Paul Poiret: The King of Fashion, Part I

In this two-part episode, we celebrate the avant-garde French designer Paul Poiret, who is the subject of a new retropsective exhibition Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Known as "The King of Fashion," Poiret was an incomparable force of personality, vision, and industry, who was instrumental in not just revolutionizing women’s fashion at the dawn of the twentieth century, but transforming the very concept of fashion itself, effectively laying the groundwork for the modern fashion industry that we are indebted to today.

Further Reading:

• Exhibition catalog Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast, preorder in the US here
• Poiret's memoir King of Fashion
• 2007 exhibition catalog Poiret

Further Listening:

• Fashion, Race, and Expanding the Narrative of Fashion History with Kimberly Jenkins
• Fashioning White Femininity: The Ethnic Masquerade of Modern Fashion with Dr. Victoria Pass

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