Wilhelm Willlinger :: Fashion pictures Pantomime dancers in Persian style dresses designed by Paul Poiret. Published in Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung 3/1914. | src and hi-res Getty Images
Wilhelm Willlinger :: Fashion pictures Pantomime dancers in Persian style dresses designed by Paul Poiret, 1914. Published in Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung 3/1914. | src and hi-res Getty Images
French comedian Cora Laparcerie as Myriem (costume by Paul Poiret) in the play “Le Minaret” by Jacques Richepin in Paris. Published in French paper “Le Théâtre”, May 1913 (Photo by Apic. Uncredited photographer.) | src and hi-res Getty Images
Boris Lipnitzki :: Portrait d’une comédienne en costume orientalisant de Paul Poiret. La jeune femme représentée serait la cantatrice de Ninon Vallin à l’occasion d’une prestation en mai 1923 à l’Oasis, le théâtre du couturier. | Portrait of an actress in oriental costume by Paul Poiret. The young woman represented would be the singer of Ninon Vallin during a performance in May 1923 at the Oasis, the couturier’s theater. | src diktats
Boris Lipnitzki :: Comédienne en costume de scène, Paris, 1923.| src diktats
White Studio :: Vera Ruby dans un costume d’Afgar, Novembre 1920. | src diktats
White Studio :: Portrait de Vera Ruby dans un costume dessiné par Paul Poiret pour la pièce Afgar. Cette pièce a été présentée à New-York au Central Theatre en novembre 1920. | Portrait of Vera Ruby in a costume designed by Paul Poiret for the play Afgar. The play was presented in New York at the Central Theater in November 1920.| src diktats
The First Modern Fashion Photography Shoot. Paul Poiret by Edward Steichen, 1911The First Modern Fashion Photography Shoot. Paul Poiret by Edward Steichen, 1911The First Modern Fashion Photography Shoot. Paul Poiret by Edward Steichen, 1911The First Modern Fashion Photography Shoot. Paul Poiret by Edward Steichen, 1911The First Modern Fashion Photography Shoot. Paul Poiret by Edward Steichen, 1911The First Modern Fashion Photography Shoot. Paul Poiret by Edward Steichen, 1911The First Modern Fashion Photography Shoot. Paul Poiret by Edward Steichen, 1911The First Modern Fashion Photography Shoot. Paul Poiret by Edward Steichen, 1911
In 1911, publisher Lucien Vogel dared photographer Edward Steichen to promote fashion as a fine art in his work. Steichen responded by snapping photos of gowns designed by leading French fashion designer Paul Poiret, hauntingly backlit and shot at inventive angles.
The photographs were published in the April 1911 issue of the magazine Art et Décoration. According to historian Jesse Alexander, the occasion is:
“now considered to be the first ever modern fashion photography shoot,”
The garments were imaged as much for their artistic quality as their formal appearance
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Marchesa Luisa Casati in a fountain dress made of wires and lights by couturier Paul Poiret, at the Beaumont Ball held by the Count Etienne de Beaumont in Paris, 1924.
The Beaumont Ball in Paris 1924 (an event with a guest list so selective that Gabrielle Coco Chanel was excluded for being too ‘trade’), was a homage to Pablo Picasso and the Cubists. The dress made entirely from wires and lights, it was too wide for the entrance to Beaumont’s ballroom: the artist Christian Bérard, who witnessed Marchesa Luisa Casati attempting to squeeze through the doorway, reported that she collapsed like a “smashed zeppelin”. (x)
De Beaumont’s fêtes reached an apex in 1924 with the ballet series Soirées de Paris, which took place at the Théâtre de la Cigale in Montmartre from May 17 to June 30, 1924. An homage to the review of the same name by Guillaume Apollinaire, the series included the scandalous ballet Mercure, which featured music composed by Erik Satie, sets and costumes designed by Pablo Picasso, and choreography devised by Léonide Massine. (x)
un regard oblique 