Paul Poiret and Branding *
We tend to think of a fashion brand as a modern concept – something that really developed over the last 20 or 30 years. However, early 20th century couturier Paul Poiret (1879 – 1944) was a fashion rebel, who radically transformed the couture traditions of the Belle Époque. In addition to establishing his own couture house and fashion aesthetic, he also created the world’s first designer perfume and was the first couturier to build an entire lifestyle with furniture and interior décor. In short, Poiret’s contributions to couture are important in the evolution of fashion.
Le Lys Rouge: Robe du soir by Paul Poiret, 1914. Illustration by Simone A. Puge for Bon Ton Magazine. Image courtesy of Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.
Early Life
Poiret was born on 20 April 1879 to a cloth merchant in the poor neighborhood of Les Halles, Paris. He got his start in the couture business when he was still a teenager by selling sketches of dress designs to established couturiers like Madame Cheruit, one of the most stylish dressmakers of her time. In 1896, he was hired by Jacques Doucet of Maison Doucet, an important couture house founded in 1817. His first design for the house was a red cloth cape, which sold 400 copies.
In 1901 Poiret moved to Worth, the couture house established by Englishman Charles Frederick Worth (now under Charles Frederick’s sons Gaston-Lucien and Jean-Philippe), where he was responsible for designing simple, practical dresses. However, the modernity of his designs proved too much for Worth's conservative clientele.
Which is why in 1903, Poiret left Worth to establish his own fashion house. It was here that his designs moved away from the curvilinear silhouette of the 19th century toward a leaner, elongated line. Although he played with volume, his line was always fluid and natural. Believing “the woman should be the dominant note, not the gown,” he emphasized structural simplicity with dresses featuring clean lines and architectural design.
Poiret Signatures
Poiret became known for his controversial, loose-fitting designs created specifically for an uncorseted, slim figure. He began by liberating the body, first from the petticoat in 1903 and then - like Madeleine Vionnet and Mariano Fortuny, who were working at the same time - from the corset in 1906. In addition, his design process emphasized draping over traditional tailoring and precision pattern making. With this shift of the supporting point of gravity from the waist to the shoulders in women’s dress and emphasis on draping over tailoring, Poiret created a revolution in dressmaking.
In addition to his technical achievements, Poiret’s designs were often inspired by Orientalism, a movement that expressed enthusiasm for Eastern fashions and traditions. His designs employed rich fabrics and vibrant colors, influenced by the Ballets Russes. The silhouettes he made famous that were influenced by Eastern dress include the kimono or cocoon coat, harem pant, hobble skirt, and "lampshade" tunic, as well as culottes and shift dresses.
Paul Poiret fancy dress costume in metal, silk and cotton, 1911. Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Poiret & Branding
But what makes Poiret especially interesting and modern is his instinct for marketing and branding.
In 1911, Poiret's house expanded to encompass a luxuriously packaged line of perfumes named after his eldest daughter, Rosine. To launch “Parfums de Rosine," Poiret held a flamboyant soiree at his palatial home, attended by the cream of Parisian society and artistic world. Poiret hosted “La Mille et Deuxième Nuit” (The Thousand and Second Night), a lavish event inspired by a sultan's harem. His gardens glowed with lanterns, tents, and exotic birds, while Madame Poiret reclined in a golden cage. Poiret, as the sultan, gifted each guest a bottle of his new fragrance, “Nuit Persane.”
His marketing strategy played out as entertainment and became the talk of Paris. It also established Poiret as a lifestyle brand. In 1913, an article in Harper’s Bazaar described him as a creator of clothing, interior decorations, and perfumes who was “ahead of his time.”
To maintain the distinctive allure of his products, Poiret insisted on not advertising - at least not to large audiences. “I am not commercial,” Poiret told reporters in 1913. “Ladies come to me for a gown as they go to a distinguished painter to get their portraits put on canvas. I am an artist, not a dressmaker." This insistence on being considered an artist was another break with the past for Poiret, and he took on the archetype of the “grand couturier” - a fashion dictator, who indulged in tantrums, the refusal to accept legitimate criticism, and the need for media and public adulation.
By the time WWI broke out across Europe, Poiret’s new style totally supplanted the corset. But the war also forced Poiret’s business to come to a grinding halt; he closed his couture house and enlisted in the French army.
Poiret vs. Chanel
After WWI, Poiret reopened his couture house with the expectation of recreating his former successes. His creativity was still ideologically and aesthetically driven by the Orientalism that had inspired him before the war. However, post-war his style and taste were being abandoned in favor of modernism – the global movement in society and culture that realigned values and experiences with modern industrial life. In fashion, this presented itself as an emphasis on rational, functional design.
By the 1920s, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel arguably emerges as the mother of modernism in fashion with her focus on utility and pragmatism in her designs. From her use of sportswear to her appropriating menswear styles, Chanel transforms women’s wardrobes for the modern era through her emphasis on comfort, functionality, and movement. In the end, she would understand her century better than Poiret and consequently go far beyond him.
What Chanel does seem to have learned from Poiret was his example in self-presentation and the way one ran a business. In the 1920s, Chanel created – like Poiret did nearly a decade earlier - her first perfume, No. 5. She also turned to the highly skilled artisans at Gripoix to create her costume jewelry pieces – the same famous costume jewelers who originally worked for Poiret.
Poiret’s failure to sense the changing cultural tides contributed to both his diminished popularity in the 1920s as well as the ultimate demise of his business, which closed in 1929. In 1933, his creditors seized all his assets. But Poiret’s legacy lived on in couturiers like Elsa Schiaparelli, who also saw herself as an artist, and of course in his designs which continue to influence creative directors today.
Resources
The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tate
Victoria & Albert Museum
The Kyoto Costume Institute
Bowles, Hamish. "Fashioning the Century." Vogue (May 2007), pgs. 236–250.
Cover image courtesy of Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.
* This article is based on my 2016 class High Fashion: A History of Drama, Glamour & Influence for the University of Denver’s Enrichment Program.
