Madeleine Vionnet is a fashion purist. Madeleine Vionnet - “fashion architect” Which madam the fashion world owes to bias cut

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

Cut on the bias. The collar is a collar and the collar is a hood. Clothes without seams. Dresses on 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. Clothes from museum collections, still admirable connoisseurs of beauty... All this was left as a legacy by Madeleine Vionnet, the classic genius of Haute Couture.

Everything will be my way

Madeleine Vionnet was born on June 22, 1876. WITH early childhood she dreamed of becoming a sculptor, at school she showed significant abilities to 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 the girl, who had not even received a school education, were very vague; life seemed predetermined and did not promise any great joys. However, Madeleine managed to do everything 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 better life. Madeleine was lucky - good dressmakers were needed everywhere, and she managed to get a job at a famous Fashion House. Soon she gave birth to a daughter, but a misfortune happened - the girl died. Soon fell apart and seemed so strong marriage, and then the poor girl lost her job. Desperate, she bought a ticket with her 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 - more than once, and, perhaps, every time fate gave her its favorable smile. Having started working in Foggy Albion as a modest laundress, she soon became one of the most famous women this country, and upon returning to Paris - a recognized trendsetter of fashion and style...

The dress should smile

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

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

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

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

To be honest, putting on such clothes was not easy, and clients had to train for some time to learn how to do it themselves, or every time come to the Fashion House of Madeleine Vionnet in order to... get dressed!

Great experimenter

Vionnet made her main experiments in cutting techniques: she introduced bias cutting - at an angle of 45 degrees to the direction of the grain thread, thanks to which she managed to create clothes with virtually no seams. One day, woolen cuts five meters wide were made especially for her, from which she created a coat... without seams at all!

In addition to the filigree cut, there were also numerous draperies, many of whose secrets have not yet been solved. She influenced the entire fashion of 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 dresses made of silk, crepe de Chine, gabardine and satin were worn by internationally recognized stars: Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo. Each Vionne dress was special, unique and created specifically to highlight the individuality and style of the customer. Fashion designer amazingly managed to combine luxury and simplicity, resulting in that desired harmony that is always in demand... The antique style, which was often used in fashion before Madeleine, found a second life in her collections. It was considered a symbol of elegance during the two pre-war decades.

Innovator in life

A new understanding of clothing as a natural extension and decoration of the figure ensured the insane popularity of the Vionne Fashion House. To protect her unique models from counterfeits, Madame Vionnet began sewing marks with own name- logo, photographed each model from three sides, and later - using a three-leaf mirror, and entered all detailed information about all models in a special album. By the way, for my creative life Madeleine created seventy-five such albums. 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 Madeleine Vionnet’s collection 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 respected and prestigious profession fashion models. In her Fashion House, all employees were provided with the necessary social rights, regular breaks were required, all employees were provided with vacations, and sick pay was paid. At her Fashion House, a clinic, a canteen and even a small tourist office were created especially for the staff! By 1939, the Vionnet House, which produced up to three hundred models a year, employed about three thousand people.

Heritage of taste

However, neither a new approach to fashion shows, nor various social programs, nor experiments in cutting techniques brought Madeleine Vionnet financial success and stability. Second World War blew up fashion business, her House was closed. Madame Vionnet was no longer involved in creating models; she lived modestly, but was keenly interested in everything that was happening in the world of Haute Couture. Her models were sold at auctions for huge amounts of money, which passed her by...

Not having lived a little less than a year before her centenary, she liked to repeat: “Taste is the feeling that makes the difference between what is truly beautiful, what is merely conspicuous, and also what is ugly! This knowledge is inherited - 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 triangle. Her work is the pinnacle of the art of fashion, which cannot be surpassed..."

The secret of style

No one has ever been able to unravel the secret of the ivory evening dress created by Madeleine Vionnet in 1935. It is located in the Paris Museum of Fashion and Textiles and belongs to those wonderful creations, perfect shape which is achieved using one single seam.

Model Sonya in the Bas-Relief model, copied from the dress of the dancing nymph on the ceiling frieze in the Louvre. Photo: George Hoyningen.

She dressed herself impeccably and created stunning outfits for her contemporaries. Its models are known to many; only a few remember the name. Queen of bias cut, architect among tailors, genius of luxurious simplicity. Madeleine Vionnet.

She was born into a poor tax collector's family in 1876, in Cheyer-au-Bois. She dreamed of becoming a sculptor and showed talent for mathematics... But at the age of 11 she became a dressmaker’s assistant. At 16 she moved to Paris, where she became an apprentice to a fashion tailor, and at 18 she got married. Soon she became a mother, but her daughter died and the marriage broke up. Madeleine went to London, where she worked as a laundress, then as a seamstress in a mental hospital, then moved to Kate Raleigh's atelier, which catered to wealthy British women, copying Parisian models. Here she mastered cutting techniques and learned to copy masterfully. And she became famous by creating Wedding Dress for the bride of the Duke of Marlborough.

Madeleine Vionnet created her models on a wooden mannequin.

Returning to Paris, she got a job at the fashion house of the Callot sisters. “Without them, I would have continued to produce Fords, but thanks to them, I began to create Rolls-Royces,”
Madeleine later recalled. In 1906, couturier Jacques Doucet invited Vionnet to update his old collection and create a “youth” department in his House. By this time, Madeleine had already discovered bias cut not only for individual parts, but for the entire dress. And I came to the conclusion: shackling a woman’s body in tight corsets is a crime. And therefore, offering to abandon them, she created a collection that consisted of dresses (she also shortened them!), cut on the bias - at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the base of the fabric. The dresses flowed along the bodies, hugging them. In order not to disturb the harmony, Madeleine demanded that models should wear dresses on their naked bodies. A scandal ensued. Neither Doucet nor socialites Madeleine's revolutionary daring was not accepted. But they were fully appreciated by bohemians and ladies of the demimonde, becoming loyal clients of her fashion house Vionnet. She opened it in 1912. But the First World War broke out, and the House on Rue de Rivoli in Paris had to be closed. Madeleine went to Rome to study the history of architecture and art.

She fell in love with antique costumes. Later, the ancient style formed the basis for many of her collections of dresses with very complex draperies. At the same time, they always coincide with natural lines female body, didn't look heavy. Embroidery was also harmoniously woven into its antiquity, which was located only along the main threads, which allowed any fabric to continue to flow.

In 1919 the House Vionnet reopened. And Madame Vionnet’s brilliant march to the top began high fashion. Her style has become a symbol of elegance. The filigree cut and skillful draperies (many of their secrets are still not solved) delighted clients. House order book Vionnet“bursting at the seams” (perhaps this is also why Madeleine began to create dresses with one seam, or even without a single line at all?). In 1923 the House Vionnet moved to rue Montaigne. The interiors of the workshops and studios were decorated according to the drawings of Rene Lalique, Boris Lacroix and Georges de Feure (he created the famous frieze of figures in the ancient style). In 1924, she opened a branch of the House in New York.

She did not draw sketches, but worked using the technique of tattooing: like a sculptor, she created models on a wooden doll, applying pieces of fabric this way and that. She wrapped the mannequin in fabric, draping it and making sure the future dress fit perfectly. Madame Vionnet believed that fashion must adapt to the body, and not the body “break” under the sometimes cruel rules of fashion. Another of her innovations: wedge-shaped inserts in the hem of the dress, which seemed to break up the geometric structure of the top. This made the model weightless. She introduced other design innovations: for example, a circular cut with curly cuts and triangular inserts. She also “invented” a cowl neck, a trumpet collar, a top style with two straps tied at the back of the neck, and a hood collar.

Model wearing a Vionnet outfit. 1924

This cutting technique required new materials, and Vionnet ordered fabrics of unusual width - up to 2 m. But it was not only a matter of size: more “fluid” materials were needed. Her supplier Bianchini-Ferrier created for Madeleine a pale pink crepe, unique at that time, which included silk and acetate. It was one of the first synthetic fabrics.

Cutting and finishing of dresses from Vionnet were and remain unique. They are almost impossible to copy. Fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa spent a whole month deciphering the pattern and construction of one Vionnet dress. The secret of the evening dress made of ivory fabric, created in 1935, was never discovered by anyone except him.

By the way, about copying. Remembering Kate Raleigh, Madeleine decided to protect herself from counterfeits and Once again became a pioneer. Each dress had a label sewn on it. Madeleine put her signature on it and... her imprint thumb. Each item leaving the workshops was marked serial numbers, lists of those who were officially allowed to copy models were also kept. This is how she launched the copyright protection system in the fashion industry. In addition, before sending the dress to the client, she photographed it from three sides and placed the pictures in an album. In 1952, Madeleine donated 75 albums (plus drawings and other materials) to the organization UFAC (UNION Franfaise des Artsdu Costume). It is believed that it was Madeleine Vionnet's collection and her albums that laid the foundation for the Museum of Fashion and Textiles in Paris. Madeleine was the first to organize real photo sessions in the studio, photographing models near trellises or against the backdrop of antique masks, columns, ruins and other antiquities.

Since 1928, all of Vionnet's models have been photographed in front of a 3-piece mirror to attest to her authorship in “copyright albums.”

Vionnet took her employees seriously, providing comfortable workspaces, cafeterias, nurseries, doctor and dentist work, and paid vacations before it was mandated by law.

...She said: “I don’t think about fashion, I just make dresses.” And she set the tone in fashion for 20 years, until she retired in 1939. The goddess of style left this world in 1975, a year short of her centenary.

The blouse, created from one piece of fabric, retained its shape only thanks to the tied bow.

Her House, revived in 2006, celebrated the centenary. Designer Sofia Kokosalaki became the creative director of the brand. But in 2009, not only the leadership of the House changed, but also its location: the heir to the Italian textile empire MarzottoGroup Matteo Marzotto became the owner of the brand and moved the headquarters Vionnet to Milan. House Vionnet headed by designer Rodolfo Paglialunga, ex-creative director of the Italian brand Prada. But former glory I never returned to the brand. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Vionnet a new owner has appeared - an influential British businesswoman Kazakh origin Goga Ashkenazi. Today she is a 100 percent shareholder of the company. Goga Ashkenazi’s team already includes designers who have worked with fashion houses Ungaro, Dolce&Gabbana And Versace.

Dress from the “Greek Vases” collection, created based on the painting of an amphora kept in the Louvre and a fragment of embroidery famous House Lesage, made for Vionnet’s dress from the “Greek Vases” collection. Tags: ,

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

Madeleine Vionnet

Madeleine Vione became famous primarily for her cutting technique, which involves laying the fabric not as usual along the lobe thread, but along an oblique line, at an angle of 45 degrees to the lobe 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, that’s when Madeleine Vionnet went to work at the Callot sisters’ atelier, where she worked with one of the atelier’s co-owners, Madame Gerber. Madeleine notes that some parts of the clothing, namely small inserts, are cut on the bias, but this technique is not used too often. Vionnet begins to use this technique everywhere, completely cutting out all the details of the dress on the bias. As a result, the finished product takes on a completely different shape, the dress seems to flow and completely hugs the figure. This approach revolutionizes clothing and has a huge impact on fashion in the future.

NOT ONLY A SAILOR, BUT ALSO A CREATOR

Thanks to the vast experience that Vionnet gained while working in various studios in London and Paris, she was able to develop her own style, unlike anyone else. She created a unique cutting technique and thereby was able to excite the fashion world of the 20th century.

Being a modernist by nature, Vionnet believed that the presence of decorations on clothing should be kept to a minimum; they should not weigh down the fabric. Clothing should combine such qualities as comfort and freedom of movement. Vionnet believed that clothing should completely follow the shape of the female body, and not, on the contrary, the figure should adapt to uncomfortable and unnatural forms of clothing. She was one of a small number of early 20th century designers, along with Paul Poirot and Coco Chanel, who created corsetless women's clothing. Moreover, Vionnet’s models showed off their dresses on their naked bodies, without underwear, which was quite provocative even for the Parisian audience, which was ready for much. Largely thanks to Vionne, brave and open to the “new” women were able to abandon corsets and experience freedom in movement. In 1924, giving an interview to The New-York Times, Vionnet admitted: " Better control body is a natural muscular corset - which any woman can create through physical training. I don't mean hard workouts, but rather something you love and what makes you healthy and happy. It is very important that we are happy."

In 1912, Madeleine Vionnet opened her own fashion house in Paris, but after 2 years she was forced to suspend its activities. The reason for this was the outbreak of the First World War. During this period, Vionne moved to Italy and engaged in self-development. In Rome Madeleine became interested ancient culture and art, thanks to which she began to pay more attention to draperies and consistently 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.

Between 1918 and 1919, Vionnet reopened his atelier. From that period and for another 20 years, Vionne 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 studio that the staff working there simply could not cope with such a volume. In 1923, Vionnet, in order to expand his business, acquired a building on Avenue Montaigne, which he completely reconstructed in collaboration with the architect Ferdinand Chanu, the decorator Georges de Fer and the sculptor Rene Lalique. This magnificent building has received the impressive title of "temple of fashion".

Around the same period of time, the women's clothing collection of the Vionnet Fashion House 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. The peculiarity of the American copies was that they were dimensionless and fit almost any figure.

This successful development 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 like Schiaparelli, who at that time employed 800 people, Lanvin, who employed about 1000 people. Very important points is that Madeleine Vionnet was a socially oriented employer. Working conditions in her fashion house were significantly different from others: short breaks were a mandatory condition of work, and female workers had the right to vacation and social benefits. The workshops were equipped with dining areas and clinics.

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

UNDISCOVERED SECRETS

Madeleine Vionnet was an absolute virtuoso when it came to working with fabric, she could create the shape necessary for a dress without using intricate devices and tools - all that was needed for this was fabric, a mannequin and needles. For her work, she used small wooden dolls onto which she pinned fabric, bending it as needed and pinning it with needles in the right places. She cut off the unnecessary “tails” 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 “tattooing” method.

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

Gradually Madeleine further complicated the cutting technique - her best models They have no fasteners or darts - there is only one single diagonal seam. By the way, in the Vionnet collection there is a coat model that is made without one seam at all. When not worn, the dress models were ordinary scraps of fabric. It was hard to even imagine that just using special techniques by twisting and tying these pieces of fabric could be transformed into elegant outfits.

The photo shows a pattern and sketch of an evening dress from the Vionne Fashion House

While working on the model, Madeleine had only one goal - in the end, the dress should fit the client like a glove. She used many approaches to visually improve her figure, for example, reducing her waist circumference or, conversely, increasing her neckline. Another highlight of Vionne'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.

Vionne 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 with an assigned serial number and her fingerprint onto each product. Each model was photographed from three angles, and then entered into a special album with detailed description features inherent to a particular product. In general, during her career, Vionne 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.

MODELS FROM EARLY COLLECTIONS

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  Evening ensemble, Madeleine Vionnet. approx. 1953

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  Evening coat, Madeleine Vionnet. approx. 1935

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. approx. 1937

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  Evening ensemble, Madeleine Vionnet. approx. 1936

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  Daytime ensemble, Madeleine Vionnet. approx. 1936-38

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. approx. 1939

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. Spring-Summer 1938

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  Evening cape, Madeleine Vionnet. approx. 1925

Dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1917

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. Spring-Summer 1932

Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1930

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1939

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1932

Robe, Madeleine Vionnet. 1932-35

Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1933-37

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1936

Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1934-35

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Evening cape, Madeleine Vionnet. 1930

FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

From the moment Madeleine Vionnet opened her Fashion house, more than 100 years have passed, but her ideas are still popular and in demand. Of course, her recognition is not as great as, for example, Coco Chanel and Christivan Dior, but connoisseurs of fashion art know what an invaluable contribution to fashion industry made by this “magnificent in every way” woman. She was able to achieve her goal - to make a woman sophisticated, feminine and graceful.

It's surprising that Vionnet's designs, even more than 70 years after she retired, are still in demand by modern soda. Thanks to her instantly recognizable aesthetic and invaluable contributions to design. Vionnet influenced the work of hundreds of modern fashion designers. The harmony of shapes and proportions of her dress never ceases to inspire admiration, and the technical mastery that Vionne managed to achieve elevated her to the rank of one of the most influential fashion designers in the history of fashion.

SIGNIFICANT DATES

Place of birth: Chilleur-aux-Bois, north-central France.

In 1888, he became a student of the seamstress Madame Bourgeois;

In 1895 he went to London to study tailoring. There he works for Kate Reilly, an atelier that made copies of Parisian models;

In 1901, he began working in the Callot sisters' atelier in Paris, where he learned the strict standards of the art of design;

In 1906, Jacques Doucet invites her to his work to refresh the traditions of his fashion house;

In 1912 he opened his own fashion house;

Due to the First World War, he closed his fashion house in 1914, went to Rome, where he sewed models for private clients;

In the period from 1918 to 1919, Vionnet again opened his atelier and organized trial against a fashion designer who was counterfeiting her designs. In order to protect her creations from plagiarism, Madeleine decides to use special logos, numbers each model, photographs them straight, front, back, and then creates a special album of models;

1939 - after the outbreak of World War II, Vionnet decides to retire. A little later, due to lack of funding, the Vionnet Fashion House closes;

Since 1945, he began teaching in fashion schools in the field of fabric draping.

In 1952, Madeleine Vionnet donated her albums with dresses and sketches to the Museum decorative arts In Paris.

But her fashion house has not sunk into centuries; it still exists to this day. Of course he was destined to experience several purchases and sales. The House is currently owned by Go TO Enterprise, which is owned by Goga Ashkenazi, a billionaire of Kazakh origin.

French fashion designer who had a huge influence on the formation of fashion in the first half of the 20th century. Today Vionnet is little known to the general public, although among specialists she is still considered one of the most significant couturiers in France. The fashion house of Madeleine Vionnet (La Maison de couture Vionnet), who was called the “Queen of Bias” and “The Architect Among Tailors,” opened in Paris in 1912 and in New York City in 1924. Perhaps Her most famous inventions remain elegant dresses in the Greek style and the introduction of bias cut into widespread use.

Madeleine Vionnet was born into a poor gendarme family on June 22, 1876, in the town of Chilleurs-aux-Bois, Loiret, and at the age of 11 she became an apprentice to a local seamstress, the wife of a villager. policeman. At 16, she moved to Paris, where she became an apprentice to a fashion tailor on the Rue de la Paix, full of chic shops, and at 18 she got married. When Madeleine was 20 years old, her little daughter died, which became a source of great suffering for the young mother. Madeleine decided to completely change her life. She left her husband and, under the pretext of studying in English went to London, where she first got a job as a seamstress in a mental hospital, and then moved to the workshop of a dressmaker who served wealthy Englishwomen, copying Parisian models. There Madeleine not only learned the technical wisdom of excellent British tailors, but also learned how to more or less copy this or that style without confusing anyone.

At the turn of the century, she became interested in Isadora Duncan and free form and studied in detail the art of drapery, and then, returning to Paris, she entered into an internship at the famous fashion house of the Callot Soeurs sisters, and honed her skills in the workshops of the great couturier Jacques Doucet (Jacques Doucet). Vionnet said this about the Callot sisters: “Thanks to the Callot sisters, I was able to make a Rolls-Royce. Without them, I would have made Fords.” Thanks to Doucet, Madeleine abandoned the use of a corset in all her models, starting

in and leading a real revolution in the fashion world.

In 1912, after the enormous success of her creations at the House of Doucet, Vionnet opened her own fashion house, "Vionnet", at 222 Rue de Rivoli, where from then on all the fashionistas of Paris crowded. Two years later, World War I forced her to close her home, but that did not mean she stopped working. The models of 1917-1919 were probably the most daring among all that Vionnet designed. Since the early 1920s, Vionnet made a splash with the introduction of the bias cut, a technique of cutting fabric on the diagonal that allows the finished product to flow, gently hugging the wearer's body as she moves. Surprisingly, no one had thought of this before. Vionnet's use of bias cut led to the creation of a completely new, form-fitting and slender silhouette, revolutionizing the women's clothing and brought her to the top of world fashion. The press literally idolized her - newspaper photographs of ladies from high society And famous actresses in toilets from Vionnet.

In addition, recalling the lessons learned in the London workshop, Madeleine Vionnet developed a system to protect her designs from copying, thereby laying the foundation for the copyright system in the fashion industry. She put serial numbers on every piece of clothing or shoe that came out of her workshops, and kept lists of people whom she officially allowed to copy her designs in multiple copies. Thus, descendants had at their disposal an invaluable archival collection, with detailed photographs and descriptions.

every model of Madeleine Vionnet. It was not for nothing that she was called the architect among tailors. Vionnet did not like sketches that did not convey the shape, and preferred to work with small wooden mannequins, on which she recreated the shape of the future dress from a piece of fabric. Madeleine kept the famous figurine in her room until the end of her days and used it to explain the principles of her work to inquisitive visitors. Vionnet took the well-being of her employees seriously, providing comfortable workspaces, a canteen, a nursery, a doctor's and dentist's office, and paid vacations before it was enshrined in law.

Although Madeleine was at the height of her fame, she ended her career the day World War II began, and the following year her fashion house ceased to exist. Vionnet lived another 35 years and died in Paris on March 2, 1975, having lived to be almost 100 years old. She worked with a furious temperament for so many years, what did she fill her life with in retirement? Madeleine Vionnet did not like luxury, but appreciated beauty and surrounded herself with wonderful objects contemporary art. She worked in the garden, enjoyed nature and had very interesting correspondence with friends, including Belle Epoque star Liane de Pougy. Her only connection with fashion was teaching cutting techniques and the rich traditions of haute couture at fashion schools in Paris.

She is buried next to the graves of Russian officers in the town of La Chassagne, where her father was from

pictured is Madeleine Vionnet

Madeleine Vionnet was born in a small French town in 1875 into a very poor family. In order not to starve, she had to start working very early. Already at the age of 11, Madeleine helped a local dressmaker, although in her dreams she imagined herself as a sculptor. When she was only 17 years old, she went to Paris without any education, but with extensive experience as a talented seamstress.

Before Madeleine's career took off, she worked as a laundress, got married and divorced.

Madeleine's radical views on women's fashion at that time became the starting point for opening her own atelier. In her understanding, it was necessary to change tight corsets and fluffy skirts to dresses made of flowing fabrics. The First World War prevented the implementation of plans. But after its end, not only the time changed, but also the attitude towards women's fashion and the new brand gained fame.

Creative Commons

Bias cutting in modeling was used before, but only in detail. And Madeleine began to create collections of dresses entirely cut in this way.

Before cutting the fabric for work, she created mini versions, studying how bias-cut scraps play with each other, using miniature mannequins to do this.

Creative Commons

So, with the precision of mathematics, Madeleine practiced her cutting technique. With tireless meticulousness, the designer created complex, innovative outfits. The creations of the great master's hands looked strange and shapeless on a hanger, but as soon as the dresses were put on, they turned into unique masterpieces with exceptional charm. According to Vionnet, the cut should adapt to the figure, and not vice versa.

Creative Commons

Madeleine Vionnet lived to be 99 years old! Few people know her, but her creation is known to everyone who is in some way connected with the world of fashion and sewing.

Madeleine Vionnet dresses

The bias cut does not lose its relevance to this day. IN modern fashion There is not a single designer who has not worked with this cutting technique.

Features of the bias cut

In a bias cut, the warps lie at an angle of 45 degrees. The fabric becomes flexible and stretchy.

The bias cut provides a special fit silhouette - it gently emphasizes all the curves of the body, while maintaining complete freedom of movement and maximum comfort.

Traditionally, silk and crepe are used for bias cutting. But you can cut almost any fabric on the bias. Even thick wool, to get the necessary stretch in the fabric or to achieve a good fit, such as a collar.

The bias cut allows you to change the position of the pattern and give it an optical effect. This is especially noticeable on checkered fabrics.

Unlike the classic cut along the lobar, it requires much more fabric consumption.

On Burda patterns, the bias cut is indicated by an arrow. And the instructions indicate the consumption taking into account this cut and a detailed description.

For the first experiment, you should choose fabrics with a flexible nature, for example, thin cotton and linen, dress viscose.

Ideal model for pen testing - or .
The bottom of a product cut on the bias is processed with a rolled seam on an overlocker, a narrow zigzag stitch on a sewing machine, or by hand. But, before doing this, they let things hang for a while, after which they adjust (level) and only then process them.

Visually elongates the figure, hides imperfections due to its soft fit and is incredibly slimming.