(I've posted about this phenomenon previously -- it was very trendy for the adventurous middle and upper classes in the US and Europe to dress up in Middle Eastern fashion. Check out this post and this one. I'm very pleased to find this photo of the Poirets, courtesy Reorient's Instagram feed. You should follow it too.)
Monday, September 07, 2015
Paul Poiret and his wife Denise at "Persian Fête" party
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As you know, playing dress-up a la Oriental goes way back. Selim II's consort Nurbanu exchanged gifts with Queen Elizabeth, the Queen answering her request for a picture of herself and Nurbanu giving her a lavish set of clothes like those she wore. When the Ottoman Navy wintered in Marseille one year, the result was a fad for Ottoman dress, as there was whenever an Ottoman envoy came to town. Kaiser Wilhelm was big on anything Middle Eastern, not just clothes, but even creating a room with all the trimmings ordered from the Ottoman lands. Much that was not recognized by Western Europeans as Middle Eastern had simply been filtered through the tastes of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The transition to Western style clothing in Istanbul, for instance, left European ladies without a chance to "dress up" in the enveloping cloak and yashmak.
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