Separating from the corset, the dress has embraced the female body

Poiret was the first to introduce dresses with straight lines and high waists, and he is also the creator of the now beloved long silk dress La Vague, cut below the bust and accentuating the décolletage, whose line falls down the body

Written by Jelena Gotovac

As early as the 1940s, the Spanish fashion innovator with a Parisian address, Cristóbal Balenciaga, used to say that a woman does not need to be perfect, nor even beautiful, to wear his dresses because the dress will do that for her. Thanks to this renowned creator, today we wear and return to the seasonal collections the dress he designed in 1956 – ‘chemise’, which translates to ‘tunic, longer buttoned shirt’. This spring, such a dress with a belt is very modern, as are the batwing sleeves, of which Balenciaga is the creator. However, long before him, the pioneer of Parisian haute couture was the Englishman C. F. Worth, who was nonetheless recognized by the rigorous Parisian elite as the father of fashion. In 1858, he opened the first fashion house, right in the center of Paris, on Rue de la Paix, and decided to sell luxurious dresses that he created at his own discretion, regardless of what wealthy Parisian women liked.

Revolution of Tailoring
At that time, fashion designers made dresses for wealthy clientele upon their request, but the arrogant Englishman set his own rules. Women blindly followed him, enjoying the fact that under his supervision they chose among the offered garments. Worth was also the first designer to sign his dresses. While ladies sighed under rigid corsets, the Parisian social scene was blazing from the outside and inside, and it was hinted that the entry into the 20th century would bring irreversible changes in views on life, social relations, art, and thus fashion as well. After the S-line dresses, which accentuated the bust and pulled in the hips precisely because of the uncomfortable corset, a somewhat milder hourglass line appeared. The waist was narrow, the hips and buttocks were emphasized, and the bust was lavish. However, with the arrival of the exceptionally talented, yet today extremely overlooked, Parisian designer Paul Poiret, the line of dresses gained a new dimension. In 1911, at the first-ever fashion show, called ‘1002nd Night’, Poiret left fashion connoisseurs breathless. He presented dresses with straight lines, known as princess, with high waists, and he is also the creator of the now beloved long silk dress La Vague, cut below the bust, accentuating the décolletage, whose line falls down the body.   

The Little Black Dress
In those years at the beginning of the century, a modest seamstress from the town of Saumur, Gabrielle Chanel, made a fashion breakthrough with her innovations, later earning the nickname Coco, and soon also the clientele of the financially ruined Poiret. However, no one can take away her credit for the little black dress and white pearls, to which no outfit combination has yet come close in decency and elegance. The fashion of the 1950s began with Christian Dior’s New Look, and the ‘new look’ was introduced by Balenciaga with a dropped shoulder line, narrow waist, and rounded hips a decade earlier. The famous Dior set the women’s line of dresses in the shape of an eight, the letters H, Y, and A, which were followed by his assistants P. Cardin and Y. S. Laurent, and he is also the inventor of cocktail dresses, intended only for the entertainment of wealthy idle ladies.  What we so gladly wear was created by talents in the most tumultuous century, whose creative inventions remain the foundation of contemporary haute couture and prêt-à-porter collections. And that is indeed not negligible.