On Persian Design and Fashion in Twentieth-Century France: The 1930 Jean Pozzi Catalogue of Persian Art

This article examines the first catalogue of Jean Pozzi’s Persian collection, commented on and published by Edgar Blochet in 1930. Five of the nine coloured plates of the catalogue are from seventeenth-century Isfahan showing highly fashionable men and women wearing various outfits and headgear ornamented with different textile designs. Reviewing the keen Parisian interest in “Oriental” arts and crafts, and especially their appeal to renowned French couturiers and designers, we argue that Jean Pozzi’s catalogue may be seen as one of the persuasive Persian collections of the early twentieth century, providing the forms and tones that French industries of textile design and fashion sought before World War II .