Global Threads: An Alternative History of Fin de Siècle Parisian Fashion, by Way of Constantinople, Algiers, and Kyoto

Introducing the history of two interconnected fashion houses of Belle Époque Paris—the Maison Babani and Au Mikado—this article offers a reconsideration of the role that extra-Europeans played in shaping modern Euro-American fashion. Their founders arrived in Europe as import merchants during the final decades of the nineteenth century but soon joined a cohort of artists, designers, and tastemakers who were experimenting with radical new approaches to women’s dress. A polycentric history that traverses multiple generations and myriad borders, the story of the Maison Babani and Au Mikado not only uncovers the lives of forgotten couturiers: its many chapters also provide an alternative account of the birth of modern Euro-American fashion, by way of Constantinople, Algiers, and Kyoto, and various locations in between.