"Feuille d'automne". Culture: French. Designer: Paul Poiret (French, Paris 1879-1944 Paris). Date: 1916.The day ensemble 'Feuille d'Automne' (Autumn Leaves), introduces the new, slightly raised hemline of the season. While Denise Poiret had worn boots à la Russe for years, they were especially apt when coordinated with ankle-exposing skirts. As with many of Poiret's designs, this ensemble acknowledges the prevailing mode while modifying it to the idiosyncratic sensibility of the designer. In the early 1920s, Poiret was to advocate panniered (wide-hipped) and crinolined silhouettes, but in this period - when many design houses endorsed a full, umbrella-shaped skirt - Poiret insisted on a line that cleaved reasonably to the body. There is fullness in the paisley-patterned skirt, but because it is not supported by petticoats, it collapses into the slender and natural line advocated by the designer and preferred by his wife. The surplice blouse wraps at the waist, anticipating the body-c