Paul Poiret's Costumes for Jacques Richepin's "Le Minaret." Comoedia Illustre (April 5, 1913)
French fashion designer Paul Poiret (1879-1944) was the King of Fashion in the 1910s… Spurred on by the success of the Ballets Russes production of Schéhérazade, Poiret gave full vent to his orientalist sensibilities, launching a sequence of fantastical confections, including "harem" pantaloons in 1911 and "lampshade" tunics in 1913 (earlier, in 1910, Poiret had introduced hobble skirts, which also can be interpreted as an expression of his orientalism). As well as hosting a lavish fancy-dress party in 1911 called "The Thousand and Second Night," in which the fashions reflected a phantasmagoric mythical East, he also designed costumes for several theatrical productions with orientalist themes, most notably Jacques Richepin's Le Minaret, which premiered in Paris in 1913 and presented the couturier with a platform on which to promote his "lampshade" silhouette.
Even when Poiret reopened his fashion business after World War I, during which he served as a military tailor, orientalism continued to exercise a powerful influence over his creativity. By this time, however, its fashionability had been overshadowed by modernism. Utility, function, and rationality supplanted luxury, ornament, and sensuality. Poiret could not reconcile the ideals and aesthetics of modernism with those of his own artistic vision, a fact that contributed not only to his diminished popularity in the 1920s but also, ultimately, to the closure of his business in 1929. [The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History” at www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poir/hd_poir.htm]
Paul Poiret's Costumes for Jacques Richepin's "Le Minaret." Comoedia Illustre (April 5, 1913)
French fashion designer Paul Poiret (1879-1944) was the King of Fashion in the 1910s… Spurred on by the success of the Ballets Russes production of Schéhérazade, Poiret gave full vent to his orientalist sensibilities, launching a sequence of fantastical confections, including "harem" pantaloons in 1911 and "lampshade" tunics in 1913 (earlier, in 1910, Poiret had introduced hobble skirts, which also can be interpreted as an expression of his orientalism). As well as hosting a lavish fancy-dress party in 1911 called "The Thousand and Second Night," in which the fashions reflected a phantasmagoric mythical East, he also designed costumes for several theatrical productions with orientalist themes, most notably Jacques Richepin's Le Minaret, which premiered in Paris in 1913 and presented the couturier with a platform on which to promote his "lampshade" silhouette.
Even when Poiret reopened his fashion business after World War I, during which he served as a military tailor, orientalism continued to exercise a powerful influence over his creativity. By this time, however, its fashionability had been overshadowed by modernism. Utility, function, and rationality supplanted luxury, ornament, and sensuality. Poiret could not reconcile the ideals and aesthetics of modernism with those of his own artistic vision, a fact that contributed not only to his diminished popularity in the 1920s but also, ultimately, to the closure of his business in 1929. [The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History” at www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poir/hd_poir.htm]