Dress

In these ensembles, Poiret melded elements of Mughal and Ottoman dress to create garments of a fictive East. For the couturier, the rich textiles and decorative flourishes of Islamic dress were compatible with his love of vivid palettes and luxurious effects. However, it is in the construction of Islamic costumes that the most enduring and fundamental influence resides. As with many regional costume traditions, Muslim dress prioritized an economy of cut and a minimization of waste in the construction of a garment. Pattern pieces are, therefore, of a surprising geometric simplicity. The arcing excisions of the Western tailor's approach are only minimally present. Instead, textiles are laid out on straight or crosswise grain that is oriented to the length or width of the fabric, giving an almost two-dimensional quality to garments when laid flat. While alluding to the effects of such constructions, Poiret's ensembles, in fact, introduce the shaping of Western dressmaking approaches, apparent in the fitted waistline of one dress ( an evocation of the medieval girdle) and in the shaping of a sleeve cap in the other. For Poiret, citations of other folkloric traditions, especially of regional France and Central Europe, coincided in the 1920s with a trend for the artisanal. But unlike his designs of orientalist flavor, with their bulkier silhouettes and full skirts, they were not in alignment with the lithe, willowy line in universal favor. Poiret's referencing of the East, like his Neoclassicism, was able to move from the designer's fantastical theatrics before World War I to an appealing exoticism in the last decade of his career. With their simple cuts, supple fabrics, and body-skimming silhouettes, his designs sustained the liberation of the fem ale form that defined his initial success.