30 fashion designers you should know... #01

From today on I'll present you thirty fashion designers who once made the world of fashion to what it is now: one of the most influencing branches worldwide. So let's start!


PAUL POIRET

Born in Paris 1879, Poiret, son of a cloth merchant, soon decided to train as a designer with the first known couturier Charles Frederick Worth. Only 5 years after, he opened his first haute couture salon in Paris (1903). At a time when the female body was still divided into protruding bosom and buttocks, he draped his loosely hanging designs directly on his wife's body, who served as his muse. Neither hoop skirt nor corset were required anymore- what was Poiret's greatest achievement. His designs also included pants for women, which till then were only considered acceptable. Unfortunately Poiret lost his prosperous clientele to other ambitious designers like Coco Chanel, so that his fashion house went bankrupt in 1929. Fifteen years later Paul Poiret died as a homeless in the occupied Paris of World War II.

Paul Poiret