"Irudree"

In the late teens and early twenties, Poiret promoted the use of lamés and metallic brocades that recalled his creations for Denise Poiret before World War I. One dress, with a triangular top and open back, called ‘Linzeler,’ which his wife wore to the opening of Poiret's nightclub L’Oasis in July 1919, was a permutation of the scandalously bare ‘Reine de Saba’ (Queen of Sheba) costume worn by Denise Poiret to his " Fête des Rois" of January 10, 1914. ‘Irudrée’ shares with these earlier examples a reliance on the mercurial drape of lamé and the use of simple rectangles disposed over the body to give a "second-skin" fit. The style of ‘Irudrée,’ with its cylindrical silhouette and tubular rouleau low-slung on the hip, appears in more sedate variations beginning in 1921. A May issue of L’illustration des modes of that year describes a Mlle Rafael in a Poiret gown of "metallic fabric" and "large rolls of the same fabric around the hips" attending one of the parties of the Marquise de Polignac held at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a regular venue for Poiret's fashion parades. Like many of Poiret's garments, the construction of ‘Irudrée’ is notable for its simplicity. The bodice is one piece shirred at the right side seam for fit. The skirt is of two pieces sewn selvage to selvage to form side seams gathered in at the dropped waist of the bodice. It is finished at the hem with fine picot edging, usually reserved for the finishing of lingerie. A thick rouleau of spiraling fabric, reminiscent of the Renaissance hip roll, or farthingale, is loosely basted to the waist seam.