Madeleine Vionnet dresses. School of stylish images and ideas. Life in the UK

Woman couturier...

Even today, in modern world, where every day women win something from men - the overwhelming majority of couturiers are still men.
Now imagine: Woman - Couturier - Innovator and Revolutionary of the fashion world who lived and worked 100 years ago!

Unfortunately, today, Madeleine Vionnet is known to a few, but her creations are known to everyone, those innovations and inventions that she did in those distant years are still relevant to this day.

Madame Vionnet was born on June 2, 1876 in the small French town of Albertville, located in the Alps. Madeleine was from a poor family, so from an early age she had to earn money.

At the age of 11, dreaming of becoming an architect, the girl got a job as an assistant to a local dressmaker.

At the age of 17, she went to Paris, where she got a job as a seamstress at the Vincent fashion house. Due to the lack of education, Madeleine did not have the brightest prospects for the future, but she developed many skills - she became an experienced seamstress.

At 22, Madeleine moved to London. After working for some time as a laundress, the girl got a job in the Katie O'Reilly workshop, which was engaged in copying fashionable French outfits. During this period, Vionnet married and gave birth to a child, but due to the fact that the child died, her marriage fell apart. Vionne, in order to somehow cope with grief, decided to go headlong into work.

In 1900, luck nevertheless drew attention to the young Madeleine - in Paris, she got a job at the then famous fashion house of the Callot sisters, and one of the sisters, Madame Gerber, even made her her main assistant. Working with Madame Gerber greatly influenced Vionnet's mind, later she spoke of her like this: “She taught me how to create Rolls-Royces. Without her, I would produce Fords.

Madeleine's next job was the Fashion House of the famous Jacques Doucet, where the woman worked as a cutter. Despite her obvious talents, Vionnet could not stay in this job for a long time because of her very revolutionary views for that time:

Vionnet offered to do away with corsets, linings and a huge amount of fabric that reshaped the figure.

She believed that the key to a beautiful figure was gymnastics and healthy lifestyle life, as well as the fact that women need to be dressed in simple, comfortable outfits made of light fabrics that fashion models can demonstrate even without underwear!!!

Usually the owners of famous fashion houses are not too fond of cutters - revolutionaries ...
Duce's work ended in a big scandal.

But, as they say: "Whatever is done - everything is for the better ..."

Once again, Madeleine confirmed this statement, deciding in 1912 that it was time to open her own business ...

AND...

Fashion house Madeleine Vionnet appeared in Paris on Rue Rivoli.

Starting your own business is not an easy task in itself, but apart from the usual difficulties, the events of the First World War prevented the full-fledged work of the fashion house, and the atelier could only start full-fledged work in 1919.

Centuries pass, and crises only replace each other...

Interesting...

What would Madeleine say about today's crisis?

simple woman, in love with cutting and sewing with her own vision of the fashion of the future ... Living in a society full of chauvinism and conservatism, during the First World War, when for the first time in history world powers competed among themselves in ways of mass murder ...

Would she give up her dream and wait for a favorable political situation?

After the war, Madeleine found herself in a winning situation, she had a business, the mood in society changed dramatically and the attitude towards clothes, body and ladies changed - now women were finally able to appreciate and understand Vionnet - the new brand gained real popularity.

Madeleine did not know how to draw at all, but thanks to her well-developed spatial thinking and mathematical talent, she created very complex and elegant outfits.

Her assistant was a small mannequin (half the height of a man), on which she stabbed materials until the result satisfied her.

One of Madame Vionnet's main inventions is the oblique cut.
She came up with the idea of turning the fabric at an angle of 45 degrees relative to its base.
An entire era of fashion in the 30s is unimaginable without outfits with such a cut. The oblique cut was used before, but only details were made in this way, because the presence of corsets and overlays did not allow fashion designers to fully realize their creative fantasies. Thanks to her innovation, Vionnet was able to create figure-hugging outfits from flowing fabrics such as satin, silk and crepe. It was Madeleine who made these materials fashionable at the time.

The supplier for the Vionnet atelier was the largest textile manufacturer at that time - the Bianchini-Ferrier factory. Madeleine ordered very wide strips of fabric (up to two meters). Made especially for her new material pale pink - a mixture of silk and acetate.

By the way, a woman has always been rather indifferent to color, her main passion was the shape of the dress, which corresponded to the natural lines of the body.

Madeleine said “When a woman smiles, the dress should smile with her” and they “smiled”, absolutely shapeless outfits on a hanger, looked incredibly lively and elegant on the figure!

Vionnet considered it unacceptable to adjust the body to the shape and cut of a fashionable outfit.

In 1923, the small Madeleine atelier became so popular that it could no longer cope with the huge flow of customers - the workshop moved to a more spacious room on Montaigne Street.

Just a year later, a representative office of the House of Madeleine appeared on Fifth Avenue in New York, and then a branch was opened in southern French Biarritz.

Another invention of Vionnet can be considered outfits, the fabric of which is assembled either with one seam or with a knot. Madeleine designed the trumpet collar and collar, as well as triangular, rectangular and diamond-shaped details. She designed hooded evening gowns and coats lined in the same fabric and color as the outfit itself. This detail found a second life in the 60s.

Madeleine liked to sew dresses from one piece of fabric, they were fastened at the back or they had no fastening at all. It was unusual for clients and they had to learn how to put on and take off these models. 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. Among her clients were Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich.

By the end of the 1930s, Vionnet, having "infected" the whole world with a bias cut, practically stopped cutting bias herself, preferring classic draperies and antique style. Ancient Roman motifs were traced in knots, plaits, complex cuts and flowing forms. This direction of evening fashion was called "neoclassicism". As for draperies, Madame Vionnet was an unsurpassed master here. 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, so each outfit was photographed in detail from three sides, and each was assigned its own number. She recorded all the data in special albums, of which she collected 75 pieces over the years of work in her studio. Later they were transferred by the fashion designer to the Museum of Fashion and Textiles in Paris. This woman became the world's first fighter against counterfeit products.

Modern fashion models should also feel gratitude to Madeleine, it was she who was one of the first couturiers who began to hire professional fashion models in their firms and made a significant contribution to making this profession considered prestigious.

Relations with employees at the Fashion House were built at a high level - breaks for rest in the working day were mandatory.

Employees went on vacation and received financial support due to illness, which was a rarity at that time.

Moreover, she created a hospital, a canteen and even tourist agency for staff.

Unfortunately, every story has an end.

And stories from life are often far from fairy tales, even if they are similar to them...

Social policy had reverse side- despite the success, the company's finances were not in the best best condition- Madeleine was a wonderful, talented fashion designer and kind person but a bad businessman.

The firm, which already did not have stability, was dealt a decisive blow by the Second World War.

Fashion House Madeleine Vionnet closed in 1940.

Madame Vionnet was left almost without funds and after that she lived for another 36 years, being completely oblivious to the public.

Her products were sold all over the world, sold for a lot of money at auctions. Madeleine never saw the money.

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

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 clothes should completely repeat the forms female body, and not vice versa, the figure adapts 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 workout 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".

Approximately at the same period of time, the collection of women's clothing of the Vionnet Fashion House crosses the ocean and ends up in New York, where it is so popular that after 2 years Madeleine Vionnet opens a branch in the USA 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. Very important points is that Madeleine Vionnet was a socially oriented employer. Working conditions in her Fashion House were significantly different from others: prerequisite work had short breaks, female workers were entitled to vacations 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 devices 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 given 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 special success Did not have.

Original entry and comments on

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
.
Everything is more or less clear with the front, 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 straight set aside the distance perpendicularly down, equal to the length from the same point B, but on the front to point C (armpit). Let's move on to the top of the butterfly. It has the form of 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. There are three more curves on the side. Two smaller ones, rushing towards each other and marked with 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: a free girth of the arm and an additional length sufficient to pull the cut of the sleeve to the neckline at point E and still lay it in the folds. 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 ...)
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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 ...

Madeleine Vionnet

Queen cut

Her unsurpassed craftsmanship, unique style, a truly revolutionary approach to women's clothing and delicate taste still inspire designers all over the world: Cristobal Balenciaga and Azzeddin Alaya called themselves her students, and Fernand Léger said that Vionnet's dresses were the most beautiful thing he had seen in Paris.

As often happens, a woman who became famous for her innovative ideas, sophistication and unsurpassed taste did not grow up in such an atmosphere that is capable of instilling a desire for beauty in a child. Madeleine Vionnet was born on June 22, 1876 in the small sleepy town of Chiyers-aux-Bois in the Loire department, in a poor family where the ability to see beauty was not brought up in children, taste was not honed, but only from childhood they were taught to work. Madeleine loved to play with dolls, making them dresses from handkerchiefs and old scraps, for half a day she could wander around surrounding forests. Once, already in her mature years, Madame Vionnet said that the bust of Marianne seen in childhood in the city hall - the symbol of France, traditionally standing in all government places of the country - made such an impression on her that she certainly wanted to become a sculptor: the bust was the most beautiful the thing she saw in her life. Looking for a better life the family soon moved to relatives in Albertville - Madeleine enjoyed going to local school, where she showed good abilities in mathematics, but she had to finish her education too early: her parents considered the girl old enough to earn a living on her own, and at the age of eleven, Madeleine was sent as an apprentice to a local seamstress. Such was the fate of many girls from poor families, but only a few come along this road to the very heights. Who could have known then that Madeleine was destined to become one of them?

At the age of eighteen, Madeleine married a local guy and moved to Paris with her husband - it seemed to both of them that in the capital they could achieve much more. Madeleine was lucky: she soon got a job as a seamstress at the famous Vincent Fashion House. Soon she became pregnant, gave birth to a long-awaited girl ... But the daughter did not live even six months. Together with her, Madeleine's marriage also died ...

The death of her adored daughter was an unusually heavy blow for Madeleine. Who knows what efforts it cost her not only to live on, but also to decisively change her fate. In 1894, Madeleine took the first decisive step in her life: she divorced her husband - for that time, for the circle to which Madeleine belonged, this was an unthinkable act! Having received freedom, she quit her job and went to England.

Dress M. Vionnet in the "Greek" style

Not knowing the language, having no friends, Madeleine agreed to any job: at first she got a job as a seamstress in a London mental hospital. Constant monotonous work was dulling, but at that time Madeleine needed nothing else. But, while working in a hospital, she got acquainted with the basic principles of hygiene and organization of work - all this later was very useful to her in her own business. A few months later, Madeleine, following an ad in The Morning Post, got a job as a seamstress at Kate Reilly's atelier, which specialized in copying Parisian models: Mrs. Reilly bought dresses from famous fashion houses, which she ripped in her atelier, removed patterns and offered clients Parisian models trimmed according to them. wishes. Today it sounds very strange, but then this practice was the most common thing: not all clients, even if they had enough money and taste to sew with French tailors, had the opportunity to regularly come to Paris for fittings. Madeleine, who is fluent in the French school of cutting, quickly advanced to the leading positions in the Reilly atelier - a year later it was she who led the production, being responsible both for copying patterns and for working with clients. Working in the atelier of Kate Reilly, Madeleine Vionnet became a member of the upper strata of society: it was she who dressed, for example, the richest bride of her time, the beautiful Consuelo Vanderbilt, when she married the Duke of Marlborough in 1895. This wedding was such a significant event in social life on both sides of the ocean that the prestige of the Reilly studio rose to incredible heights. When Madeleine returned to Paris in 1900, she had already easily settled into one of the most famous Parisian fashion houses - Callot Soeurs, owned by the four Callot sisters, which specialized in luxurious evening dresses. Vionnet became the chief dressmaker and first assistant to the eldest of the sisters, Marie Callot Gerber, who was responsible for the development of all new models of the company. Madame Gerber worked in the then accepted technique of "tattooing": she improvised her models, draping fabrics on "living mannequins", and Madeleine's duties included, among other things, transferring draperies to patterns. For five years, Vionnet improved her skills in cutting, modeling and tailoring under the guidance of the Callot sisters: “It was here that I realized that fashion is an art,” Madeleine later recalled. “If I hadn’t got here, I would have continued to sew Fords, but now I have learned to sew Rolls-Royces.”

In 1905, Madeleine Vionnet invited the famous couturier Jacques Doucet to work - with her help, he wanted to bring a “fresh stream” to the collection of his fashion house: Doucet himself actively used elements of the 18th century style in his models, in particular, rococo, and the skill of the main seamstress House Kallo, who was fluent in the ability to sew dresses according to latest fashion, was very helpful to him. However, Vionnet did not intend to simply imitate the style of Madame Gerber or copy Charles Bort: her ideas were really new and original. Working for Doucet, Vionnet developed the bias cut, which allowed the fabric of the dress to literally flow around the body, creating a sophisticated, fitted silhouette without the traditional darts and reliefs. Bias cut, which eventually became Vionnet's trademark and brought her real fame, of course, was not her invention: this method of cutting was used before her, but no one had dared to use it so widely before. If earlier one or two details, a collar or sleeves, sometimes skirts, were cut obliquely, then Vionnet boldly used this cut throughout the dress, ultimately achieving a completely unusual effect. Slant-tailored dresses did not imply corsets, paddings, overlays, bones and other tricks that were traditional for that time, changing the female figure for the sake of fashion, moreover, they did not require the help of maids to dress, and after all, self-dressing was at that time the lot of the poorest layers that had no money for servants - Vionnet offered simple silhouettes with refined but laconic lines, so different from the whimsical fashion of the modern era. She believed - and tried to convince her clients of this - that a truly beautiful figure should not be formed by a corset, but by exercises and a healthy lifestyle. In order to emphasize the smoothness and fluidity of the lines of her new dresses, Vionnet refused any layers between the fabric of the dress and the body and demanded that fashion models show outfits to clients at home almost naked, which even in frivolous Paris caused an extraordinary scandal. But Madeleine was attracted by clients who were able to appreciate the innovation of her models: famous actresses and ladies of the demimonde, feminists and suffragettes, among whom were Cecile Sorel, Gabriel Réjan, Eva Lavaliere, Liane de Pougy and Nathalie Barney. Madeleine called them "distinguished members of the frivolous Amazon tribe." All of them remained loyal to Vionne when she finally decided to leave Doucet and found her own atelier.

Dresses from Madeleine Vionnet

Madeleine herself would not have had enough money or determination to do this, but one of her loyal clients, Germaine Lila, the daughter of the owner of one of the largest Parisian department stores, helped. In 1912, the House of Vionnet opened its doors to clients on the rue de Rivoli. However, already in the autumn of 1914, the enterprise had to be closed due to the outbreak of the World War. Locking the studio, Madeleine Vionnet went to Rome.

In Italy, Madeleine tried to make up for the shortcomings of her education: she studied art history, painting, architecture, history, wandered around museums all day long. In ancient statues and drawings, she saw her ideal - clothes that did not restrict movement, did not constrain the body, but freely fitted it, emphasizing the natural beauty and plasticity. This is exactly the kind of clothes Madeleine always dreamed of creating. When Vionnet returned to Paris in 1919 and reopened her fashion house, she offered her clients clothes in the antique spirit: laconic dresses with draperies, cut on the bias. The history of fashion knows more than one period when ancient fashion was taken as a model, but only Vionnet did not just try to imitate the forms of tunics and peplos - she created modern clothes that corresponded to the spirit of the times. Remembering her unfulfilled dream of becoming a sculptor, Vionnet began to create real sculptures from fabric: she sculpted her dresses, achieving an unusual, unprecedented effect: her dresses lived, breathed along with their owner. “If a woman smiles, the dress should smile with her,” Vionnet liked to say.

Coat design by Madeleine Vionnet

She created her models by draping a thin fabric on a special wooden mannequin 80 centimeters high. She took a piece of fabric, wrapped it around a mannequin, fastening intricate folds, and got an amazingly balanced design worthy of an architect and engineer, only at the expense of a cut. Starting from the simplest geometric shapes - a square, a circle, a triangle - Vionnet created dresses that amazed both with the simplicity of lines and the complexity of the cut, which together created an extraordinary harmony of appearance. Vionnet made all the decor of her dresses in such a way that it did not violate the elasticity of the cut and did not distort the lines of the body: embroidery, for example, was done only along the main thread of the fabric, and the fringe, insanely popular at that time, was not sewn on by Vionnet with braid, but carefully sewn on each thread separately. For her dresses, Vionnet ordered special fabrics: the Bianchini-Ferier company produced silk crepes and

chiffons with a width of more than two meters, they were the first to create a fabric from a mixture of silk and acetate by order of Vionnet. And Rodier specifically for Madeleine produced woolen fabrics and velvet with a width of more than five meters. Color Madeleine was of little interest: most of her models are made in shades of white, light pink or golden colors, reminiscent of the shades of marble of ancient statues.

Over time, Vionnet tried to simplify the cut: in her best models only one seam running diagonally, there are no fasteners or darts, and all the curves of the figure were modeled solely by draperies and knots. She even managed to create a coat without a single seam! Sometimes the models turned out to be so complex that the clients had to take lessons on how to properly wear Vionnet dresses - when unfolded, they looked like a piece of complex-shaped fabric and took shape only on the body. If over time the secret was lost, the dresses again turned into mysterious and useless pieces of fabric ...

Tayat. Images of Madeleine Vionnet's dresses, 1920s

Her models for that time were truly revolutionary: Vionnet denied symmetry, excessive decor, the need for side seams: “Does a person have seams on the sides? Why then is it considered that they are so necessary for his clothes? she said. Vionnet believed that clothing should not be an artificial, imposed shell of the body, but its natural continuation, subject to human movements. And if earlier these same aspirations did not find understanding among the public, in the twenties, when a real cult of the body arose, they elevated Vionnet to the pinnacle of recognition. Her style was considered the pinnacle of elegance, and for the next twenty years it was Madeleine Vionnet who set the tone for European fashion. Among her clients were the noblest aristocrats of Europe, from the Duchess of Marlborough to Italian countesses, and brightest stars Hollywood - Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn. It was Vionnet's dresses that largely created that Hollywood glamour, which haunts us until now: flowing satin dresses, open shoulders and sexy bodies under a thin cloth...

Madeleine Vionnet in the process of creating a model

Over time, there were so many orders that the Vionnet company could hardly cope. In 1923, Madeleine moved to Avenue Montagne, to the so-called "temple of fashion" - a luxurious building built according to sketches by Ferdinand Chanu, Georges de Fer and René Lalique, where, in addition to dresses, furs and underwear were also sold. In the same year, Vionnet presented her collection for the first time in New York, and two years later she became the first Parisian couturier whose house opened a branch in the United States. Her dresses, labeled Repeated Original, were sold at the Fifth Avenue store: they fit any size, and only the length could be adjusted directly in the store - in fact, it was one of the first ready-to-wear lines in the history of high fashion.

Vionnet was often compared to Coco Chanel - she also came from the very bottom, also revolutionized tailoring, used new fabrics and silhouettes. Both of them despised the vagaries of fashion, preferring style and craftsmanship. However, if Chanel created “basic” things, those same “fords” that Madeleine did not want to sew, then Vionnet made dresses that were exceptional, timeless. She dreamed that her dresses would remain in the history of art, but she considered fashion trends an empty phrase. “I have always been an enemy of fashion. There is something superficial and vanishing in the seasonal whims of fashion that offends my sense of beauty. I don't know what fashion is, I don't think about fashion. I just make dresses."

Models of evening dresses from Vionnet

Unlike Coco and many of her colleagues who lead an active social life (including advertising their own brand), Madeleine Vionnet was a homebody. She did not like to be in public, preferring to spend time in the company of her closest friends, almost nothing is known about her personal life. In 1925, she remarried - to Dmitry Nechvolodov, the son of a Russian general and the owner of a factory for the production of fashionable shoes, a very imposing but frivolous man. It is difficult to say whether they were connected by passion, fashion for Russian aristocrats (at about the same time, Coco Chanel, for example, had an affair with the Russian Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich) or business. The couple separated in 1942 and never told anyone the details of their marriage. True, Madeleine's reclusiveness and isolation did not prevent her from communicating and even making friends with artists - futurists, cubists and avant-garde artists - whose work had a considerable influence on her. She was friends, for example, with the architect Le Corbusier, the sculptor and designer Jean Dunant and Charlotte Perriand, known for her avant-garde furniture models. While still in Italy, she met Tayat (real name Ernesto Michaele), an artist and designer who developed a corporate logo for Vionnet, and also created sketches of fabrics, accessories and jewelry for her house. In 1924, architect and designer Boris Lacroix became the creative director of the house, having spent fifteen years creating accessories, furniture, bags, textiles and perfume bottles for the House of Vionnet.

By 1925, 1,200 people worked at Vionne - by comparison, Schiaparelli employed 800 people, and Lelong and Lanvin houses had a thousand each. At the same time, Vionne, who herself went all the way from an apprentice to the head of a fashion house, knew perfectly well what her workers needed. The working conditions that she created for her employees were truly revolutionary: mandatory short breaks were provided for in the work, employees were provided with paid holidays, a decree, benefits in case of illness or injury, there was a dining room at the workshops, a hospital in which there was also a dentist, and even a travel agency!

Vionne did not forget about herself either. Her models were so unusually popular that they were copied almost everywhere. Trying to defend her uniqueness, Madeleine Vionnet for the first time in history began to fight for copyright. Vionnet stood at the origins of the world's first organization for the protection of copyright - the Society for the Protection of Fine and applied arts(L'Association pour la Defense des Arts Plastiques et Appliques), created in 1923. All her models were photographed from three sides, and photographs and detailed description pasted into a special album - in her life, Madeleine created 75 such albums, almost one and a half thousand dresses! A company label was sewn to each dress, on which Vionnet's signature and her imprint were thumb. But her models were still stolen - the "pirates" were not stopped even by the fact that many of Vionnet's dresses could be copied, only by rips. The dressmaker of the Russian Adlerberg House P. P. Bologovskaya recalled: “Somehow, Countess Adlerberg went to the Madeleine Vionnet House to buy some of his old shirt models at a seasonal sale. Vionnet created models as if she were dressing ancient statues. We ripped open the Vionnet shirt, put it on the carpet in the living room and saw real geometric figures, there was not a single wrong line. Where there should be a braid, there was a braid, and where there was a straight cut, the line went perfectly even. And according to this pattern, we sewed wonderful nightgowns and dressing gowns.

But Vionnet's innovation was not limited to social benefits or copyright protection. It is believed that it was she who invented the cowl collar and top with ties, dresses without fasteners and a hooded collar, she was the first to sew an ensemble of a dress and a coat, the lining of which was from the same material as the dress - such ensembles will come back into fashion in sixties and still relevant today.

Photo of a model in a dress by Vionnet, Vogue, 1931,

When World War II began, Madeleine initially wanted to move production to America, but then changed her mind. She was already over sixty, and the world around her was changing too quickly. Vionnet decided to close her house: in August 1939, latest collection. Madeleine soon left Paris, only to return a few years later almost forgotten.

She spent her last years lecturing and teaching courses in bias cuts. The public did not remember her, but a new generation of fashion designers was ready to literally pray for her. In 1952, she donated her collection of dresses, sketches and sketchbooks to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the largest such collection ever donated. Cristobal Balenciaga learned from her the art of cutting - he was one of the few who was friends with Vionnet in her last years. Christian Dior called her work the unsurpassed pinnacle of haute couture and admitted that the more experienced he became, the more fully the perfection of Vionnet's skill was revealed to him. Issei Miyake recalled that when he first saw Vionnet's dresses, it was "like a statue of Nike reincarnated." He said that Vionnet "captured the most beautiful aspect of classical Greece: body and movement."

Madeleine lived to see her name remembered again: in 1973, her dresses were presented at a retrospective exhibition of European fashion at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Journalists were surprised to notice that visitors pay much more attention not to the models of famous couturiers, but to the dresses of Madeleine Vionnet. Since then, the Americans Halston and Jeffrey Bean, and the Japanese Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo have counted themselves as students of Vionne.

Madeleine Vionnet died on March 2, 1975. Thirty years after her death, businessman Matteo Marzotto tried to revive the brand, but so far all attempts have been unsuccessful: the queen of cut has remained unsurpassed, unique, the only one ...

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Listen, Madeleine. Love me while you are beautiful. Ronsard Listen, beautiful Madeleine! Today is the day of spring changes - Winter left the plains in the morning. You come to the grove, and again into the distance Healing sadness will call us The sound of the horn, forever new and old. Come! me again

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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 the 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 funded 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 dresses with draperies, cut on the bias, which struck with the simplicity of forms and at the same time were distinguished by the complexity of the cut, for example, dresses sewn 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 amphoras from the Louvre, embroideries for which were designed by the famous French embroiderer Francois 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 fabric by tattooing on small wooden dolls, until she achieved perfect shape dresses. When the idea future model was finally formed, she pricked 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 referred to as 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 from the 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.