Costume pantaloons
Designer
Paul Poiret
(1879 - 1944)
c. 1910
Purple changeant silk satin with silver and gold metallic braid
Museum purchase
Object number2005.45.3
Poiret famously denounced the turn-of-the-century fashion for soft pastels as “Nuances of nymph’s thigh, lilacs, swooning mauves. . . all that was soft, washed out, and insipid,” boasting that he had thrown into “this sheep’s cote a few rough wolves: reds, greens, violets, royal blues, orange, and lemon . . . The morbid mauves were hunted out of existence.”
DescriptionOrientalist pantaloons in changeant purple / violet silk satin, hand embroidered with wide vertical band of ivy and stylized foliage; in scrollwork of silver metalic threads and gold metallic antique braid; knee-length, semi-fitted harem style with low crotch, and tasseled drawstring cuff, CB hooks and eyesCollections
Exhibitions