Worth and Poiret: On Fashion

Gentle Reader -


Thanks to Google Books, there is a little treasure that is available from the dusty corners of fashions past: The Principles of Correct Dress by Florence Hull Winterburn (1914). Of special note are the chapters by Jean Worth (son of the great father of haute couture, Charles) and Paul Poiret.

Both men practiced their art at the dawn of fashion's transition from the 19th century to the 20th: a time, though remote in fashion years, that still informs the now.

It's a different world now, but a dress that is becoming on a woman is still the ultimate goal: bear this in mind when looking at the current batch of collections.

- AP