Mention the name Paul Poiret, and early 20th-century hobble skirts tend to jump to mind. What doesn’t jump to mind is Denise Poiret, the designer’s muse and creative partner during his peak creative years around 1910. "He saw something in this young woman, and she provided him with a model for the 20th-century woman," Harold Koda, curator in charge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, recently told WWD about their latest exhibit (on display until August 5, 2007): “Poiret: King of Fashion”. "She wasn't a Parisienne, and because of that, she was free of that convention that constituted Parisian style at the time. She didn't feel like she had to conform, and there was a synergy between the man who wanted to break the rules and the woman who was his co-conspirator." Because the pair divorced in 1928, just prior to Poiret penning his autobiography, the influence of his ex-wife on his work was predictably downplayed.
What hasn’t been downplayed, however, is the scale of his influence on major designers all the way to the present day. The exhibit, which has been underwritten in part by Balenciaga, highlights the modern quality of his designs, including an off-the-shoulder babydoll-style minidress that a racy Denise rocked…sans the culottes of the day or even support for her bust! His construction techniques were equally forward-thinking, as evidenced by computer animations of two of his frocks which were constructed like fabric origami from a single piece of fabric. "When people normally talk about Paul Poiret, they refer to the fact that he liberated women from corsets, but hobbled their legs with hobble skirts," explains the exhibit’s curator Andrew Bolton. “What was interesting about the sale was that there was so much more than that. There were jackets with raw edges — pre-Martin Margiela — or coats made from one piece of fabric." His directional 1912 chemise dress, sported on a lounging mannequin, absolutely foreshadows the Twenties. "This is what has been forgotten about him," says Koda. "He didn't continue to advocate his modernity, because he had done it already. When [Jean] Patou and [Coco] Chanel became advocates of sportswear, he started to advance this fin de siècle beauty, and seemed lost."
In total, the 50 looks on display cover the years 1905 to 1925, exploring the oriental influences on the designer and his artistic talent, collaborating with Georges Lepape, Raoul Dufy and Paul Iribe. "Poiret saw himself as more of an artist than a designer, and throughout his career, he positioned himself as an artist whose medium of expression was fashion, and he would often collaborate with artists," says Bolton. Sadly, though, for the giant size of his artistic legacy, he hit upon tough financial times, dying penniless in 1944, outshone by “it” designers of the day Chanel and Patou.
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