Editing Paul Poiret (section)

==Early life and career==
Poiret was born on 20 April 1879 to a cloth merchant in the poor neighborhood of [[Les Halles]], Paris.<ref name="vogue">[[Hamish Bowles|Bowles, Hamish]]. "Fashioning the Century." ''Vogue'' (May 2007): 236–250. A [http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/050107/page2.html condensed version of this article] appears online. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201195214/http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/050107/page2.html|date=1 December 2008}}</ref> His older sister, [[Jeanne Poiret Bovin|Jeanne]], would later become a jewelry designer.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Claudette Colbert Starfish: A Ruby and Amethyst Starfish Brooch Designed by Juliette Moutard for René Boivin, Paris, 1937|url=https://www.siegelson.com/jewel/f4166/|access-date=November 2, 2020|publisher=Siegelson}}</ref> Poiret's parents, in an effort to rid him of his natural pride, apprenticed him to an umbrella maker.<ref name=vogue/> There, he collected scraps of silk left over from the cutting of umbrella patterns, and fashioned clothes for a doll that one of his sisters had given him.<ref name=vogue/> While a teenager, Poiret took his sketches to [[Louise Chéruit]], a prominent dressmaker, who purchased a dozen from him.<ref name=vogue/> Poiret continued to sell his drawings to major Parisian couture houses, until he was hired by [[Jacques Doucet (fashion designer)|Jacques Doucet]] in 1898.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Joslin, Katherine |title=Edith Wharton and the making of fashion |date=2011|publisher=Univ of New Hampshire Pr|isbn=978-1-61168-218-2|pages=147|oclc=741023820}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last1=Koda|first1=Harold|last2=Bolton|first2=Andrew|date=September 2008|title=Paul Poiret (1879–1944)|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poir/hd_poir.htm|access-date=2020-07-12|website=www.metmuseum.org|page=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–}}</ref> His first design, a red cloth cape, sold 400 copies.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Poiret|first=Paul|title=My First Fifty Years|publisher=Gollancz|year=1931}}</ref><ref name=vogue/> He became famous after designing a black mantle of [[Tulle (netting)|tulle]] over a black [[taffeta]], painted by the famous fan painter Billotey. The actress [[Gabrielle Réjane|Réjane]] used it in a play called ''[[Zaza (play)|Zaza]]'', the stage then becoming a typical strategy of Poiret's [[Marketing strategy|marketing practices]].<ref name=":0" />

In 1901, Poiret moved to the [[House of Worth]], where he was responsible for designing simple, practical dresses,<ref name="vogue" /> called "fried potatoes" by Gaston Worth because they were considered side dishes to Worth's main course of "truffles".<ref name=":0" /> The "brazen modernity of his designs," however, proved too much for Worth's conservative clientele.<ref name="vogue" /> When Poiret presented the Russian [[Leonilla Bariatinskaya|Princess Bariatinsky]] with a Confucius coat with an innovative kimono-like cut, for instance, she exclaimed, "What a horror! When there are low fellows who run after our sledges and annoy us, we have their heads cut off, and we put them in sacks just like that."<ref name="vogue" /><ref name=":0" /> This reaction prompted Poiret to fund his own ''maison''.<ref name=":0" />