Croy on the oblique Madeleine Vionnet. School of stylish images and ideas Everything will be my way

“... What I did cannot be called fashion. What I did was made to last forever. I wanted my dresses to survive the times not only because of their cut, but also because of their artistic value. I love something that does not lose its dignity over time ... ”So shortly before her death, Madeleine Vionnet formulated what she lived and breathed throughout her life ...

Croy on an oblique. Collar - yoke and collar - hood. Clothes without seams. Dresses on the naked body. Skillful draperies of flowing fabrics. Inexplicable...

Passion for mathematics. Love for architecture. Pattern puzzles that have not yet been solved. A name that, alas, has been forgotten. Clothing from the collections of museums, which is still admired by connoisseurs of beauty ... Madeleine Vionnet, the classic genius of High Fashion, left all this as a legacy.

Everything will be my way

Madeleine Vionnet was born on June 22, 1876. From early childhood, she dreamed of becoming a sculptor, at school she showed considerable ability in mathematics, but poverty forced her to leave school and at the age of eleven become a dressmaker's assistant in order to bring at least some benefit to her family. The prospects for a girl who did not even receive a school education were very vague, life seemed predetermined and did not promise any great joys. However, Madeleine managed to do everything in her own way. However, she did this in her own way all her life.

Having married very early, she moved to Paris - in search of a better life. Madeleine was lucky - good dressmakers were required everywhere, and she managed to get a job in the famous Fashion House. Soon she gave birth to a daughter, but a misfortune happened - the girl died. Soon, the marriage, which seemed so strong, broke up, and then the poor girl lost her job. Desperate, she bought a ticket with the last money and, not knowing the language, left for England ...

How can a person express himself? Life provides many opportunities for this, the main thing is to be able to take advantage of at least one of them. Madeleine Vionnet succeeded in this - moreover, more than once, and, perhaps, every time fate gave her her favorable smile. Having started working in Foggy Albion as a modest washerwoman, she soon became one of the most famous women in this country, and after returning to Paris, she became a recognized trendsetter and style…

The dress must smile

She created her own Fashion House thanks to ... a scandal. At the show, where for the first time her unique, bias-cut dresses were presented, fitting the figure like knitwear unknown at that time, Madeleine - in order not to disturb the harmony of the lines - demanded that the fashion models put them on their naked bodies. It was “too much” even for bohemian Paris, but this is how progressive and free-thinking women of that time found “their” fashion designer ... And even though the Madeleine Vionnet Fashion House worked, in fact, only from the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War - over the years she made so many discoveries, embodied so many innovative ideas that today's designers never dreamed of ...

It was Madeleine for the first time - publicly! - stated that the female figure should be shaped by a healthy lifestyle and gymnastics, and not a corset. “When a woman smiles, the dress should smile too,” Vionnet said. And she created dresses that only emphasized the natural beauty of a woman, repeating the lines of her figure, adapting to the curves of her body ... It was so easy for ladies to dance trendy jazz and drive a car in such dresses ...

Knowing well mathematics, she never forgot that the body has three dimensions, and did not rely on a flat image on paper. Madeleine not so much sewed as she designed, she “sculpted” in her own way, creating three-dimensional models, for which she used special wooden dolls, around which she wrapped pieces of fabric and pricked them in the right places with pins. When the fabric sat perfectly, all the same was transferred to the figure of a particular woman. As a result, the models of Madeleine Vionnet sat on women like a glove, fully adapting to the lines of a particular figure.

Patterns of even simple, at first glance, things from Vionnet resembled geometric and abstract figures, and the models looked like sculptural works, distinguished by asymmetric shapes. Subsequently, to decipher the pattern and construction of one Madeleine Vionnet dress, fashion designer Azedine Allaya spent a whole month!

To be honest, it was not easy to put on such clothes, and the clients had to train for some time to learn how to do it on their own, or every time they came to the Madeleine Vionnet Fashion House in order to… dress up!

Great experimenter

Vionnet made the main experiments in the cutting technique: she introduced the cut along the oblique - at an angle of 45 degrees to the direction of the shared thread, thanks to which she managed to create clothes with almost no seams. Once, specially for her, woolen cuts five meters wide were made, from which she created a coat ... without seams at all!

Numerous draperies, many of whose secrets have not yet been unraveled, have become an addition to the filigree cut. She influenced all fashion in the 20th century, although she always stated: “I don’t know what fashion is, I never think about it. I just make dresses." Her sensual gowns of silk, crepe de chine, gabardine and satin have been worn by internationally recognized stars: Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo. Each Vionnet dress was special, inimitable and created specifically to emphasize the individuality and style of the customer. The fashion designer miraculously managed to combine luxury and simplicity, resulting in the desired harmony that is always in demand ... The antique style, which was often used in fashion even before Madeleine, found a second life in her collections. It was considered a symbol of elegance for two decades before the war.

Innovator in life

A new understanding of clothing as a natural continuation and adornment of the figure ensured the insane popularity of Vionnet Fashion House. To protect her unique models from fakes, Madame Vionnet began to sew labels with her own name - logo on them, photographed each model from three sides, and later using a three-leaf mirror, and entered all the detailed information about all models in a special album. By the way, Madeleine created seventy-five such albums during her creative life. In 1952, she donated them (as well as drawings and other materials) to the organization UFAC (UNION Franfaise des Arts du Costume). It is believed that it was the collection of Madeleine Vionnet and her so-called "copyright albums" that later became the basis for the creation of the famous Museum of Fashion and Textiles in Paris.

Her relationship with the staff of her own Fashion House was also innovative. It was Madeleine Vionnet who made the fashion model a respected and prestigious profession. In her Fashion House, all employees were given the necessary social rights, regular breaks were necessarily arranged, vacations were provided to all employees, and sickness benefits were paid. At her Fashion House, a polyclinic, a canteen and even a small travel agency were created especially for the staff! By 1939, the House of Vionnet, which produced up to three hundred models a year, employed about three thousand people.

legacy of taste

However, neither a new approach to fashion shows, nor a variety of social programs, nor experiments in cutting techniques brought Madeleine Vionnet financial success and stability. The Second World War undermined the fashion business, her House was closed. Madame Vionnet was no longer involved in the creation of models, she lived modestly, but was keenly interested in everything that was happening in the world of high fashion. Her models were sold at auctions for a lot of money that went past her ...

Less than a year before her centenary, she liked to repeat: “Taste is a feeling that distinguishes between what is truly beautiful, what is simply striking, and also what is ugly! This knowledge is passed down from mother to daughter. But some people do not need training: their sense of taste is innate. I think I'm one of those people..."

“The love of geometry allowed Madeleine Vionnet to create the most exquisite styles based on simple shapes, such as a quadrilateral or a triangle. Her work is the pinnacle of fashion art, which cannot be surpassed ... "

Style secret

No one has ever figured out the secret of the ivory evening dress designed by Madeleine Vionnet in 1935. It is located in the Paris Fashion and Textile Museum and belongs to those wonderful creations, the ideal shape of which is achieved with a single seam.

“When a woman smiles, the dress should smile with her,” Madeleine Vionnet once said. This became her life principle, which she carried through her whole life. You ask who this woman with an intricate name was: maybe a philosopher or an avid feminist. No, Vionnet was a virtuoso fashion designer who left an indelible mark on the pages of fashion history, she created her own style, which was followed by millions of women around the planet.

Madeleine, although she was called the "queen of the oblique cut" by critics, did not have noble blood in her pedigree at all. On the contrary, she was born into a poor family on June 22, 1876 in the small French town of Albertville. From an early age, the girl dreamed of becoming an architect, but they were destined not to come true. Vionna had to leave school at 12 and work as a dressmaker's assistant. Parents did not pin hopes on their daughter, the lack of financial independence did not allow them to live for Madeleine. Without a full education, she did not have great prospects, it seemed that fate had already decided everything for the girl, but she unequivocally decided that everything would be my way. And so it happened: at the age of 18, the girl moved to Paris and got a job as a seamstress at the Vincent fashion house. A completely different world opened before her, in which there lived a beauty that the poor girl from the province had never seen.

Very little is known about Vionnet's personal life; in her youth, Madeleine married an emigrant from Russia, which later turned into a tragedy. The girl gave birth to a daughter, but the baby died suddenly. The marriage could not stand this loss, the couple soon divorced. The loss of a child affected Vionne's entire life, as you know, she remained alone until the end of her life, one on one with her bereavement. Madeleine saw one single goal - to start creating, because the fashion world so unexpectedly overwhelmed her, dreams of a career as an architect evaporated. However, due to personal experiences, the girl could not stay in France for a long time and went to England.

At the age of 22, Vionnet moved to London, difficulties in finding work forced the girl to work as a laundress for some time. It was a very difficult time for her, but Madeleine did not give up. Soon she was taken to the Katy O'Reilly fashion house, where copies of the clothes of famous fashion designers were created. The girl worked with enthusiasm, suddenly realizing that she was capable of more than just copying other people's ideas. Having gained strength in London, Madeleine returns to Paris, full of new ideas and a desire to create. Good luck accompanies her: in 1900, the girl gets a job in one of the most prestigious fashion houses of that time, the Callo Sisters. Success and diligence in work immediately singled out Vionne, she became better in the team, and later one of the sisters made Madeleine her main assistant. Vionne learned a lot from her mentor, because it was she who showed her the true world of fashion. So, Madeleine recalls Madame Gerber: “She taught me how to build Rolls-Royces. Without it, I produced Fords. ”

Madeleine learned a lot in the fashion house of the Callot sisters, but she realized that she needed to go further. Moving on to the famous Jacques Doucet, the aspiring designer worked as a cutter. Luxurious toilets, influential buyers and the charm of the owner of the fashion house inspired incredible enthusiasm for Vionna. The creative impulse was so strong that it discouraged and even frightened the fashion meter. Madeleine's policy was too tough, she directly told Duce that it was worth abandoning corsets and linings that change the figure. The key to beauty, in her opinion, is hard work on yourself and your own body, clothes should emphasize all the advantages, but not hide the flaws. The work of the famous fashion designer ended in a loud scandal for her, Vionnet, who dared to dictate the canons of fashion to Doucet himself, was suspended from work. But this did not discourage the novice designer from continuing his journey. In 1912, Madeleine opens her studio, but this time, life seems to put a barrier in front of a woman - the First World War begins, which crossed out Vionnet's plans. But the fashion designer finds the strength to overcome this obstacle, the studio began to work in 1919, Madeleine waited too long, it's time to start creating.

The war changed not only people, but also their views, gradually the fashion world began to lean towards the simplicity that Madeleine so glorified. Unable to draw, she approached the creation of toilets with the help of a mathematical mindset. Compliance with proportions and creativity of thinking helped her become famous. For these skills, the designer received the title of "fashion architect". Initially, costumes were not created on paper, as other couturiers did, Vionnet created dresses on a mannequin. Long, painstaking work did not bother Madeleine, she strove for the ideal.

One of the first shows of Vionnet amazed the public and then gave rise to a whole string of scandals. Madeleine has always preferred to use thin flying fabrics in her models that do not constrain movements. So, she used silk, satin, cap, which flowed over the female figure. The designer forbade her fashion models to wear underwear, which was a real revelation for the society of that time. This idea was considered too frank even for the free mores of Paris.

The main innovation in the work of Madeleine is considered to be precisely the oblique cut, without which it is impossible to imagine the fashion of the 30s. This method of sewing allowed the fabric to fit the figure perfectly. The amazingness of the couturier's creations was that the dresses looked completely shapeless on the hanger, but as soon as they were tried on, they sat like a glove. She explained this success by the fact that any outfit should adapt to the human body, to its features of the figure and needs. The cut and shape of the outfit should be individually matched to it.

Oddly enough, but Vionnet was quite indifferent to colors, almost the entire color palette was present in her models: from warm to cold tones. The designer was much more interested in fabrics. By special order of the fashion designer, the supplier of materials for the atelier Vianni Biancini-Ferrier created a new fabric - a mixture of silk and acetate. Soon the richest and most influential women around the world became interested in Madeleine's work. This was facilitated by the active development of the brand. In 1923, the number of clients was so great that a new atelier had to be opened much larger and more spacious than the previous one on the rue Montaigne. A year later, the whole of America started talking about the courier. On Fifth Avenue, a representative fashion house of Vianni opened in New York.

Madeleine's dresses made a real sensation, because she came up with completely new forms of details in the shape of a rhombus and a triangle. She moderated the look for an evening dress with a hood and a coat lined in the same color and fabric as the outfit itself. Vianne not only glorified freedom of movement in clothes, she was sure that clothes would free women from empty stereotypes. So, there were dresses without fasteners or buttons on the back. Models for a long time learned to dress them on their own without outside help. These toilets were created for dancing, their owner could drive a car freely. Vionnet's work combined simplicity and luxury, which captivated the most stylish and famous women around the world.

In the mid-30s, she almost moved away from the oblique cut, following the example of other fashion designers, she became interested in antique style. Knots, plaits, complex cuts, woven fabrics - all this began to be reflected in Madeleine's works, which also enjoyed success.

Like many other couturiers of that time, Vianne was afraid of plagiarism, so she sewed tags on her models and even came up with a label for her fashion house. An innovation in this area was albums, a kind of first clothing catalogs, in which the designer placed photographs of dresses and outfits from three angles. During the period of her work, Vionnet released 75 such albums.

Madeleine was the first to take the work of a fashion model seriously, paying a large salary, organizing material assistance in case of illness. Vionnet even created a travel agency and a hospital at a fashion house for working women. It was she who made the work of the model prestigious, this stereotype remained and sowed in our world.

However, with all the success and popularity of the couturier business, it failed. The onset of the Second World War put an end to its further development, and in 1940 the Vionnet fashion house was closed. For another long 36 years, Madeleine followed the life of fashion, but being in complete oblivion.

She died in 1975, not far from her 100th birthday. Vionnet showed the world an example of how to rise to your feet, not to give up under the most difficult life circumstances. She gave women a feeling of lightness, tenderness, she put a part of her soul into each of her works, probably this is what made her one of the great couturiers of the 20th century.

The memory of her is now being revived, in 2007 the Vionnet fashion house reopened its doors. The owner of the company Arnaud de Lummen appreciates and honors the memory of the famous owner of the house. Now the art director of the company is Hussein Chayan, who presented his collection not long ago. It is worth saying that the designer did not deviate from the principles that Madeleine laid down, all the same straight lines, light fabrics that do not hinder movement. One can only hope that the name of Vionnet will again shine in the fashion firmament.

Goddess of style - you can't say otherwise about this woman. She not only always dressed impeccably herself, but also created stunningly beautiful outfits for her contemporaries: among the most famous admirers of her art were Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo.

About Madeleine Vionne, who was considered by her contemporaries as the "fashion architect" and "the queen of the oblique cut", many of whose creations still remain unattainable heights of haute couture, are remembered today only by a few.
Her ability to design and, in particular, the technique of cutting fabrics with geometric patterns, revolutionized the tailoring. In the world of haute couture, Vionnk made a real sensation by introducing many design innovations that are still relevant today: a cut along an oblique thread, a circular cut with figured undercuts and triangular inserts, a top style with two straps tied at the back of the neck, and a hood collar . Having studied the cut of Japanese kimonos, she became the author of a dress sewn from one piece of matter.

It is believed that Madeleine Vionnet's special approach to creating clothes was born from her childhood dream: little Madeleine, born in 1876 in the small town of Albertville, dreamed of becoming a sculptor.
However, her family was rather poor, and therefore the girl was forced to earn a living herself, even before reaching the age of 12: like many French girls from poor families, she went to be an apprentice to a local dressmaker.
The prospects for Madeleine, who had not even received a school education, were not the most brilliant. It seemed that her life was already determined and did not promise great joys.
Even the fact that at the age of 17 the girl, who had already become quite an experienced seamstress, moved to Paris and got a job at the Vincent fashion house, did not portend a radical change in fate.
Little is known about Madame Vionnet's personal life. It seems that the tragedy experienced in her youth forced her to focus only on work and creativity. It is known that at the age of 18 she got married, almost immediately gave birth to a girl and immediately lost her. The death of a child destroyed a young family.
Since then, she (at least officially) has remained alone throughout her long life (and Madeleine Vionnet died in 1975, a little short of her centenary).
Perhaps it was the family drama that made her leave Paris. Madeleine goes to England, where at first she even takes on the work of a laundress.
And only then she manages to get a job as a cutter in the London atelier Katie O'Reilly, which specialized in copies of popular French models.
However, at the turn of the century, Madame Vionnet, despite her youth, was already quite mature enough to create her own models, and not work on copies of others.
When she returned to Paris, she was able to get a job in one of the most famous fashion houses of her time - the Callot sisters. This brought Madeleine some fame, and a few years later she was invited to work by the famous couturier Jacques Doucet.
However, cooperation with the master was not very successful. Madeleine Vionnet took up the creative comprehension of fashion ideas with such enthusiasm that she frightened both the couturier himself and his clients.
So, for example, she eliminated painful rigid corsets and various linings that form a figure. It was Madeleine who first declared that a healthy lifestyle and gymnastics, and not a corset, should form a female figure. In addition, she shortened the length of the dresses and used soft, form-fitting fabrics. To top it off, the dresses that represented her did not wear underwear, which turned out to be too scandalous even for the free mores of Paris.

It all ended with the fact that Madeleine Vionnet decided to implement her innovative ideas on her own.
She started her business in 1912, but Madeleine's own atelier was only opened in 1919, as the First World War intervened.
In essence, we can say that the Vionnet fashion house could only work from one world war to another and closed at the turn of 1940-1941.

However, even such a short history turned out to be very rich in bright innovative ideas. And this revolutionary innovation concerned not only the creation of clothing. It is Madeleine Vionnet that can be considered a pioneer in the fight against such a modern phenomenon as counterfeiting. To protect her models from fakes, she began to use branded labels and a specially designed logo already in 1919. Moreover, each model created in her fashion house was photographed from three angles, described in detail, and all this was entered into a special album. In essence, this can be considered a fully qualified prototype of modern copyright. By the way, Madeleine created 75 such albums during her creative life. In 1952, she donated them (as well as drawings and other materials) to the organization UFAC (UNION Franfaise des Arts du Costume).

It is believed that it was the collection of Madeleine Vionnet and her so-called "copyright albums" that later became the basis for the creation of the famous Museum of Fashion and Textiles in Paris.
Vionnet's main principle is that clothing should naturally follow the lines of the female figure; fashion should adapt to the female body, and not the body "break" under the bizarre, sometimes even cruel rules of fashion.
Vionnet worked only in the technique of the so-called tattoos, that is, she created three-dimensional models.
To do this, she used special wooden dolls, around which she wrapped pieces of fabric and pricked them in the right places with pins.

When the fabric sat perfectly, all the same was transferred to the figure of a particular woman. As a result, Vionnet models sat on women like a glove, fully adapting to the lines of a particular figure. For her outfits, Madeleine used crepe fabrics, which gave the toilets "fluidity" and lightness.
True, putting on such clothes was not easy, and Vionne's clients had to train for some time to learn how to do it on their own.
Vionnet's main experiments relate to the cutting technique. She introduced the oblique cut, in which she managed to make clothes with almost no seams.
Once, specially for her, woolen cuts 4-5 meters wide were created, from which she created a coat without seams at all.
By the way, it was Vionnet who came up with the sets of a dress and a coat, in which the lining is sewn from the same fabric as the dress. In the 60s, such kits received a rebirth.
Style Madeleine Vionnet focused on geometric shapes. When creating her models, she was inspired by works of art in the style of "cubism" and "futurism". Her models were similar to sculptural works, characterized by asymmetry of form. The fashion designer often mentioned the following phrase in interviews: “When a woman smiles, her dress should smile with her.”

In addition to the filigree cut on the oblique steel and numerous draperies, many of the secrets of which have not yet been unraveled.
Madeleine Vionnet became especially interested in drapery after her long internship in Italy: after the outbreak of the First World War, Vionnet closed her salon and left for Rome. Studying the history of architecture and art, in Italy she found a new source of inspiration - antique costumes. Greek and Roman styles were the basis for a series of models with incredibly complex draperies.

Moreover, the draperies always coincided with the natural lines of the female body and never weighed down the models invented by Madeleine.
Madeleine Vionnet miraculously managed to combine luxury and simplicity. Embroidery fit perfectly into her antique style, but it was located only along the main threads, and this retained the flowing character of any fabric.

Author - Maya_Peshkova. This is a quote from this post.

Madeleine Vionnet - "fashion architect"

"When a woman smiles, her dress should smile with her."

Madeleine Vionnet

Creativity Madeleine Vionnet is considered the pinnacle of fashion art. The love of geometry and architecture allowed Vionnet to create exquisite styles based on simple shapes. Some of her patterns are like puzzles that still have to be solved. The masters of Madeleine Vionnet were of such a high class that she was called "ar-chi-tech-tor of fashion." To create masterpieces, she did not need luxurious fabrics and intricate finishes. Vionnet was an innovator, without her ideas, which once seemed too bold and unusual, it is not possible to create modern clothes.

Madeleine Vione became famous primarily for her cutting technique, which involves laying out on the fabric not as usual along the share thread, but along the oblique, at an angle of 45 degrees to the share thread. It is impossible not to notice that Madeleine was not the author of this technique, but it was she who brought it to absolute perfection. It all started in 1901, when Madeleine Vionnet went to work in the atelier of the Callot sisters, where she worked with one of the co-owners of the atelier, Madame Gerber. Madeleine notices that some details of the clothes, namely small inserts, are oblique, but this technique is not used very often. Vionnet, on the other hand, begins to use this technique everywhere, cutting out all the details of the dress along the oblique.

As a result, the finished product takes on a completely different shape, the dress seems to flow and completely fits the figure. This approach radically changes clothes and has a huge impact on fashion in the future. Vionne said about herself: “My head is like a working box-tool-ka. It always has a needle, knives and threads. Yes, when I’m just walking down the street, I can’t help but observe how passers-by are dressed, yes, husband-chi-we! I say to myself: “Here it would be possible to make a warehouse, and there - expand the shoulder line ...”. She pos-it-yan-but came up with something, some of her ideas became an un-wean-le-my part of the fashion industry.

Thanks to the vast experience that Vionnet gained while working in various ateliers in London and Paris, she was able to develop her own style unlike anyone else. She created a unique cutting technique and thus was able to excite the fashion world of the twentieth century.

Being a modernist by nature, Vionnet believed that the presence of jewelry on clothes should be minimized, they should not weigh down the fabric. Clothing should combine such qualities as comfort and freedom of movement. Vionnet believed that clothing should completely repeat the shape of the female body, and not vice versa, the figure should adapt to uncomfortable and unnatural forms of clothing. She was one of a small number of designers of the early twentieth century, along with Paul Poirot and Coco Chanel, who created women's clothing on a corset basis.

Moreover, the Vionnet models demonstrated their dresses on a naked body, without underwear, which was quite provocative even for a Parisian audience ready for a lot. Largely thanks to Vionne, courageous and open-minded women were able to abandon corsets and feel freedom in movement. In a 1924 interview with The New York Times, Vionnet admitted: “The best control of the body is a natural muscular corset - which any woman can create through physical training. I do not mean hard training, but rather what you love and what makes you healthy and happy. It is very important that we are happy."

In 1912, Madeleine Vionnet opens her own fashion house in Paris, but after 2 years she is forced to suspend his activities. The reason for this was the outbreak of the First World War. During this period, Vionnet moved to Italy, engaged in self-development. In Rome, Madeleine became interested in ancient culture and art, thanks to which she began to pay more attention to draperies and gradually complicated them. The approach to draperies was similar to the cutting technique - the main idea was the naturalness of the lines and the feeling of lightness and airiness.

In the period from 1918 to 1919, Vionnet reopens the atelier. From that period and for another 20 years, Vionnet became a trendsetter in women's fashion. Thanks to the cult of the female body, her models became so popular that over time there were so many orders in the atelier that the staff working there simply could not cope with such a volume. In 1923, Vionnet, in order to expand his business, acquires a building on Avenue Montaigne, which he completely reconstructs in collaboration with the architect Ferdinand Chanu, the decorator Georges de Fer and the sculptor René Lalique. This magnificent building has received the impressive name "temple of fashion".

Around the same period of time, the Vionnet women's clothing collection crosses the ocean and ends up in New York, where it is so popular that 2 years later Madeleine Vionnet opens a branch in the United States that sells copies of Parisian models. A feature of American copies was that they were dimensionless and fit almost any figure.

Such a successful development of the Fashion House led to the fact that in 1925 it already employed 1,200 people. In terms of numbers, the Fashion House competed with such successful fashion designers as Schiaparelli, who at that time employed 800 people, Lanvin, who employed about 1,000 people. A very important point is that Madeleine Vionnet was a socially oriented employer. The working conditions in her Fashion House were significantly different from others: short breaks were a prerequisite for work, workers had the right to leave and social benefits. The workshops were equipped with dining areas and clinics.

In the photo on the left - an invitation card to the show of the Vionnet Fashion House collection; on the right - a sketch of the Vionnet model in one of the Parisian magazines

UNREVEALED SECRETS

Madeleine Vionnet was an absolute virtuoso in working with fabric, she could create the necessary shape for a dress without using intricate fixtures and tools - all that was needed for this was fabric, a mannequin and needles. For her work, she used small wooden dolls, on which she pinned the fabric, bending it as needed and pinning it with needles in the right places. Unnecessary "tails" she cut off with scissors, after Madeleine was satisfied with the result, she transferred the conceived model to a specific female figure. Currently, this method of working with fabric is called the "tatting" method.

It would not be superfluous to note that, despite the beauty and elegance of the resulting lines, Vionnet's clothes were not easy to use, namely, they were quite difficult to put on. Some models of dresses required certain skills from their owners so that they could simply wear them. Due to such complexity, there were cases when women forgot these tricks and simply could not wear dresses from Vionnet.

Gradually, Madeleine further complicated the cutting technique - her best models have neither fasteners nor darts - there is only one single diagonal seam. By the way, in the Vionnet collection there is a coat model, which is made without a single seam at all. When not worn, the models of dresses were ordinary patches of fabric. It was hard to even imagine that only with the use of special techniques of twisting and tying these pieces of fabric could turn into elegant outfits.

In the photo, a pattern and a sketch of an evening dress by Vionne Fashion House

In the process of working on the model, Madeleine pursued only one goal - as a result, the dress should sit on the client like a glove. She used many approaches to visually improve the figure, for example, reduce the waist or, on the contrary, increase the neckline.

Another highlight of Vionnet's cut was the minimization of seams on the product - in the collection of her creations there are dresses with one seam. Some of the methods of working with fabric, unfortunately, still remain undiscovered.

Vionnet laid the foundation for such a particularly popular concept in our time as copyright. Fearing cases of illegal copying of her models, she sewed a special label on each product with an assigned serial number and her fingerprint. Each model was photographed from three angles, and then entered into a special album with a detailed description of the features inherent in a particular product. In general, during the period of her activity, Vionnet created about 75 albums.

Vionnet was the first to use the same fabric for both the top and the lining. This technique became quite popular in those days, but is also used by modern fashion designers.

FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

More than 100 years have passed since Madeleine Vionnet opened her Fashion House, but her ideas are still popular and in demand. Of course, her recognition is not as great as, for example, Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, but connoisseurs of fashion art know what an invaluable contribution to the fashion industry this "magnificent in all respects" woman has made. She was able to achieve her goal - to make a woman sophisticated, feminine and graceful.

It is surprising that Vionnet's models, even after more than 70 years since she retired, are still in demand by modern soda. Thanks to her easily recognizable aesthetics and invaluable contribution to design.

Vionnet has influenced the work of hundreds of contemporary fashion designers. The harmony of form and proportion of her dress never ceases to evoke admiration, and the technical skill that Vionnet has managed to achieve has elevated her to the rank of one of the most influential fashion designers in the history of fashion.

Madeleine was very fond of sewing dresses from one piece of fabric, they were fastened on the back or they had no fastener at all. It was unusual for the clients and they had to learn how to put on and take off these models. However, freedom-loving women liked the dresses, because now they could cope with their toilet on their own, without outside help. In addition, such outfits were simply created in order to dance trendy jazz and drive a car. Madeleine sewed dresses that were kept only thanks to a bow tied at the chest. This outfit was the real pride of Madame Vionnet. In general, Madeleine subsequently used every new idea regularly, each time trying to bring it to perfection. Vionnet Fashion House was visited by the wealthiest and most stylish ladies of that time. A distinctive feature of Madeleine's products was harmony, which consisted in an amazing combination of simplicity and luxury of her outfits. This is what modern fashion is striving for. Among her clients were Greta Garbo (Greta Garbo) and Marlene Dietrich (Marlene Dietrich).

In the 80s and 90s of the twentieth century, fashion designers often turned to the brilliant ideas of Madame Vionnet. Thus, she determined the development of fashion for several decades to come.

In 2007, the fashion house Madeleine Vionnet resumed its work when about three decades have passed since the death of its creator. The company is owned by a man named Arno de Lummen. His father bought the company in 1988. He invited Sophia Kokosolaki, a fashion designer from Greece, to work. However, she soon left the brand to work for her own name. After her art director was Marc Odibe (Marc Audibet), who in the past worked for Hermes, Ferragamo and Prada. However, Mark's first collection for Madeleine Vionnet in 2008 was not particularly successful.

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Madeleine Vionnet(Madeleine Vionnet, 1876-1975) is still little known to the general public, although her contribution to the fashion of the twentieth century cannot be overestimated. Born into a poor family, Madeleine was forced to work from the age of 11 as an assistant dressmaker. Her young years cannot be called cloudless - she moved from place to place, worked in London and the suburbs of Paris, got married and survived the death of her little daughter. But in 1900, luck smiled at her for the first time - she went to work in one of the most famous French fashion houses at that time - the Callot sisters (Callot Soeurs), where she soon became the right hand of Madame Gerber - the eldest of the three sisters, who was responsible for the artistic direction Home. Vionnet always recalled this collaboration with gratitude: “She taught me how to build Rolls-Royces. Without it, I would produce Fords. This was followed by work in another fashion house - Jacques Doucet, after which, in 1912, Vionnet matured to open her own House.

M. Vionnet at work, second half of the 1930s.

Real success came to Madeleine Vionnet after the First World War, when women appreciated the genuine elegance of her extremely elaborate dresses. Madeleine did not know how to draw, but she had brilliant mathematical abilities and special spatial thinking. She "sculpted" her dresses on a small mannequin half the size of a man, piercing the fabric hundreds of times, achieving a perfect fit with a single seam.

Model of the second half of the 1920s gg. The fringe of such dresses, intended for dancing, Vionnet required to attach not in a single piece, but in separate fragments, so as not to disturb the plasticity of the material.

Her most famous invention, without which it is difficult to imagine the most refined and feminine fashion of the last century, the fashion of the 1930s, remains the cut on the bias (at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the base of the fabric), which she used from the second half of the 1920s for the product in as a whole, and not for individual small details, as it was before her. Such a cut involves the use of flowing, flowing fabrics - silk, satin, crepe. From her supplier, the largest textile manufacturer Bianchini-Férier, Vionnet ordered a two-meter-wide fabric; for her, the factory invented a special material from a mixture of acetate and natural silk of pale pink color.

1920s dresses Wedge-shaped inserts that make the hem “rattle” appeared with the participation of Vionnet in the second half of the twenties, breaking the clear geometric lines of la garconne style.

Madeleine was indifferent to color, but had a passion for form, which she understood as devotion to the natural lines of the female body. “When a woman smiles, the dress should smile with her,” she said. Most of her creations look shapeless and sluggish when they hang on a hanger, but when worn, they come to life and begin to "play". Her merits include the creation of things assembled with a single seam or knot; the invention and popularization of the neck-collar, collar-pipe; cut details in the form of rectangles, rhombuses and triangles. Often her dresses were one piece of fabric, fastened at the back or had no fastening at all, and clients were forced to learn how to put them on and take them off.

Such models were the pride of Vionnet. The design of this blouse rests solely on a bow tied in a knot at the chest.

Once found, Madeleine used the idea many times, honing it and bringing it to perfection. "Country" dress, model No. 7207, 1932

Model No. 6256,1931. A crepe dress with an intricately crafted bodice woven from strips of fabric, complemented by a cape with cape-like sleeves. Capes have been in great demand since 1930, while cape sleeves came into general use in 1932.

Possibly the most famous depiction of Vionnet's creation. The fashion model imitates a nymph from the Louvre antique bas-relief, which inspired Madeleine. 1931 Photograph by George Heuningen-Hühne.

In the 1930s, she gradually abandoned the bias cut in favor of classic draperies and antique aesthetics, thus sharing the fascination of designers such as Augustaberbard and Madame Gres. Often, her models imitated ancient models and, along with fluid forms, could include plaits, knots and complex draperies, and fashion models depicted celestial women against the background of ancient masks, columns, ruins and other antiquities.

Pleated silver lamé dress with rhinestone collar neckline. The curtain in the background imitates the flutes of Greek columns and echoes the light pleated fabric of the dress. 1937

Dress in ivory viscose satin, crafted from a single piece of fabric, fastened with precious bow brooches. 1936

Fearing fakes, Madeleine documented each of her creations by photographing models on fashion models in front of the trellis (front, sides and back) and placing the photos in albums. During the work of her House, 75 such albums accumulated, which Madeleine later transferred to the Paris Fashion and Textile Museum. Vionnet closed her House in 1939 and lived for another 36 long years in almost complete oblivion. Madeleine Vionnet was the most talented innovator of her time; there is no other designer who can compare with her contribution to the technical and technological treasury of fashion.