There is a mosaic plaque embedded in the pavement of Avenue Montaigne, just outside Dior's historic headquarters, honoring the couturier who first put that address on the fashion map. Christian Dior once said of him: "Poiret came and changed everything."

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Paul Poiret, Le Magnifique , the self-proclaimed King of Fashion, was the couturier who dismantled the corset at the turn of the 20th century, replacing it with velvet opera coats , drop-waist dresses scattered with beading, tasseled shawls, fur-trimmed wraps , and silk pouches worn as jewels.

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More than a century later, those same elements have returned on today’s runways.…