Paul Poiret´s Biography

Someone that lives daydreaming and doesn´t manage to discipline himself at work simply had to born to be an artist.Plump, joyful and a dreamer, Paul Poiret was born at the 8th of April 1879. His parents were cloth commerciants in Hallen in the heart of Paris. He served an apprenticeship with Jacques Doucet in the 1890s, moved to the Maison Worth in 1900, and in 1902 opened his own small studio. Dominating Paris couture from 1909 to 1914, Poiret revolutionized fashion with his designs for the “new woman,” ending wasp waists and constricting corsets, reviving a simple, Empire-waisted silhouette, and introducing pantaloons.His first fashion house was on the Rue Auber in Paris. There he produced innovative designs such as the kimono coat, and enlarged his clientele of famous customers. The richness of materials, violence of colouring and style and taste for orientalism in such designs as that for the Sorbet dress all suggest a profound affinity with the Ballets Russes. In 1910 he opened new salon in a large 18th-century house, in the Avenue d'Antin, where he created his famous 'hobble-skirted' dresses, drawn in at the hem.
He adopted an orientalizing style in the theatrical costumes he designed later for Nabuchodonosor, first peformed in January 1911 at the Theatre des Arts in Paris; Le Minaret, performed during the spring of 1913 at the Theatre de la Renaissance in Paris; and Aphrodite, performed during the spring of 1914 at the Theatre de la Renaissance. Alike other famous figures of history Poiret had great moments of glory, and died in misery, forgotten by everyone. However, Poiret was the very first fashion designer of the twentieth century and changed the history of clothing forever.