Madeleine Vionnet, Fashion Purist

The Museum of Arts Decoratifs in Paris has published a Visitor's Guide for the exhibit. The Museum possesses one hundred and twenty-two Vionnet dresses, copyright albums, hundreds of patterns made out of cloth, and all the documentation relative to her fashion house. The following are paragraphs from the Guide:

"Madeleine Vionnet drew inspiration from certain dancers favouring the use of flowing fabrics, such as Loïe Fuller who inspired many objects belonging to the Art Nouveau Department of the Musée des Arts décoratifs, or Isadora Duncan who accustomed her public to a free and supple figure. No more vehemently than her colleague Paul Poiret, known for having altogether discarded corsets, Vionnet criticised these undergarments dismissing them as orthopaedic devices."

"Even though Paul Poiret espoused many avant-garde ideas often derived from Oriental dreamlike imagery, his designs were ill-suited to the lifestyle of modern women. Nevertheless, the new lines developed within all the decorative art domains of the 1910s, echoed Madeleine Vionnet’s artistic vision. A less rigid, less ornate, and gradually less constricted figure emerged."

"Dress architecture was at the core of Vionnet’s experimentation. A famous photo shows Madeleine Vionnet striving to create a certain shape for a smallscale wooden mannequin with articulated joints. Given its scale, the fabric was less cumbersome allowing for easier manipulation. In the blink of an eye, the designer achieved an overall vision."

"Dispensing with preliminary sketches, she envisioned a three-dimensional malleable sculpture shaped out of fabric."

"Madeleine Vionnet pursued draping variations, yet abandoned the use offlowing fabric panels in favour of a pared-down approach. Two-meter wide textiles enabled her to eliminate side seams. The fabric was twisted, coiled up, and draped), while cowl collars softly emphasized the chest or the shoulder blades. By the mid 1930s, despite retaining a penchant for graphic interplay), fashion took on a romantic look distancing itself from the rectangular dress shape of the Roaring Twenties, and adopting rounder contours in keeping with contemporary jewellery designs. Skirts cut in the round, puff or balloon sleeves, and wide capelike collars bordering low necklines - known as berthes in French - challenged the antiquity vogue, while stiff fabrics conveyed a historicizing effect."

The 6th and 7th pages within the guide contain photographs from the exhibit to enjoy. English Vogue has 13 articles on the House of Vionnet.

Madeleine Vionnet, Fashion Purist

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