March 18, 2011
Fashion and Freedom Exhibition to Open at Philly's Westphal College
Mark Thompson READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Long before Lady Gaga and Alexander McQueen, there was Paul Poiret. Who, you might ask? The world's first fashion designer.
The son of textile workers, Poiret was a chubby boy with a big imagination: he opened his fashion house in 1903. Within three years, all of Paris was his playground - and in 1911, Poiret was the host of the most famous costume ball ever thrown, a fantasy called "1002 Nights."
The second decade of the twentieth century was a wildly, creative time in the world of fashion - and an upcoming exhibition, titled "Brave New World: Fashion and Freedom, 1911- 1919," at the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design in association with Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) will showcase the garments and accessories of this experimentally-rich period in French couture.
It was Poiret who attempted to put women into the notorious hobble skirt (requiring a series of mincing steps to move), yet Poiret deserves credit for introducing the svelte and slender silhouette which has signified elegant chic ever since. And it was Poiret who took the corset off women and put women in pants, launching a sartorial revolution that came to a head in the Sixties.
Take a wander through this retrospective of innovative fashion - and you just might discover what Gaga wears next.
Location:
The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery @
Drexel University Westphal College of Media Arts & Design
3215 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
April 7 - May 7: Gallery Hours Monday - Friday 11am - 5pm
LINK: http://www.pifa.org/events/980194569
A long-term New Yorker and a member of New York Travel Writers Association, Mark Thompson has also lived in San Francisco, Boston, Provincetown, D.C., Miami Beach and the south of France. The author of the novels WOLFCHILD and MY HAWAIIAN PENTHOUSE, he has a PhD in American Studies and is the recipient of fellowships at MacDowell, Yaddo, and Blue Mountain Center. His work has appeared in numerous publications.
