May 9 (Bloomberg) -- To be Denise Poiret must have been heaven. The wife and muse of Paul Poiret (1879-1944), leading couturier of Belle Epoque Paris, never had to fret over what to wear. For the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's ``Rite of Spring,'' it was an ivory silk damask and tulle gown, with rhinestone waistband.

Androgynously thin, she could put on a dress that looked like a fringed lampshade and set the world on fire.

Denise always had the perfect outfit, be it for the country, the cafe or lunch with the girls. Poiret created all of his designs on her gamine back. Most importantly, he did away with the corset -- by introducing the ``hobble skirt'' (tight below the knee) and promoting the brassiere.

Her silhouette also best accommodated what was, perhaps, Poiret's most significant contribution to fashion: the chemise, or sack dress, derived from lingerie in 1910, when Denise was pregnant. Of course, he dressed it up in silk and satin, hot Fauve colors and rich patterns.

Even so, ``Poiret: King of Fashion,'' the latest extravaganza of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, often looks like the contents of grandma's attic.

Liberated from the institute's usual underground lair in a corner of the Met's basement, the exhibition unfolds in spacious quarters off the Greek and Roman halls.

Each vitrine is a stage for scenes in a sophisticated life, replete with painted backdrops and interior decor.

Yet most of the garments here, including the excellent coats and capes, seem more like costumes from a period melodrama than timeless fashion.

`Sorbet' Dress

They are lovely, but unlike great clothes of any age, they are not exciting. They can be amusing and delightful, particularly Poiret's ``Sorbet'' dress of 1913: a hoop-skirted, pink-and-black satin kimono top appliqued with glass-bead roses over a long, black wrap skirt in the shape of an inverted tulip.

In Poiret's case, however, it wasn't really the clothes that made the man. It was business.

After founding his house of fashion in 1903, Poiret became the first couturier to think in holistic terms, licensing himself to make perfume, furniture, carpets, hats and even umbrellas. A few extant examples -- hand-painted perfume bottles, a vanity here, an armchair there -- show that long before Ralph Lauren came along, Poiret created an entire lifestyle to go with his clothes.

He came up with the idea of draping clothes from the shoulders, without darts or gussets. (He couldn't sew.) A columnar red-and-navy evening gown from 1922 -- essentially two squares of silk -- looks forward to the simplicity of a Halston. His borrowings from other cultures brought the caftan, the pantaloon and the kimono to women's fashion. All the same, his clothes come across as anti-modern.

Cutting on the Bias

Madeleine Vionnet, a younger competitor, also dispensed with corsets and wires around the same time Poiret did. By draping and cutting her clothes on the bias -- on a diagonal, against the grain -- she established the elliptical, sensual, body-hugging lines of the Art Deco style. Her technique is still in use today.

Poiret's fondness for crinolines, his Orientalist leanings and patronizing disregard for the sportier, shorter clothes that caught on after World War I changed him from king to old man of fashion. By 1925, he was out of business. (He died a poor painter in 1944.)

The most telling moment of the exhibition comes at the very end: a youthful, bias-cut black number, stunning in its simplicity. At last! I thought. Something fresh.

Then I saw who made it: The woman who took Poiret's ideas and ran with them: Coco Chanel.

``Poiret: King of Fashion'' is on view through Aug. 5 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. Balenciaga is the primary sponsor, with additional support from Conde Nast. Information: +1-212-535-7710; http://www.metmuseum.org.

(Linda Yablonsky is an art critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Linda Yablonsky at fabyab@earthlink.net.

Last Updated: May 9, 2007 00:04 EDT