A01=Mary E. Davis
art
Author_Mary E. Davis
Belle epoque
Category=AKT
Category=AKTF
Category=DNBF
celebrity
couture
culotte
decor
Diana Vreeland
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
fashion
Figaro-modes
Galerie Barbazanges
haute couture
Interior design
Jacques Doucet
Modernism
Paris
Paul Iribe
perfume
Rejane
Sarah Bernhardt
Schiaparelli
Spinelly
Vogue
Product details
- ISBN 9781836391173
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 13 Oct 2025
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Before Chanel, Dior or Saint Laurent, there was Paul Poiret. Born in Paris in 1879, he was the most audacious couturier of the pre-war era. While his outré styles were worn by some of the most famous celebrities in Europe and America, they were in fact the most fleeting facet of his work. Mary E. Davis explores how Poiret’s genius was to place fashion at the centre of a network of style, culture and commerce. He founded groundbreaking perfume and interior design businesses, sponsored musical performances, amassed a modernist art collection and threw fantastical – and newsworthy – balls. Poiret’s businesses faded by the end of the 1920s, but as this book reveals, his unifying vision set the model for the luxury industry as we know it.
Mary E. Davis is a member of the Capstone Faculty at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. Her books include Classic Chic (2006), Erik Satie (Reaktion, 2007) and Ballets Russes Style (Reaktion, 2010).
