Couturier Paul Poirets Fashion Illustration: Pochoir and Art Deco Fashion Plates - Term Paper Example

COUTURIER PAUL POIRET’S FASHION ILLUSTRATION: POCHOIR AND ART DECO FASHION PLATES Introduction The influential French couturier Paul Poiret, 1879-1944, was a highly innovative and dynamic fashion designer of the early 20th century. He was deeply interested in the designing and construction of avant-garde clothing from an early age. “Dominating Paris couture from 1909 to 1914, Poiret revolutionized fashion with his designs for the ‘new woman’, ending wasp waists and constricting corsets” (Encyclopedia 2009, p.38809). Unlike other contemporary couturiers, Paul Poiret thrived on promoting his own career and advertising his achievements. Thus, “illustrations of Poiret’s gowns appeared in many fashion publications” (Cunningham 2003, p.216). In 1911, he created a new line of fragrances, cosmetics, and decorative products for the home; the first designer to branch off into other areas related to fashion. Poiret’s technique of illustrating his fashion plates was by getting his artists to stencil or pochoir his designs. This he further developed into an Art Deco form in which fashion garments were showcased as a part of the elite lifestyle, beauty, accessories, interior decoration or nature surroundings. New fashion magazines such as the Gazette du Bon Ton which was published between 1912 to 1914, and again between 1920 and 1925 were devoted to Art Deco. The magazine regularly featured Poiret’s designs, and had a wide reach among the public. “The exposure raised fashion illustration to an art form”, observes Cunningham (2003, p.216). After World War I, Poiret’s imaginative couture business had to be closed down because hs designs were no longer fashionable. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate Paul Poiret’s revolutionizing the approach to fashion illustration. The couturier’s innovative use of the expensive stencil technique known as pochoir, and its new method of Art Deco exemplified by the fashion plates published in Gazette du Bon Ton will be examined. The Ground-Breaking Fashion Designs of Paul Poiret Paul Poiret was a well-known designer of the pre-World War I period, who created haute couture for the European upper classes and royalty. He replaced the constricting whalebone S-shaped corsets and multiple layers of underclothing of the previous era, with comfortable inner wear. “Poiret proferred the soft cache-corset, a precursor of the brassiere; a wide stiff belt took the place of tight lacings” (Yaeger 2007, p.121). Fig.1. Poiret’s Hobble Skirted Empire-Waistline Dresses Secured with Sashes (Pinterest 2011) Around 1910 Paul Poiret introduced the ‘hobble skirt’ with an easy fit around the hips tapering down to an ankle-hugging bottom (Fig.1). This was the forerunner of the later- day slim-fitting pencil skirt. Thus, the freedom and comfort introduced by the brassiere was countered by the restriction of movement caused by the narrow skirt. This allowed the wearer to take only very small steps, creating an appearance of a harem slave (Davis 2008). Besides hobble skirts, Poiret also experimented with lampshade tunics (Fig.2). In place of gigantic hats, Poiret advocated the use of a neat and trim Indian turban. His garment designs reflected his fascination with clothing from the four corners of the earth, “Middle Eastern dancing girls, Ukrainian peasants, Bedouins in striped burnooses, and Isadora Duncanesque Greek youths” (Yaeger 2007, p.121). Fig.2. Poiret’s Hooped Lampshade Tunics Over Long Skirts (Pinterest 2011) Poiret revived a simple, Empire-waisted silhouette, introduced pantaloons, and incorporated an oriental look to his creations. According to Davis (2008), he designed ensembles of walking coats and dresses, and short, hooped ‘lampshade’ tunics over long skirts. The latter is illustrated in Fig.2 above. Poiret’s “decadent and theatrical designs” (Shmoop 2010, p.66) were often embellished with fox fur stoles, long strands of pearls and multi-coloured feathers. Further, Paul Poiret’s inclination towards art nouveau, Orientalism, and the Ballet Russes inspired him to design jewel-coloured evening gowns, wider hats, and exotic clothing such as coulottes, harem pants, turbans (Figs. 3 and 5) and fringed capes (Encyclopedia 2009). Fig.3. Paul Poiret’s Harem Pants, Turban and Ornamentation: Orientalism (MetMuseum 2007) Fig.4. Close-Up view of Poiret’s Incorporation of Ornamentation (Tara 2009) Orientalism was a defining characteristic of Poiret’s design career. He was a pioneer and leader in the introduction of tropical colours teamed with harem underpants, as seen in Figs. 3 and 4 above. Through the history of fashion, these concepts have been popular in a recurrent manner. Harem pants became extremely popular at the end of the 1970s, and the trend is likely to reappear in current times. Thus, it is evident that Poiret was highly ahead of his time. Similarly the evolution of the hobble skirt into the widely accepted pencil skirt, and the original cape which became modified as the fashionable ‘poncho’ during the 1960s (Kim 2010). Fig.5 below shows an oriental turban with decorations adorning the headwear designed by Poiret. Fig.5. Poiret’s Oriental Turban with Embellishments (Tara 2009) According to the Enclyclopedia (2009), the illustrators engaged by Poiret for the newly established fashion magazines such as Gazette du Bon Ton included Paul Iribe, Georges Lepape, Georges Barbier, and Roman de Tirtoff known as Erte. The other illustrators whose careers were launched under the “original inspiration of Paul Poiret and his pochoir” (Steele 2010, p.37) include Dufy, Marty, Benito and Bonfils. They contributed to placing new couture designs in the context of Art Deco, thereby endowing unprecedented distinction on this genre of fashion illustration as well as the artists. The highly skilled illustrators contributed greatly to the enduring beauty of the fashion plates. Paul Poiret’s Revolutionary Approach to Fashion Illustration A great influence on fashion in the early 20th century was Paul Poiret’s innovative combination of the oriental and the classic clothing styles, as well as his necessary integration of traditional grace with modernity (Davis 2008). Art Deco began as a genre of fashion illustration in the 1920s, but the designs in the Gazette du Bon Ton not only depicted a model in an outfit, “but the model then became a part of the scenery or even a narrative structure” (Kim 2010). The fashion magazine Gazette du Bon Ton reflected the decorative and elegant characteristics of several designers’ work including Poiret’s creations, with highly refined articles and illustrations on theatre, travel and other topics of interest to the wealthy members of elite society. However, clothing and personal adornment were the Gazette du Bon Ton’s primary subjects, as seen in a copy of the magazine’s vintage issue published about one hundred years ago (Vogel 1912). The era previous to Art Deco was Art Nouveau, portrayed in various luxury European decorative arts from 1895 to 1905. Art Nouveau fashion was distinctive in its graceful curves and swirls, in lavish garments for evening wear “swathed in a profusion of silk brocade, applique, embroidery and lace” (Steele 2010, p.36). In the early 1900s, following the end of the Art Nouveau style as fashion inspiration, the Art Deco design was appropriated by Paris couturiers to create the next fashion look. Paul Poiret led the first of two Art Deco fashion phases, from 1910 to 1924. The second phase was from 1924 to 1930, based on more minimalistic lines with modernist design touches. The first Art Deco phase was initiated by Paul Poiret, and was marked by orientalism, with the Ballets Russes arriving in Paris in 1909. Poiret launched his slim, simple, high-waisted line of garments in 1908 “with its less structured look and delicately layered exotic style” (Steele 2010, p.36). As a collector of fauve paintings, he employed purples, pinks, blues, greens and golds. A fresh, bold simplicity was introduced to the cut and decoration of the apparel, as a result of Poiret’s passion for “orientalism, chinoiserie, European peasant and north African design” (Steele 2010, p.36). Poiret’s 1911 One Thousand and One Night Ball (Fig.6) began a lasting trend of exotic garments, using light silks, gold tassels, turbans, tunic dresses, and embroidery. Other couturiers such as Jeanne Lanvin, Lucile, and the Callot Soeurs also created similar fashion apparel with high waists, slender lines, and exotic look (Steele 2010). Fig.6. Paul Poiret’s Fashion Plate Depicting an Oriental Event Organized by him (Biography 2012) Critic Paul Cornu published an article ‘Art of the Dress’ on Poiret’s work in the April 1911 issue of the journal Art et Decoration on architecture and interior design. Cornu upheld Poiret as the forerunner of a new era emphasizing dress as a decorative art. Because of the collective nature of Paul Poiret’s fashion approach to dress as an art, his clothes were best seen against a modern décor “where the design of the furniture and the colouring of the fabrics all reflect the same aesthetic tendencies” (Davis 2008, p.34), the Art Deco emphasizing an idealized lifestyle (Fig.7). He developed “a network of enterprises to provide the materials for his vision of elegance, and to devise a series of high profile events in order to showcase his ideals” (Davis 2008, p.35). Fig.7. Poiret: Art Deco Fashion – Fall 1924: Interiors, Architecture and Fashion (Needlepointmasters.com 2012) Gazette du Bon Ton (Vogel 1912) was a leading French fashion magazine that was published by Lucien Vogel from 1912 to 1925, with a break of six years during the First World War. The magazine’s content covered fashion, beauty and lifestyle. The title of the magazine is translated as “timeless good taste and refinement” (Kim 2010). Thus, Gazette du Bon Ton maintained contacts only with top couture houses, including that of Paul Poiret whose lavish designs were considered as landmark creations. These clothing designs synthesized with the decorative arts in fashion plates formed part of the editorial content, or were insertions in the magazine (Figs.8, 9 and 10 below). Fig.8. Gazette du Bon Ton: Robe de Parc by Paul Poiret (Vogel 1912, p.268) Fig.9. Gazette du Bon Ton: Cape du Soir by Paul Poiret (Vogel 1912, p.61) Fashion plates, as in Figs.8 and 9 above and Fig.10 below, “are small printed images often hand-coloured, of people wearing the latest fashions” (Steele 2010, p.304), and portrayed in traditional miminally narrative social contexts. They thrived from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries; they were distributed either as integral parts of fashion magazines or as supplementary plates. As found in the fashion illustrations of Poiret’s creations, the fashion plate was considered as an image of the ‘ideal self’, and reflected the artistic, historic, aesthetic and moral environment of the time. The key purpose of the fashion plate was to advertise new styles for raising their sales, however, their attractiveness gives them an established place among the minor graphic arts. Fig.10. Gazette du Bon Ton: Robes de Ete by Paul Poiret (Vogel 1912, insertion between pp.184-185) The above fashion plate Fig.10 is found as an attachment inserted between p.184 and p.185 of the issue of Gazette du Bon Ton magazine (Vogel 1912). Fashion plates conveyed the essence of the garment, its construction features, the ambience, context and dynamics of the setting. Further, its modernity was a significant aspect of the fashion plate as an element of publishing in the early 20th century (Steele 2010). In 1908, Paul Poiret “commissioned the young print-maker Paul Iribe to draw his gowns for Les Robes de Paul Poiret, published in 1909” (Hopkins, p.12), using the pochoir method. This redefined fashion illustration because it was the first time a couturier had utilized modern art to represent his creations. Similarly, the fashion illustrations found in the Gazette du Bon Ton were on hand made paper, and each design was executed by the pochoir or stencilled hand painting technique. Pochoir was a labour-intensive process for creating a colour print. This was done “with a series of stencils in which each colour was vividly applied by hand” (Hopkins, 11). The paints included water colours, guache or ink. This expensive print was was highly fashionable, and in great demand, thereby making the magazine one of the most elite of its time. The new genre of fashion illustrations using the pochoir technique pioneered by Paul Iribe, was adopted by others such as Georges LePape, Charles Martin and George Barbier. According to Schleuning, Lamonaca and Aynsley (2008), a part of Poiret’s strategy of using expensive pochoir or stencilling method for creating fashion illustrations, was to depict selectivity and quality, reinforcing to his clientele the elite quality of his fashion design. This distinction was necessary to identify Poiret’s haute couture from the mass produced garments of rivals. Through his fashion illustrations commissioned to appointed artists, “Poiret turned advertisement associated with an expendable print culture, into an object of contemplation and delight” (Schleuning et al 2008, p.11). His approach to design was influenced by the Vienna Secession, an association of Austrian artists, who paid equal attention to fashion and interiors. Poiret guided interior designers to execute their work as a part of the fashion system. With the help of his stylish illustrators, he created prints in which “stunning spaces adorned with intense pattern and saturated colours were populated by figures wearing similarly remarkable fashions” (Schleuning et al 2008, p.11), as in figs.11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 below. Fig.11. Poiret’s Fashion Plate October Snow Illustrated by George Lepape (Biography 2012) Fig.12 Paul Poiret’s Use of Intense Colours in Oriental-Western Fashion Blends (Biography 2012) Fig.13.Fashion Plate: Mix of Haute Couture, Interior Decoration and Architecture (Pinterest 2011) Fig.14. Paul Poiret’s Synthesis of Elitist Interior Decoration and Fashion Design (Tara 2009) Fig.15. Exclusive Fashion: Elitist Interior and High-Waisted, Narrow Dress Design (Biography 2012) The key distinguishing feature of Poirot’s fashion illustration was his integration of traditional grace and modernity in his fashions. He derived ideas from the historical costumes of “Egypt, Greece, Japan, and the French nineteenth century” (Davis 2008, p.34). With the help of his artists’ whimsical illustrations, he transmitted the sense of the new, in conventional forms (Figs.15 and 16). Thus, in the early 20th century, Poiret “promoted his couture designs as part of an idealized lifestyle” (Davis 2008, p.34). Fig.16. Poiret’s Oriental Designs Blending Japanese Motifs with Indian Turbans (Pinterest 2011) Conclusion This paper has investigated Paul Poiret’s revolutionary approach to fashion illustration. It is evident that he used the expensive pochoir technique of creating stencilled designs in fashion plates, as advertisements for his elitist high fashion garments, in fashion magazines such as the Gazette du Bon Ton. This helped to distinguish his creations from the mass produced fashion apparel of his rivals. Further, Poiret developed the pochoir technique to serve as Art Deco incorporating not only the garment to be advertised, but also ensuring that the illustrator created architectural and interior design details to enhance the garment worn by the model. Poiret’s clothing styles were a mix of the oriental, classic and the modern, resulting in a form of theatrical costuming. This ideal of synthesis as advocated by Poiret was already a part of theatre, music and literature. Garment design formed one aspect of the fashion plates which also depicted the model’s grace, the surrounding architectural style and interior decoration. Thus, the fashion plates were multi-dimensional, with beauty and lifestyle playing a significant part, providing a context for the clothes being illustrated. Poiret considered himself an artist more than a couturier. Davis (2008, p.23) supports this view and adds that Paul Poiret “worked to forge new links between dress and the fine arts, ultimately emerging as one of the century’s top tastemakers”. The couturier’s innovative designs freed women from the constraints of whalebone corsets. His use of pochoir developed into Art Deco for his fashion illustrations emphasized the exclusivity of his garments. It is concluded that Paul Poiret’s high fashion garments formed an integral part of the decorative arts, to contribute to the lifestyle of elite society and European royalty of the early twentieth century. ------------------------------------ Bibliography Cunningham, PA 2003, Reforming women’s fashion, 1850-1920: Politics, health and art, Kent State University Press, Ohio. Davis, ME 2008, Classic chic: Music, fashion, and modernism. University of California Press, The United States of America. Hopkins, J 2009, Fashion drawing, Volume 5, AVA Publishing, London. Kim, A 2010, MyIncoherentLife, viewed 17 May 2012, http://myincoherentlife.tumblr.com/post/1543176271/analyse-the-important-contribution-paul-poiret Schleuning, S, Lemonaca, M and Aynsley, J 2008, Moderne: Fashioning the French interior, Princeton Architectural Press, New Jersey. Shmoop 2010, History of fashion in America: Shmoop US history, Shmoop University Inc: The United States of America. Steele, V 2010, The Berg companion to fashion, Berg, The United Kingdom. Vogel, L 1912, Gazette du Bon Ton: Arts, modes and frivolites, vol.1914, tome no.2, Libraire Centrale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, viewed 17 May 2012, http://www.archive.org/stream/Gazettedubonton2#page/n3/mode/2up Yaeger, L 2007, ‘The king is dead: With his extravagant designs, Paul Poiret ruled the world of Fashion – until simplicity did him in’, The Atlantic Monthly, vol.300, no.2, pp.119-123. Bibliography of Illustrations Biography, 2012, Biography of Paul Poiret fashion designer, Head to Toe Fashion Art, French Fine Arts Fashion Prints Collection, viewed 17 May 2012, http://headtotoefashionart.com/paul-poiret-1879-1944/#Top MetMuseum (The Metropolitan Museum of Arts) 2007, Poiret: King of Fashion. Exhibition 9 May to 5 August, 2007, viewed 17 May 2012, http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2007/poiret Needlepointmasters.com 2012, Art Deco Fashion - Fall 1924 - Designer: Paul Poiret, viewed 17 May 2012, http://www.needlepointmasters.com/art-deco-fashion-fall-1924-designer-paul-poiret/ Pinterest 2011, What she wore: Paul Poiret ‘King of fashion’, viewed 17 May 2012, http://pinterest.com/meowmix1949/what-she-wore-paul-poiret-king-of-fashion/ Tara 2009, Paul Poiret: The king of modern fashion, viewed 17 May 2012, http://nothing-elegant.blogspot.in/2009/01/paul-poiret-king-of-modern-fashion.html Read More