Paul Poiret (1879 - 1944)
Paul Poiret was a Parisian fashion designer who lived during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco eras and who had strong connections with the art world via movements such as Fauvism.
Related: Art Nouveau - Art Deco fashion - Paris
Villa Paul Poiret (1921-1923) - Robert Mallet-Stevens
Mezy-sur-Seine, France
Photograph sourced here.
Georges Lepape, Les choses de Paul Poiret, Paris: Maquet, 1911
Biography
Paul Poiret (20 April 1879, Paris, France - 30 April 1944, Paris) was a couturier based in Paris before the First World War, during the Belle Epoque. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret [Mar 2006]
Worth's former apprentice Paul Poiret opened his own fashion house in 1904, melding the styles of Art Nouveau and aestheic dress with Paris fashion. His early Art Deco creations signalled the demise of the corset from female fashion. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_design [Mar 2006]
Poiret and the relation between fashion and modern art
Art and design were more closely tied at the turn of the twentieth century than they are today. Artists did not see the difference between creating an original work of art, such as a painting, and designing a textile pattern that would be reproduced many times over. Each was a valid creative act in their eyes.
The famed French couturier Paul Poiret moved in artistic circles, employed Parisian artists, and collected their work. He went to art galleries and showed his artistic sensibilities by preferring Impressionist paintings at a time when they were new and unappreciated by the public at large. Poiret became very interested in modern art and said, "I have always liked painters. It seems to me that we are in the same trade and that they are my colleagues."
The Fauvist painter Francis Picabia was his friend, and they shared a love of bright color with other painters Maurice Vlaminck and André Derain, whom he knew from sailing excursions on the Seine in Chatou. Among other artists whose work he collected were Picasso, Matisse, Dufy, Rouault, and Utrillo.--http://tirocchi.stg.brown.edu/514/story/fashion_art.html [Mar 2006]
See also: Art Deco fashion - modern art - fauvism - 1900s - 1910s - 1920s