"Manteau D'Auto"

Since the open cabs of automobiles once made driving on unpaved roads a dusty experience, the car coats designed as protective coveralls were often referred to as "duster coats." Dusters were typically, although not exclusively, of neutral color-tan, ocher, gray-to better obscure the grime. In Poiret's stylish interpretation, the designer reconfigured a North African abaya to new purpose. Worn by men in the Near and Middle East, the abaya is an open mantle constructed of a length of fabric that is folded into a squarish rectangle and stitched along the fabric's selvage to form the shoulder line. It is worn draped across the front of the body without a closure and held in place by hand. More formal abayas are woven in striped geometric patterns along one edge of the fabric and are disposed in the folded construction of the robe to appear as a decorative yoke. Poiret, using a textile by Rodier, took the form of an abaya, opened it up, and cut a narrow strip off the length of the striped edge. He then inserted blue silk raglan-style sleeves and added a band in the same blue silk along the neckline to form a kimono-style collar with an asymmetrical button closing. The excised strip taken from the striped length of the abaya is used to form cuffs for the new sleeves. This conflation of Western elements and non-Western dress is a strategy that Poiret applied throughout his career. In this instance, the barely diluted form of the abaya with its allusion to the arid desert expanses traversed by caravans is a particularly apt "orientalizing" of a garment intended to shield its wearer from the dust of the open road.