Madeleine Vionnet is a fashion purist. Madeleine Vionnet - "fashion architect" Special features of creativity

Creation Madeleine Vionnet 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.

Mastery Madeleine Vionnet was of such high class that she was called "fashion architect". 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 impossible to create modern clothes.

Vionne said about herself: “My head is like a working box. She always has a needle, scissors and thread. Even when I'm just walking down the street, I can't help but observe how passers-by are dressed, even men! I say to myself: “Here it would be possible to make a fold, and there - to expand the line of the shoulder ...”. She was constantly coming up with something, some of her ideas have become an integral part of the fashion industry.

Madeleine Vionnet (Madeleine Vionnet) born in 1876 in France in the Loire department in the town of Chilleus-aux-Bois (Chilleurs-aux-Bois) from where the family soon moved to Albertville (Albertville). When the girl was two years old, her mother left them with her father, running away with another man. The income of her father, a tax collector, was more than modest, therefore, despite her excellent studies, Madeleine was forced to go to work when she was only 11 years old. Subsequently, she bitterly recalled that she was not destined to receive the prize for good study, which she had counted on so much.

Young Madeleine was sent to learn to weave lace, cut and sew in a workshop in the suburbs of Paris. At eighteen, the girl married, but the marriage was short, it broke up after she gave birth to a daughter who died shortly after birth.

In 1896, the young dressmaker went to England, where, without connections and almost without money, she had a hard time. Madeleine tried one job after another, from hospital seamstress to laundress, until she managed to get a job at a famous London atelier on Dover Street. (Dover street) owned by Kate Reilly (Kate Reily). They made magnificent ladies' outfits, including copies of Parisian toilets. This place became an excellent school for Madeleine, and she showed herself so well that she was soon able to head a department in which twelve seamstresses worked.

In 1901, Vionnet decided to return home, but not to her native province, but to Paris, where she managed to get a job as a chief dressmaker in the famous fashion house of the Callot sisters. (Callot Soeurs). Madeleine's mentor was the eldest of the sisters, Marie Callot Gerber ( Marie Callot Gerber. Subsequently Madeleine Vionnet she recalled with gratitude: “Madame Gerber taught me how to make Rolls-Royces. Without it, I would only make Fords.

After working for five years with the Callot sisters, Vionnet moved to the no less eminent French couturier Jacques Doucet. (Jacques Doucet). Doucet believed that the young and talented Madeleine would be able to bring a new stream to the work of his fashion house, and promised her creative freedom. But after a while, Doucet and Vionnet had disagreements. It got to the point that the employees of the house suggested that the clients not pay attention to the Vionnet models!

Madeleine Vionnet wanted to make dresses that didn't require a corset. She believed that a woman should look slim through sports, and not tricks. She said: “I myself have never endured corsets. Why would I put them on other women?!" These were the years of the gradual emancipation of women from the corset, when fashion designers such as Paul Poiret (Paul Poiret) Chanel (Chanel) Lucille (Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon), Mariano Fortuny (Mariano Fortuny) and others began to break the usual foundations, contributing to the changes in fashion.

Among the innovators was Madeleine Vionnet, her 1907 collection was too revolutionary even for Paris. Inspired by the image and dances of her idol, Isadora Duncan ( Isadora Duncan, she presented dresses that were worn without a corset, and released models barefoot, which caused conflicting opinions among the public. Found at Vionne and a fan - actress Genevieve Lantelme (Genevieve Lantelme), who wanted to financially support the young rebel. But, unfortunately, Lantelme soon died, and Vionne managed to acquire her own fashion house only a few years later.

In 1912 Madeleine Vionnet, with the financial support of one of his clients Germaine Lillas (Germany Lilas) daughters of Henri Lillas (Henry Lillas) owner of the Parisian department store Bazar de l "Hôtel de Ville, opened her own fashion house on Rue Rivoli (Rue de Rivoli). She had great creative potential, but she lacked business acumen, therefore, despite the fact that dresses from the Vionnet house began to be popular, at first things were not going as well as we would like.

When the First World War began, the Vionnet fashion house, like many others at that time, closed. Vionnet herself went to Rome, where she studied the history of art and architecture. It was there that she got acquainted with the antique costume, ancient Roman and ancient Greek draped clothes became her ideal, which she tried to bring to life.

After the couture house closed, Madeleine Vionnet helped many of her employees find new jobs, so that when her house reopened in 1918, some of the former employees returned to her with gratitude. Henri Lillas and his new partner, Argentine Martinez de Oz (Martinez de Hoz), the project was financed again, and Vionnet started all over again. In 1922, Theophil Bader joined the shareholders of the fashion house. (Theophile Bader), one of the founders of the legendary department store Galeries Lafayette. The fashion house became known as Vionnet & Cie. Things were going well, in 1923 Vionnet was able to purchase a mansion on Montaigne Avenue (Avenue Montaigne). The number of its employees constantly grew and soon reached one thousand two hundred people. Then a magnificent fashion salon was opened in the resort of Biarritz (Biarritz).

In her renovated fashion house, Vionnet began making antique-style models. She managed to revive the idea of ​​draped clothes on a new level, creating toilets that correspond to the spirit of the times. Vionnet made bias-cut draped dresses that were striking in their simplicity of form, yet intricately cut, such as dresses made from four diamond-shaped pieces of fabric.

In 1922, Vione created a collection of dresses "Greek vases" based on the painting of one of the ancient Greek amphorae from the Louvre, embroideries for which were designed by the famous French embroiderer François Lesage (François Lesage).

In 1923, a representative office of the Vionnet fashion house appeared in New York, located on Fifth Avenue. (Fifth Avenue). Vionnet was the first, or one of the first, French couturiers to start producing ready-to-wear clothes for American wholesalers. The labels were inscribed - "repeating the original fashion house Vionnet & Cie."

In 1925, the first perfumes were released Madeleine Vionnet, but soon their production ceased.

The main passion of the fashion designer was the shape of the created toilet, which corresponded to the natural lines of the body. Vionnet made sophisticated and elegant outfits. She knew how to draw and often made sketches with her own hand, and her mathematical talent and excellent spatial thinking helped to bring unusual ideas to life. Sketches were born not only on paper, Vionnet meticulously worked with the fabric by tattooing on small wooden dolls until she achieved the ideal shape of the dress. When the idea of ​​the future model was finally formed, she pinned it on the figure of the customer.

The peculiarity of Vionnet's creations was that her outfits were absolutely shapeless on a hanger, becoming masterpieces on the body. Clients could not always understand how to wear this or that model, so verbal instructions from the creator were attached to the dresses.

At the beginning of the 20th century Madeleine Vionnet became the most significant master in working with fabric on the bias. She is often called the inventor of such a cut, when the fabric is rotated at an angle of 45 degrees relative to its base. Of course, the oblique cut was also known before Vionnet, however, it was used mainly for individual details of the toilet. Madeleine Vionnet showed that amazing results can be achieved with this cut, demonstrated all its capabilities and made it popular. The cut on the bias made the fabric flexible and flowing, ideally fitting the figure.

In 1927, Vionnet opened a school at her fashion house, where she taught tailors the art of tailoring.

Vionnet collaborated with the Lyon company "Bianchini-Ferrier" (Bianchini-Férier), producing excellent crepes. Her favorite fabrics were crepe romaine and a special blend of silk and acetate. In addition, the company "Rodie" (Rodier) produced for her very wide woolen fabrics, from which it was possible to tailor a coat without seams.

It is believed that Vionnet invented the neck collar (cow neck) and a neck-loop (halterneck) she was sometimes called the Vionnet drop, a dress with a hood, and also that she was the first to make evening dresses without fasteners and sets consisting of a dress and a coat in which the lining of the coat was from the same fabric as the dress itself. Another of her finds is considered to be a scarf dress. (handkerchief dress) with asymmetrical hem.

She used the scarf as part of the outfit, offering to tie it around the neck or hips. She created dresses that held only thanks to a bow tied at the chest, as well as dresses with graduated coloring, when one color smoothly flowed into another, which was achieved by special processing of the fabric.

Vionnet gave much less importance to color than to cut. Basically, she used gentle, light colors. As for finishing, it has been kept to a minimum. Given the beauty of the draperies of Vionnet's outfits, they were quite self-sufficient. If embroidery was used, then a section was chosen that did not violate the structure of the fabric and did not break the lines that formed in motion.

Remembering his lack of rights at the beginning of his career, Madeleine Vionnet sought to protect her work from copying, one of the first to initiate the copyright system in the fashion industry. Fearing that her models would fake, she photographed each item from three sides and assigned her a number. All data was stored in special albums. Over the years, Vionnet has collected 75 such books. Later they were transferred to the Paris Fashion and Textile Museum. (Musee de la Mode et du Textile). In addition, she began to put the thumbprint of her right hand on the labels of her clothes.

Madeleine Vionnet was one of the first couturiers to hire professional fashion models. She made a significant contribution to improving working conditions by giving her employees a break for rest, paid leave, and material support for illness. In addition, Vionnet created a canteen for staff at her atelier and attracted the cooperation of doctors who served the employees of her enterprise.

However, the financial condition of the Vionnet Fashion House, in spite of everything, was getting worse and worse. She was a talented fashion designer and a good person, but an unimportant businessman. The Second World War dealt a decisive blow to the Fashion House, the business was undermined.

In 1940 the Fashion House Madeleine Vionnet had to close. Vionne herself after that lived for many more years, being completely oblivious to the public. At the same time, she continued to follow the events in the world of high fashion with interest.

Madeleine Vionnet died in 1975, a little short of her century.

In the 1980s and 1990s, fashion designers often turned to Vionnet's brilliant ideas. She determined the development of fashion for several decades to come.

The patterns of even seemingly simple, at first glance, Vionnet models resembled geometric and abstract figures, and the models themselves looked like sculptural works, distinguished by asymmetric forms. In the 1970s, fashion designer and researcher of historical costume Betty Kirk devoted a lot of time to studying Vionnet's dresses. (Betty Kirke) and as a result, many features of Vionnet's work that remained a mystery cleared up. Once upon a time fashion designer Azzedine Alaya (Azzedine Alaia) spent a whole month to decipher the pattern and construction of one of the dresses Madeleine Vionnet.

In 2007, the fashion house Madeleine Vionnet resumed its work again, with Arnaud de Lummen as its CEO. (Arno de Lummen). As a designer, he invited the Greek Sophia Kokosalaki (Sophia Kokosolaki). However, she soon left the brand to work for her own name.

Since 2009, the Vionnet brand has been owned by the Italian Matteo Marzotto (Matteo Marzotto) former CEO of Valentino SpA, who hired Gianni Castiglioni (Gianni Castiglioni) CEO of fashion brand Marni.

Then Rodolfo Paglialunga became the new creative director of the house. (Rodolfo Paglialunga), who previously represented the fashion brand Prada, and in 2011 he was replaced by Barbara and Lucia Croce (Barbara and Lucia Croce) previously worked in the houses of Prada and Ralph Lauren.

In 2012, the ex-wife of American millionaire Stefan Ashkenazy, entrepreneur and socialite Goga Ashkenazy, acquired a controlling stake in the company working with the Vionnet brand. (Goga Ashkenazi, maiden name Gaukhar Berkaliyeva).

In 2014, fashion designer Hussein Chalayan began working with the Vionnet brand. (Hussein Chalayan). The first show of the new collection took place on January 21, 2014.

Name Madeleine Vionnet little known in wide circles. A genius and classic of fashion, she created unique dresses for aristocrats and bohemians, and therefore now her name serves as a kind of password among fans of high fashion.

Madeleine Vionnet (1876 - 1975) - Madeleine Vionnet was born on June 22, 1876 into a poor family.

was a famous French fashion designer. She has been called the "Queen of Bias" and "the tailor's architect". Born into a poor family in Chilleurs-aux-Bois, Vionnet started working as a seamstress at the age of 11.

From childhood, Madeleine dreamed of becoming a sculptor, and at school she showed great ability in mathematics, but poverty forced the girl to leave school and become a dressmaker's assistant. At the age of 17, Madeleine got married and moved to Paris with her husband in search of a better life. Things were going well for the young: Madeleine got a job at the famous Vincent Fashion House and soon became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. However, here fortune turned away from the young dressmaker: the girl died, the marriage broke up and she lost her job.At 18, she left her husband....

In such conditions, Madeleine decided on a desperate act: with the last money, not knowing the language, she left for England.
Pretty quickly, Madeleine got a job at Kat Reilly's atelier (as a seamstress), which was engaged in copying Parisian models. Thanks to Madeleine for one year the institution became famous and prosperous. The biggest success of the atelier was the wedding dress created by Vionnet for the bride of the Duke of Marlborough.

After this triumph, Madeleine Vionnet was invited to work for her sister Callot. Vionnet became the main assistant to her older sister, Madame Marie Gerber, and thanks to her she was able to understand the cutting technique and the fashion world in all its subtleties.
In 1906, fashion designer Jacques Duse invited Vionnet to update his old collection. Madeleine removed the corsets and shortened the length of the dresses, which caused displeasure of the couturier.
Then Vionnet created her first own collection. The dresses were cut "along the bias", which gave the products additional flexibility and made it possible to fit the figure, similar to knitwear unknown at that time. During the show, Madeleine did not want to break the harmony of the lines, and she demanded that the fashion models wear a dress on a naked body.

A scandal followed that attracted the attention of free-thinking women, bohemians and demi-monde ladies to Madeleine's models. Thanks to these clients, Madeleine was able to create her own fashion house.
It opened in 1912. That's when Vionnet was able to bring to life their most diverse ideas. Madeleine's favorite method was cutting "along the bias", i.e. at an angle of 45% to the direction of the shared thread, for which she was called the "master of the oblique cut." Vionnet rarely drew her models, usually she made sketches by pinning fabric on a mannequin about 80 cm high, and then enlarged the resulting pattern and created another masterpiece. Models managed with a minimum of seams, and the relief was achieved through a variety of draperies and folds. Madeleine admired the clothes of the ancient Greeks, but she argued that modern people should go further in the ability to create clothes. And she developed the art of drapery and tailoring to incredible heights. Each Vionnet dress was special, inimitable and specially created to emphasize the individuality and style of the customer: "If a woman smiles, the dress should smile with her."
However, Madeleine Vionnet's dresses were a real puzzle. Many clients had to turn to a fashion designer to learn how to put on a dress. Patterns of even simple, at first glance, things from Vionnet resembled geometric and abstract shapes. To decipher the pattern and construction of one dress from Vionnet, fashion designer Azedine Allaya spent a whole month!

Madeleine herself saw her creations as simple, so since 1920 she tried to protect herself from fakes: before getting to the client, each dress was photographed from three sides and the pictures were placed in the "Copyright Album". In total, during the work of the Vionnet Fashion House, 75 such albums have accumulated, on the pages of which about one and a half thousand models are displayed.

Each dress was labeled with Madeleine's signature and thumbprint, an idea better than hologram stickers, which hadn't been invented yet. Vionnet tried not to give her models to stores, fearing that they would be copied, but she regularly arranged sales of old collections, which were as popular as shows.

Madeleine Vionnet's personal life was unsuccessful. In 1923 she married Dmitry Nechvolodov, with whom she broke up in 1943, and spent the rest of her life alone.

In 1939, Vionnet released the last collection and closed her fashion house.

Madeleine lived for 99 years, remaining cheerful and in a clear mind. Until the last days, she lectured to young fashion designers who literally prayed for her.

Madeleine Vionnet spoke about fashion like this: “I have always been an enemy of fashion. There is something superficial and disappearing in her seasonal whims that offends my sense of beauty. I don’t think about fashion, but just make dresses.”

Of the several thousand products of Vionnet, not so many things survived. What was left became an adornment of fashion museums in Paris, London, Tokyo, Milan and private collections.

patterns of trousers on an oblique and dresses with a scarf.

Vionnet puff sleeve dress:

Analysis of the dress shown by Hecuba in the topic Interesting sleeves "post No. 7, where the back goes into the sleeves draped at the gate.
I apologize in advance for the unprofessionalism of the professionals.
We make a pattern of a tight-fitting bodice. She sits well

We introduce new lines (green, cut along them). One on the shelf - from the top of the chest to the navel (H), the second on the back from the middle of the bottom of the back (A) through the top of the waist tuck to the intersection with the armhole line. Here we put point B, and it is individual for everyone. Having closed all the tucks, cut along these lines. We bend the shelf where we want to see the cutout (for example, where the width of the chest is measured, very nice). We put point E, it is also individual. We put point C strictly under the armpit. As a result, we got an almost triangular segment from the back and a breast, which takes on this form
.
With the front, everything is more or less clear, but the back-collar-sleeves, which look like a butterfly ("Interesting sleeves, post No. 7, Fig. 3), must be designed. It is based on this segment of the back. From point B we are strictly perpendicularly downwards we set aside a distance equal to the length from the same point B, but on the front to point C (armpit).Go to the upper part of the butterfly.It looks like a long relatively horizontal curve, slightly rising up.The height of this "up" is equal to the distance from the top of the back to the level of the middle of the shoulder + the distance from the middle of the shoulder perpendicularly down to the level of point C. The length of this curve is equal to the distance from the top of the back forward through the shoulder and down to point E (cutout) + the distance from E to C. Three more curves remain The two smaller ones, rushing towards each other and marked CD, are the sides of the sleeve that need to be sewn. According to their proportions, about 20 cm. Now a long relatively vertical curve. Its length should include the following: free arm circumference and more extra length, enough to pull the cut of the sleeve to the neckline at point E and still lay it in the pleats. In this case, the back of the sleeve should be longer, closer to the floor than this panel in front, so the butterfly has just that kind of look.
We start collecting. The corners of the shelf, going to the back, should converge at point A.

We begin to mount the back-butterfly there. We connect the back and shelf along the line AB. got wings
.
Adjusting the straight BC from the butterfly to the BC curve on the main body.
.
We throw the protruding wings forward over the shoulders and first fix the points E to each other, and then connect the EC lines. Sleeves have formed, which we sew (or first we sew the sleeves, and then we throw them forward ...)
.
Now we lift the edge of the sleeve to the cutout at point E and make a fold.
.
Here I couldn’t do it to the end, the shoulder girdle of the doll turned out to be too wide.
And that's it. Surely d.b. very beautiful, I'll do it for myself, it covers my hands, a very winning dress ...
Sorry if I was talking about the obvious. but I'm so engrossed in the process...
I'm afraid the pictures are too big, but it seems to have measured ...

Paris.chance continues the series of articles on Bertrand Meyer-Stable's book “12 Couturiers. Legendary Women Who Changed the World. As we have noted more than once, the first half of the 20th century turned out to be generous with talents, the scale of which seems to us great even from the standpoint of today.

Today our heroine is M Adlen Vionnet (Madeleine Vionnet), which is rightly called the "architect of fashion". Although her name is not as well known to the general public as the names of Coco Chanel or Elsa Schiaparelli, and in fashion magazines over the past half century it has not often flashed, but! fashion professionals - Balenciaga, Dior, Alaya, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto admired her genius. Why? This is our story today.

Madeleine Vionnet- a talented child of the French province, all her life she shunned Parisian gloss and fashionable PR campaigns. On the other hand, completely aristocratic perfectionism and a mathematical mindset allowed her to create true masterpieces. As Bertrand Meyer-Stable writes, “Madeleine Vionnet has simple tastes: she recognizes only the best and most beautiful. It requires from suppliers not even an exclusive product, but one that no one else had. The history of Madeleine Vionnet is full of accidents, which, upon closer examination, look quite natural. As a child, she was so talented in her studies that even the local press wrote about her. Probably, innate perfectionism had already affected, therefore, having got into a modest sewing workshop as a student, Madeleine showed amazing perseverance and craving for excellence. Then in her life there were Paris, London and again Paris. At the age of twenty-five, Madeleine went to work in a fashion house. Callot. Madeleine herself gave the best description of this period of her work, or rather, the period of developing professional skills: “Thanks to the Kallo sisters, I was able to make Rolls-Royces. If it weren't for them, I would make "Fords".
Her outfits, indeed, were the Rolls-Royces of fashion. At first, there were more thorns than stars, and she had to innovate, overcoming the misunderstanding of her colleagues.

Only when she opened her own business, she realized the beauty of creativity "without quarrels, without constant exhausting struggle." But the real story of the fashion house Vionnet began after the First World War. What can be said about aesthetics Madeleine Vionnet? She has a mathematical mindset, so her patterns are more like puzzles, which are almost impossible to repeat. For her, fashion is the art of wrapping a woman in fabric and ensuring that the woman and the fabric reveal and emphasize each other's advantages to the maximum. Each fabric lays down in its own way, and it is necessary to carefully study it in order to lay it on the bias, perfectly adapting to the female figure. Here you need a jeweler's precision cut, optimal proportions and, of course, a worthy figure of the model! However, in the 30s of the twentieth century, a sporty lifestyle, a healthy tan and a smart appearance gained popularity.

Let's give Madeleine the floor: “My most important finding is the asymmetry. I was the first to cut the fabric diagonally. My colleagues at first stated that this was a senseless deterioration of the fabric .... and then many of them began to do the same. But in order for you to succeed with an oblique cut, you need to have the makings of a sculptor, a sense of volume.

Fashion historians see her place between Paul Poiret and Gabrielle Chanel - "she is a bright, irresistibly attractive point in space, separating these two stylistic and ideological opposites." If Chanel is democratic, then Vionnet is what the French call sur mesure (by measure, i.e. individually). Her dresses are sewn for specific women, but they sit on them so flawlessly that the model can do not only without a corset, but also without a bra, which was a kind of revolution at that time!

Madeleine Vionnet, Evening Dress, 1934, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The marvelous drapery in the style of ancient statues lays down without any fastenings, being solely the result of a unique cut and a special system of donning. In the twenties and thirties, the rivalry between Madeleine Vionnet and Coco Chanel emerged. Let's just say that the clients were divided into two friendly camps: one was impressed by frank luxury, even if it was easily copied by all and sundry, while the other was close to the idea of ​​perfection - that discreet and inimitable perfection that organically merges with a woman, highlighting her from the general series.

Bertrand Meyer-Stable writes about this: "Madeleine Vionnet is a purist with a virtuoso cutting technique, while Chanel should rather be called a stylist, the creator of modern women's uniforms and a comfortable silhouette."

Madeleine Vionnet created a unique bias cut method that was difficult to copy. In one of her letters she writes: “I myself invented a new cutting system, and now I have become its slave.” To reproduce some dress Vionnet, it had to be torn apart, laid out in parts on the table and reassembled. But at the same time, there were a lot of details, including decorative trim, which was completely uncopyable. Curious fact: American wholesalers bought a batch of models Vionnet with a specific goal - to organize their production overseas. As you know, during this period, clothing production in the United States was already automated, dresses were practically not sewn by hand.

Madeleine Vionnet, Quatre Mouchoirs Dress, Winter 1920

But it turned out that the machine was not capable of copying Vionnet products, and the American couturiers did not have the slightest chance to keep up with the Parisian fashion house. Under the pressure of their clientele, overseas buyers were forced to purchase original models, regardless of the price. The price was definitely high. But the products Vionnet did not apply to consumer goods! Among clients at home Vionnet you can list such wonderful ladies as poetess Natalie Barney, Princess Natalia Paley, Princess Marina of Greece, wife of car magnate Christine Louis-Reno, ....

You can not ignore the device of a fashion house Vionnet. Of course, the creative process required dedication and painstaking work. The house was arranged in accordance with the guild hierarchy, which allowed for accuracy and order. Madeleine Vionnet paid great attention to the organization of the work of her workers - comfortable chairs, spacious workshops, services unheard of at that time: medical office, dentist services, library, nursery. The company has a system of warranty service. If a disgruntled customer called, a truck with a driver dressed in a smart Vionnet uniform would immediately go to her and pick up the dress for troubleshooting.

Being a stranger "Parisian snobbery Coco Chanel", Madeleine Vionnet eschewed fashion trends, did not make loud connections, but the great Rene Lalique, taking over the interior design of the house Vionnet. As a result, the interior was as perfect as the Madeleine Vionnet models.

Madeleine Vionnet set the tone for Parisian fashion right up to 1936. Safely surviving the craze for Art Nouveau geometric silhouettes and the return to the waist and sculptural forms, she created in full force. According to Azzedine Alaya, “Madeleine Vionnet created her best things in the thirties, they were dresses with fantastic draperies, absolutely modern, because they are not sewn to the fabric and are not fixed at all, they have to be re-invented every time you put on a dress.”

The second half of the thirties brought adjustments to the life of Europe. Ignoring the working conditions that Madame Vionnet created for them, her workers joined the general strike. It was as if a crack had passed through life ... There was a second divorce. The war was coming. Madeleine Vionnet was already in her seventies, and she decided to retire. She was destined to live another thirty years in modesty and provincial oblivion, pleasantly surprised by the fact that her outfits are exhibited in many museums around the world.

If you had to make a film about the life of Madeleine Vionnet, then you need to start with the image of an old wise lady who recalls her past with light sadness. About the revolutionary past in Parisian fashion. With her work, she made an invaluable contribution to the formation of the image of a modern woman, for whom the desire for excellence is as natural as for Madeleine Vionnet.

(French Madeleine Vionnet; born June 22, 1876) - French couturier. She owns many inventions in the field of fashion, which are still relevant today. Today, only a few know Madeleine herself, but her creations are familiar to everyone. This woman made a huge contribution to the development of fashion in the twentieth century.

Biography and career

Madame Vione was born in 1876 in the small French town of Albertville, which is located in the Alps. Madeleine was from a very poor family, so she had to start earning money herself early. She dreamed of being a sculptor, but at the age of 11, the girl became an assistant to a local dressmaker. Then she went to Paris, where she got a job as a seamstress at the Vincent Fashion House on Cadet Street. Madeleine was then 17, and her prospects were not bright, because the girl did not even have a school education. However, she has already become an experienced and skilled seamstress.

At 22, Vionnet went to London. There, she first got a job as a laundress, then got into the Katie O'Reilly workshop, which was engaged in copying fashionable clothes from France. Fate presented her with many difficulties and problems. Madeleine married an emigrant from Russia, gave birth to a daughter, but she died at a very young age. Vionne was very upset by the loss, and her family immediately fell apart after the death of the child. Therefore, the woman had no choice but to go headlong into work and creativity.

For the first time, luck turned to face a woman in 1900. It was in Paris when Madeleine began working in the then famous fashion house of the Callot sisters (). Very soon, one of the sisters, Madame Gerber, made Madeleine Vionnet her main assistant. Together they managed the artistic part of the company's work. Subsequently, Madeleine recalled her mentor as follows:

“She taught me how to build Rolls-Royces. Without her, I would produce Fords.

After the House of Callot, the woman went to work for the famous Jacques Doucet. There she was a tailor. But the work of the master of fashion was not successful for the girl. She, with her enthusiasm and creative impulse, slightly discouraged and frightened Jacques Doucet himself, as well as his clients. Vionnet offered to do away with rigid corsets, various linings and frills that reshaped the figure. She believed that it was not a corset that should give a woman harmony, but gymnastics and a healthy lifestyle. Madeleine suggested sewing simple, comfortable outfits made of soft fabrics, and those who showed them had to be without underwear. Such views were truly revolutionary for that time. And Duce's work ended in a big scandal.

In 1912, Madeleine decided to open her own business, and it was then that the Madeleine Vionnet fashion house appeared on Rivoli Street in Paris. Although in fact, the full-fledged work of the studio began only in 1919 interrupted by the First World War. However, immediately after its completion, the new brand gained real fame, it was at this time that women were finally able to understand and appreciate the views of Madeleine. Time has changed, and with it the attitude towards ladies, their bodies and clothes has changed.

Madeleine created very sophisticated and elegant outfits. She did not know how to draw at all, but her mathematical talent and excellent spatial thinking helped Viona create masterpieces. Subsequently, this woman began to be called a fashion architect. Her sketches were born not on paper, but directly on a mannequin. True, he was small, half the height of a man. Madeleine meticulously pierced the fabric until she achieved the perfect shape of the dress.

Vionnet innovation

The main and most famous invention of Madame Vionnet is the oblique cut. She came up with the idea of ​​turning the fabric at an angle of 45 degrees relative to its base. Without outfits with such a cut, it is impossible to imagine the fashion of the 30s. Similar techniques were used in clothing modeling before, but they were used only in detail, because dresses with corsets did not give full freedom to design creativity. Madeleine, in turn, created entire products in this way. This cutting endowed the fabric with natural elasticity and gave it the opportunity to perfectly fit the figure. The material she chose was fluid and flowy, such as satin, crepe and silk. It was she who introduced the fashion for these fabrics.

The supplier for the Vionnet atelier was the Bianchini-Férier factory, the largest textile manufacturer at that time. Madeleine ordered very wide strips of fabric, they reached two meters. Especially for her, a new material of pale pink color would be created. It was a mixture of silk and acetate. However, the shade was of little interest to this woman, she was always rather indifferent to color. Madeleine's main passion was the shape of the dress, which corresponded to the natural lines of the body. On this occasion, she liked to say:

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

The peculiarity of Madame Vione's creations is that they are completely shapeless on a hanger, but incredibly lively and elegant when worn. After all, Madeleine considered the main task of fashion to be adaptation to a person, to his needs and requirements. In no case should the body adapt to the shape and cut of a fashionable outfit.

In 1923, Madeleine's small atelier became so popular that it could no longer cope with the huge flow of customers. That's why the workshop moved to a new, more spacious room on Montaigne street. The interiors of the studio and workshop were designed by artists such as Georges de Feure, Rene Lalique and Boris Lacroix.

A year later, a representative office of the House of Madeleine appeared in New York, located on Fifth Avenue. And then a branch was opened in the southern French Biarritz - the richest people in the world gathered at this resort.

In 1925, the first Madeleine Vionnet perfume appeared., but their release did not last long, and they were soon forgotten about.

Another invention of Vionnet was outfits, the fabric of which was assembled either with one seam or with a knot. She came up with a trumpet collar and collar, as well as details in the form of a triangle, rectangle and rhombus. She invented hooded evening gowns lined in the same fabric and color as the outfit itself. This detail found a second life and a new heyday in the 60s.

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).

With the onset of the 30s, Vionnet almost ceases to use oblique cut, and gives preference to the classic and antique style. In this she was not a pioneer, but followed the example of other fashion designers such as Madame Gres and Agustaberbard. Ancient Roman motifs were traced in knots, plaits, complex cuts and flowing forms. Fashion models posed as nymphs and goddesses against the backdrop of ruins, columns and antique ornaments. This direction of evening fashion was called "neoclassicism". As for draperies, then Madame Vionnet was an unsurpassed master. They emphasized the figure and did not weigh down the outfit. The secrets of creating some of them are still unsolved.

Madeleine Vionnet was afraid that her creations would be forged and ideas stolen. Therefore, each product was photographed in detail from three sides, and each was assigned its own number. The fashion designer kept all the data in special albums. For all the years of work in her atelier, Madeleine has collected 75 such books. Later they were transferred to the Paris Fashion and Textile Museum. This woman became the world's first fighter against counterfeit products. The works were for Vionnet as works of art, she believed that they should live forever, like the canvases of artists, and only add value over time.

Madeleine was one of the first who began to hire professional fashion models in their firms. She made a significant contribution to the fact that this profession began to be considered prestigious. Relations with employees in general in the House of Vionne were built at a high level. Breaks for rest in the working day were mandatory, in addition, employees could go on vacation and receive material support due to illness, which was very rare at that time. Moreover, Madeleine created a hospital, a canteen and even a travel agency for employees at her atelier.

The Decline of the House of Madeleine Vionnet

However, the financial condition of the Madeleine company, in spite of everything, was depressing. She was an excellent fashion designer and a kind person, but a bad businessman. The company did not have stability and good earnings. The Second World War dealt a decisive blow to the Fashion House, it completely undermined the business.

Fashion House Madeleine Vionnet was closed in 1940, she herself was left almost without funds and after that she lived for 36 years, being in complete oblivion of the public. At the same time, she continued to follow the events in the world of high fashion with interest. Her products were sold all over the world, they were sold at auctions for a lot of money, from which Madeleine received nothing. Vionnet died in 1975, a little short of her century. This woman had impeccable taste, she herself always looked perfect and perfectly dressed her clients. Her style was borrowed by contemporaries and other designers. She was the main trendsetter of all Parisian fashion throughout the 20s and 30s of the last century.

New life

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 was Marc Odibe (Marc Audibet), who in the past worked for