Born: St Petersburg, Russia, 1866
Died: Paris, France, 1924
A fine artist turned costume designer, Léon Bakst was best known for his work with the Ballets Russes, where his exotic use of colour and extraordinary patterns had a profound influence on fashion. His costume designs – drawn mainly on Greek and Egyptian lines – often combined inverted triangles and vertical lines. Bakst gave lectures on the aesthetic principles of dress during the 1920s. He analysed the slim silhouette for Vogue, showing how the positioning of graphic pattern could destroy or enhance a silhouette, and stressed the importance of having a beautiful body. ‘Like a magnificent dog or horse – forgive, Mesdames, this comparison since it is in your praise – the woman who possesses beautiful articulation is a woman of race: sick or well, she always bears the mark of physical perfection.’
