Monday, June 3, 2013

Modern Print Monday: Poiret & Atelier Martine

Unnamed print 1913
from the Atelier Martine under Paul Poiret,
Paris

The classic floral reduced to basic shapes.

Paul Poiret (1879-1944)

Couturier Paul Poiret completely changed fashion. Not only did he revolutionize the dress silhouette, jettisoning corsets and introducing what became known as the "hobble skirt,"he had a genius for using the modern prints that European designers were producing.


In love with the simplicity of folk arts he began the Atelier Martine, (Studio Martine) named for his daughter, where he staffed the design department with young girls who had no artistic training---an iffy and condescending concept---but one that seems to have worked.


Read about Poiret and the Atelier Martine at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
At Printeresting


And in Lesley Jackson's Twentieth-Century Pattern Design on page 47

6 comments:

  1. So Poiret explains the harem pants worn by Lady Sybil in season two of Downton Abbey. I thought (wrongly, it turns out) that they'd gone too far in the effort to make Sybil a symbol of the modern woman. Interesting man. Thanks.

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  2. See a tunic with harem pants that would have looked great on Sybil at the Fashion Institute's page:

    http://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/2009/08/my-entry-1.html

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    1. I couldn't get that link to work. Is it this one?

      http://fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/view/objects/asitem/People$00402935/1/dynasty-desc?t:state:flow=57824b31-142a-4389-8640-5bdd7fdcc945

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    2. Try the first link again, but your link is another great Poiret outfit with the abstracted floral print, pants and a tunic in the shape of a lamp shade. I should say the first one is the Fashion Institute and Design Museum in Los Angeles; the second the Fashion Institute in New York City---both have lovely collections.

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  3. Thanks! It's fun to learn about Poiret. His fashions and wallpapers are wonderful!

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  4. That's a print I could see in my collection. Hopefully someone will reproduce it.

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