(b Paris, April 20, 1879; d Paris, April 28, 1944).
French costume designer, dress designer and painter. Despite paternal opposition to his precocious artistic gifts, Poiret attracted attention with his first fashion drawings for Mme Chéruit at the Maison Raudnitz, 21, Place Vendôme, Paris. From 1898 to 1900 he worked for Jacques(-Antoine) Doucet and distinguished himself by creating the famous costume ‘Aiglon’ (Fr.: ‘eaglet’; the nickname of Napoleon II; untraced) for Sarah Bernhardt. From 1901 he worked for the fashion house Worth, where he designed the Eastern-influenced cloak, ‘Confucius’ (1901–2; Paris, Mus. Mode & Cost.). Poiret opened his first fashion house in 1902 on the Rue Auber in Paris. There he produced innovative designs such as the kimono coat and the ‘Révérend’ (1905; Paris, Mus. Mode & Cost.) and enlarged his clientele of famous customers. In 1910 he opened new salons in a large 18th-century house, in the Avenue d’Antin, where he created his famous ‘hobble-skirted’ dresses, drawn in at the hem. Dubbed the ‘Prophet of Simplicity’ in a ...
