Historic Parisian label Poiret relaunches under Anne Chapelle and Yiqing Yin

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jan 31, 2018

French label Poiret is getting ready for a grand relaunch at the next Paris Women's Fashion Week, with a show scheduled for 4th March. The historic Parisian fashion house was founded in 1904 by designer Paul Poiret, and was acquired in 2015 by South Korean department store group Shinsegae International, which has been working on Poiret's grand return to the fashion scene for the last two years.

The Korean group is led by Chung Yoo-Kyung and, besides owning the Shinsegae franchise, it distributes over 30 luxury labels in South Korea. It bought the Poiret rights from Luvanis, a company specialised in reawakening dormant luxury brands. Shinsegae International took its time to make this project a success and to fine-tune the relaunch plan, tapping a striking female duo to execute it: Anne Chapelle as CEO and Yiqing Yin as Creative Director.

Anne Chapelle, who started her career in the medical sector, is chiefly renowned for backing and managing two labels like Ann Demeulemeester and Haider Ackermann, in which she holds a majority stake via her BVBA 32 company. She has worked in fashion since 1994, and will contribute her huge experience to the project.

Yiqing Yin was born in Beijing in 1985 and moved to France at the age of four. In 2011, she set up her own label, showing her creations at Paris' Haute Couture Week. A graduate of ENSAD, France's national decorative arts academy, the designer quickly made a name for herself in Parisian fashion, by winning the City of Paris Design Prize in 2009, then taking part in the Hyères Fashion Festival the following year, and winning the ANDAM First Collection Prize in 2011.

Yiqing Yin will present her first Poiret collection with the Autumn/Winter 2018-19 season. She previously designed the ready-to-wear collections for Maison Léonard, from early 2014 to the end of 2015. She also collaborated for brands such as Cartier, Guerlain, Hermès, Swarovski and Lancôme.

"I wish to make Poiret a fashion label that tells stories of encounters and emotions, the landscape of a new kind of contemporary luxury, recognisable for its dialogue with the times. The philosophy at the heart of my work features a subtle appreciation of clothes and cuts, an ideal extension of the work of Paul Poiret who, at the start of the XXth century, liberated the bodies and souls of women," said Yiqing Yin in a press release.

Paul Poiret was a pioneer, notably for having introduced the concept of brand diversification in fashion. He was the first designer, in 1911, to produce his own perfumes and to sell cosmetics. He was also a ground-breaking decorator and opened his own stores. The financial crash of 1929 forced him to close down the business, and now, after nearly a century, his fashion house is coming alive again.