“The runway show as we know it today was shaped by visionary couturier Paul Poiret. Fashion scholar Davis unpacks his enduring influence in Paul Poiret: Inventing Modern Luxury.”

Nathalie Atkinson | The Globe and Mail

"A well-illustrated study of this extraordinary man through several different aspects of his life. . . . His great achievement was to integrate fashion into the wider aspects of culture. . . . In short, he turned himself into a brand."

The Spectator

"Davis brings fresh insight to one of fashion’s most visionary pioneers. . . . This richly researched and elegantly written biography restores him to his rightful place at the centre of cultural history, revealing a designer whose influence extended far beyond the garments he created. Davis charts Poiret’s rise from his 1879 Parisian birth to his reign as the most daring couturier of the early twntieth century. . . . Paul Poiret: Inventing Modern Luxury is a tribute to a designer whose audacity reshaped an industry. Davis’s portrait is both celebratory and incisive, showing how Poiret’s imagination forged the blueprint for luxury as we know it today."

Voice Magazine

“Belle Époque Paris was a hotbed of stylish innovation across arts and culture, and fashion designer Paul Poiret (1879–1944) epitomized the era. In her biography, cultural historian Davis traces the rise, eminence, and eventual decline of the influential figure. . . . Photographs and illustrations support Davis’s descriptions of Poiret’s designers and help bring the era, and the designer’s role in it, to colorful life. . . . A satisfying, in-depth look at this storied figure from fashion history who was both a product and shaper of his time.”

Library Journal

“In Davis’s beautifully written, impeccably researched book, Poiret’s visionary genius at last receives its due. Insightful and wide-ranging, Paul Poiret: Inventing Modern Luxury demonstrates fashion’s central power to shape both culture and commerce and reveals how, along with his gorgeous fashions, Poiret created an entire, glittering empire of Parisian art, media, design, and celebrity—whose influence remains with us to this day. The book is at once a delicious journey back to a glorious moment in early twentieth-century French history and a remarkably smart commentary on today’s luxury goods industry.”

Rhonda Garelick, author of “Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History”

"Poiret was a brilliant fashion designer, a remarkable innovator, and a visionary who liberated women from the corset. Moreover, as the inventor of the luxury brand, Poiret had a unique understanding of the essential place of communication, image, and the role of celebrities. He was the first to link fashion with art and culture. Davis documents this exquisitely in her new book. It should be read by everyone in fashion, and by anyone interested in the origins and driving forces of today's luxury industry."

Sylvie Ebel, vice dean, Institut Français de la Mode, Paris

"This is the book that makes it clear why Poiret matters to clothing history. Beyond dress design, Mary Davis proves Poiret established the marketing, media, and museum strategies that would keep haute couture at the forefront of imaginations for almost two centuries, setting it up to be a cultural force in its own right."

Anne Higonnet, professor of art history, Barnard College, and author of "Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution"