Paul Poiret: Fashion Is a Feast

A comprehensive retrospective volume on the famed fashion designer Paul Poiret, bringing together works from his entire career.

An immersion into Paul Poiret's creative universe, this book explores the renowned fashion designer's audacity and artistic power through fashion, decorative arts, perfume, celebration, and even gastronomy, in the vibrant cultural context of the first decades of the twentieth century. Poiret (1879–1944) is widely credited with bringing fashion into the modern age, and his work continues to inspire today.

Highlighting Poiret's lasting influence on contemporary designers, this volume offers a captivating experience, through a selection of works, documents, and testimonies. It draws on the vast collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (fashion, textiles, furniture, drawings, photographs, illustrations, and posters), exploring the different themes that marked Poiret’s life and work. From his fascination with the Ballets Russes and his artistic collaboration with Raoul Dufy to the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, as well as his stylistic influences, this book examines the inspirations and creations of a figure whose work continues to fascinate.