ies of mass-produced cars and other machines were therefore of great interest to them.
             Fashion changed dramatically in the first two decades of the 20th century. Fashion plates lost their static and conservative quality and, in the hands of modern artists, became avant-garde presentations of groundbreaking new styles.
             Fashion artists employed the techniques of modern art suggested by Cubists and Futurists to deconstruct the body into cubes, cylinders, and ovals. Streamlined edges gave the form a feeling of speed. Large areas of flat, bright color, borrowed from Post-Impressionist artists, placed the human figure in an abstract context.
             Paul Poiret's revolutionary fashion designs showed the changes of this period. He borrowed from the forms of modern art and from the shapes of men's clothing to produce women's designs with simple lines and vivid color.
             In 1912, Poiret began publishing his designs in 'Gazette du Bon Ton', an unusual new Parisian fashion journal started by Lucien Vogel to emphasize the connections between fashion and art. The Gazette, illustrated by modern artists, brought fashion plates of the highest quality to the public and appeared in limited editions, on handmade paper, with no explanatory text.
             The Gazette also featured designs for theatre costumes and book illustrations all in the modernist style. Vogel printed special editions to feature certain artists; this section features the set decoration and costume designs of Georges Barbier, a fashion artist who also illustrated Poiret's work, for a 1918 production of Casanova. The vividness and strength of these compositions correspond to the very best art of the period.
             The Gazette du Bon Ton also published the work of Raoul Dufy, then a young French painter, who collaborated with Poiret in textile designs. From 1912 to 1928 Dufy produced modern designs for the Lyons silk manufacturing firm of Bianchini, Férier. Thes...