page_title: Poland
section_title: Fashion and design
hierarchical_section_title: Poland / Culture / Fashion and design
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Reserved salon odzieżowy w Centrum Handlowym Alfa Centrum. Gdańsk Przymorze.
context_page_description: Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, covering an area of 312,696 square kilometres, and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.
  Poland is bordered by the Baltic Sea, Lithuania, and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast to the north, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.
  The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism.
context_section_description: Fashion was always an important aspect of Poland and its national identity. Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.
  The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong 
  sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.
  The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called à la polonaise, meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the robe à la polonaise, a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.
  As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.
caption: Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing retailer, operating over 1,700 stores worldwide.
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