Author Talks | The Study at Yale

Thursday, February 26

Mary E. Davis in Conversation with Kate Bolick

5:30pm - 6:30pm
The Study at Yale Living Room

Kicking off our 2026 guest speaker series, fashion historian and Yale Capstone faculty member Mary E. Davis shares her new book, Paul Poiret: Inventing Modern Luxury. In conversation with author and Department of English lecturer Kate Bolick, Davis will delve into the life and legacy of the visionary designer who redefined style and reshaped the meaning of modern luxury.

The evening concludes with an audience Q&A, offering a unique opportunity for thoughtful dialogue and direct engagement with the author.

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited; RSVPs are requested.

RSVP VIA EVENTBRITE

Mary E. Davis

Mary E. Davis is an educator and historian specializing in fashion and its relationship to art and commerce. In a wide-ranging career, she has held positions as a professor and dean as well as posts with the President’s Commission on Organized Crime and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. She is currently a member of the faculty of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the Capstone Faculty at the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale.

Kate Bolick

Kate Bolick is an author, journalist, and lecturer in the English Department at Yale University. Her first book, the best-selling Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own, was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2015 and translated into multiple languages. Her essays and criticism appear in The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, and Vogue, among other publications.

About The Book

Paul Poiret: Inventing Modern Luxury

Before Chanel, Dior or Saint Laurent, there was Paul Poiret. Born in Paris in 1879, he was the most audacious couturier of the pre-war era. While his outré styles were worn by some of the most famous celebrities in Europe and America, they were in fact the most fleeting facet of his work. Mary E. Davis explores how Poiret’s genius was to place fashion at the centre of a network of style, culture and commerce. He founded groundbreaking perfume and interior design businesses, sponsored musical performances, amassed a modernist art collection and threw fantastical – and newsworthy – balls. Poiret’s businesses faded by the end of the 1920s, but as this book reveals, his unifying vision set the model for the luxury industry as we know it.

Learn More