Costume created by me with leftover fabric, inspired by Paul Poiret designs.
The famous couturier Paul Poiret was responsible for introducing oriental splendour to Parisian fashion with creations like the harem trousers, pantaloons, wired lampshade tunics and hemlines weighted down by tassels. He started creating costumes in 1913, for the production Le Minaret and later a play called Aphrodite, that was the beginning of using theatricality as a tool in bridging the gap between culture and commerce (Troy, 2003).
Before that, in 1910 Serge Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet performed Schéhérazade in Paris to huge crowds, setting a precedent that would become a new aesthetic. It was the first time that a European audience had seen the experimental costumes and stage settings of Léon Bakst.
The Russian Ballet ‘became a catalyst of culture’ and, furthermore, ‘the critics found it hard to determine what to praise first — the choreography of Fokine, the dancing of Nijinsky, the dazzling costumes and sets by Bakst which exploded into Parisian fashion and interior design, or the unfamiliar music of Rimsky- Korsakov’ (Lloyd, 1991: 35).
The fascination of fashion for Orientalism was so overwhelming that this trend was and continues to be an inspiration for costumes designers and collections to this day. As seen in the "Downtown Abbey" series in 2011.
