian designer, Francisco Costa, reinterpreted the Fifties' classic with a much shorter hem. The result is dazzling in its simplicity, making it one of the most remarkable works on view in Fabulous Fashion.

The 1950's has an undeserved reputation as a "gray decade." Over and over again, when you look at the dates of the works in the exhibition, many of the most colorful and innovative dresses are "Fifties" creations. I was very impressed by a sensual, body-hugging evening dress designed by another Philadelphia-born fashion artist. James Galanos created this sparkling tartan gown in 1957 from beads and sequins meticulously sewn on sheer silk crepe. There is not a hint of being "dated" with this truly classic evening dress.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Evening Dress,1957, designed by James Galanos

Kristina Haugland's thematic approach gives a powerful assist to art lovers like myself who are not especially knowledgeable about fashion. It also promotes a "dialog" among like-minded designers and their dresses. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018)  Fashion designs (left to right) by:

 Norman Norell, Todd Oldham, Geoffrey Beene and Hubert de Givenchy

The array of "metallic" dresses actually works better as a group than would have been the case had each been singled-out for attention. Here four gifted designers - Norman Norell, Todd Oldham, Geoffrey Beene and Hubert de Givenchy - used unorthodox materials like metallized plastic sequins and rhinestones on silk to create fashion "statements" which are also beautiful, wearable dresses.

The Fabulous Fashion exhibition is anchored by a multi-tiered stage which brilliantly evokes the setting of fashion shows. Haugland and the exhibition set designers further enhance the "star quality" of the exhibit by the masterful synchronization of lights. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery views the lighting effects of the multi-tiered fashion display of the Fabulous Fashion exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

In the alternating glow of gold and blue light, we see these dresses in terms of daylight and evening shadow. Even more important, we are enabled to see these fashion creations as the designers envisioned them as they worked out the details of color and form on their drawing boards. Before there was a New Look there was an image in the mind's eye of Christian Dior, as for all great artists.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) "Photo-op" at Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now

The inspiration which empowers the world of fashion, the "haute" of haute couture, is brilliantly explored in this wonderful exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of the few American museums with a major costume and textile department. As a result, Haugland and her colleagues were able to mount this major reappraisal of twentieth century fashion exclusively with dresses, hats and accessories from their own museum's extensive collection. Not one item was loaned from another institution.

You don't have to be a fashionista to crave further exhibitions like Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now. And you don't have to be a prophet to make a prediction that we will be seeing many more such shows come down the "runway" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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Text and photos: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                                           
Introductory Image:
Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo shows the "Color and Pattern" section of exhibition.
                                                                                                                   
Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery view of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Digital film projection of fashion shows dating to the period covered by the exhibition.
                                                                                         
Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Kristina Haugland, curator of Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Fall/Winter Suit,1998, designed by John Galliano (left);

Two-Piece Dress, Spring 1948, designed by Christian Dior.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018)  Tina Leser's Sea Fan Fantasy Evening Dress, 1947, from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery View of Fabulous Fashion exhibit. Ralph Rucci's 2001 Stingray Swan evening dress is at center

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery View showing Brazilian designer Francisco Costa's reinterpretation of a 1952 dress, based on an artwork of Ellsworth Kelly. Dress was made by Calvin Klein Collection. Cotton/nylon/spandex double weave. Gift of the artist to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2015-5-1.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Evening Dress, 1957, designed by James Galanos (American, 1924–2016). Beads and sequins on sheer silk crepe. Philadelphia Museum of Art,  Gift of the designer, 1957-103-1

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery View of the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibit, Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now. On view, left to right, are dresses designed by:  Norman Norell, Evening Dress, ca. 1967–70; Todd Oldham, “Mirror” Evening Dress, Fall 1992; Geoffrey Beene, “Mercury” Evening Dress, Fall/Winter 1994–95; Hubert de Givenchy, Evening Dress, Fall 1982.

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) Gallery views the lighting effects of the multi-tiered fashion display of the Fabulous Fashion exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Ed Voves, Photo (2018) "Photo-op" at Philadelphia Museum of Art's Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now exhibition.