Fashion exhibition: Paul Poiret: La Mode est une Fête — Paris Retrospective Crowns the "King of Fashion"

“Fashion must be a feast, not a uniform,” Paul Poiret once declared.  More than a century later, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is serving up that feast in a retrospective that crowns the couturier once hailed as the “King of Fashion”.

Paul Poiret, la mode est une fête (Fashion is a Feast) brings together more than 550 pieces, from lavish gowns and accessories to perfumes, illustrations and furnishings.  It is the most comprehensive reassessment of Poiret’s life and legacy as the early 20th century's most flamboyant designers, casting light on both his triumphs and his contradictions.

He was a pioneer in moving away from rigid corsetry and creating looser, freer silhouettes. Poiret claimed to have “freed the bust”.  

He introduced the hobble skirt (a narrow hem that restricts walking) and popularised the Empire line, neoclassical and oriental-inspired drapes and motifs. 

He championed drapery over heavy structure, using vivid colour, bold prints, and unusual forms such as harem pants, kimono coats etc. 

Poiret rose to fame after founding his house in 1903, and was among the first couturiers to build more than just a dressmaking business: he launched perfumes (notably Parfums de Rosine, named for his daughter) and interior decoration, making his work part of a broader aesthetic lifestyle. 

Collaborating with artists such as Paul Iribe and Georges Lepape, Poiret pioneered the use of stylised illustration to market his creations. 

He worked closely with artists, illustrators, and the decorative arts—creating prints, promoting artistic collaboration, and staging flamboyant social events (for example, the famous party “The Thousand and Second Night” in 1911) to capture public imagination. 

At his height, Poiret was extremely influential, seen as one of the leading figures of pre-World War I haute couture. But as styles changing (especially with the rise of designers like Coco Chanel) and financial difficulties increased, the house declined in the 1920s and ceased being a major fashion force.

“Poiret understood that women were seeking a new kind of freedom,” said curator Pamela Golbin. “He gave them clothes that allowed elegance and drama, if not always practicality.”

The exhibition emphasises Poiret’s flair for image-making. Collaborations with illustrators Paul Iribe and Georges Lepape turned fashion plates into striking pochoir prints, establishing couture as a visual brand. Albums of prints, more than mere catalogues, became works of art in their own right and anticipated modern fashion advertising.

Poiret also pioneered the idea of fashion as a lifestyle, launching perfumes under the name Parfums de Rosine and founding Maison Martine, a decorative arts studio.

One gallery evokes his legendary 1911 Thousand and Second Night party, a riot of turbans, lanterns and exotic costume that helped cement his reputation as much as his clothes.

But the retrospective also acknowledges the shadows. His fascination with Orientalism reflected the colonial imagination of the time, while his lavish spending led to financial collapse. By the 1920s, his ornate style was eclipsed by Coco Chanel’s modernism.

Still, La mode est une fête makes the case for Poiret as a visionary who blurred the boundaries between fashion, art and theatre. 

“Poiret taught us that fashion is not just clothing,” said Golbin. “It is performance, it is art, it is a way of life.”

By restaging Poiret as a “costume-historical curiosity,” and a figure who helped shift fashion toward modernity: in form, function, image, lifestyle, the exhibition captures both the glamour, the spectacl and the serious craft: draping, illustration, material, colour.

Visitors leave with a vivid sense of a man who blurred the lines between designer, impresario and showman. 

A century on, the echoes of that philosophy can still be heard in the global empires of Chanel, Dior,  Kenzo, Jean Paul Gaultierand beyond. The King of Fashion, for a season at least, reigns again in Paris.

Footnote:  

Readers can also delve deeper into Paul Poiret’s legacy, his fashion and Art Deco through Mary E. Davis’s recent study, Paul Poiret: Inventing Modern Luxury. The book portrays him as the most audacious couturier of the pre-war era. While his outré designs were briefly embraced by leading celebrities in Europe and America, Davis argues that they were the most transient element of his achievement. His true genius, she suggests, lay in positioning fashion at the crossroads of style, culture and commerce, reshaping the industry into a modern luxury enterprise.

Separately, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has republished King of Fashion: The Autobiography of Paul Poiret as part of its Fashion Perspectives series. First released in 1931, the memoir recounts the meteoric rise of a draper’s son to the heights of Parisian couture. Poiret describes his modest childhood, his breakthrough as a couturier, and his experiences during the First World War with characteristic candour. He also reflects on the artistry that allowed him to channel the spirit of Art Deco into groundbreaking garments. Beyond his creative flair, Poiret emerges as a shrewd entrepreneur, chronicling the expansion of his house into interior decoration and the launch of one of the earliest designer perfumes. His memoir vividly evokes the extravagance of his legendary parties, where guests showcased his latest creations, capturing both the glamour and excess of the age.

Photos by Lucia Carpio