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 Paris
is the major capital of the world fashion for over a century and this is natural
since France
is the lovely and elegant place that gave to the world so many legendary
fashion designers including Chanel, Yves Saint-Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Paul
Gaultier, and
Christian Lacroix... And yet, Madeleine Vionnet whose collections
influenced the world of fashion to the extent as the works by the iconic Coco
Chanel when the designer solutions turned the vision of women of 20s and 30s
upside down regards to clothes.
When a
woman smiles, her dress should also smile, stated Vionnet some time
back. Theworks by the designer seemed to be revolutionary for the
fashion in France of
30s. Madeleine Vionnet was too brave to ignore and refuse
from girdles, insets and rigid silhouettes, that is everything that
would break
the natural shapes and smooth lines of a female body in favor of free,
light
and streaming fabric resembling classic Greek tunics. Unlike her
contemporaries,
Madeleine Vionnet gave the preference to light and half-sheer fabric
like crepe-de-chine,
chiffon, gabardine creating delicate drapery from the plain meters of
the
fabric that fitted tightly to emphasized the women’s shapes. Madeleine
introduced
the slanting cut minimizing the number of seams required. She created
attires
that required far more fabric and it was too complicated to put them
on. The
customers of the French designer had to train for some time to put the
clothes
on without assistance.
The style of
antique that Madeleine was always inspired with committed to make her
works unique
and extraordinary. The clothes of this designer were never heavy and
solid tocomplain. They fitted the body tightly by the natural shapes
creating the image of a graceful and feminine woman. The collections by
Vionnet
presented the incredible blend of absolute lavishness so much valued by
her
customers and the bare tailoring when the designer never tried to
employ
decorative elements. The foremost and the only decorative component of
the
ensemble by Vionnet were still gentle and flying folds of drapery that
accentuated the shapes.
Madeleine Vionnet
never sewed the models but created in a very unique way: the complicated
drapery that was the signature style of the designer was built immediately on
the mannequin when the fabric was wrapped around the torso and fastened with
pins. A woman then tried the dress acquired in this manner and as a rule the
incredible drapery never required the rework ideally suiting the female body.
During the
30s the collections by Madeleine Vionnet dominated in haute couture till 1939 when
the studio of the French designer was closed on the morning of the World War
II. However, the dresses by Madeleine were loved by the reputed celebrities like
Marlene Dietrich,
Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo. The Fashion House by Madeleine Vionnet worked
for some time only, within 1919 and 1939, the period between two worldwide
wars.
However, Madeleine
managed to turn the fashion canons upside down for these two decades as the
legendary Coco Chanel did in her time. The designer changed the opinion of an
ordinary woman to the clothes she wears that was not the rigid case but the
natural attire to comply with.
The architecture
employed by Madeleine Vionnet in her works tested by the time is still trendy
today as well as in the time of her designing. The collections by Vionnet made
a great influence to the modern designers. Alaia Azzedine, the French designer of
Tunis origin named
Madeleine the source of everything. John Galliano who made the classic slanted cut
revive into the fashion admits that the works by Madeleine Vionnet inspired the
entire generation and even Karl Lagerfeld who always disclaimed authority mentioned
once that «like it or not, everyone is subject to Vionnet». The most reputed fashion
designers used to acknowledge and still admit the invaluable commitment of Madeleine
into the fashion: Cristóbal Balenciaga admitted her as his master to learn from
and Christian Dior once stated that Vionnet could make the creation of a woman
dress into the real art.
The Fashion
House by Vionnet withal its traditions was revived long time after the death of
the legendary couturier and only in 2007 when the Vionnet House was headed by
the designer Sophia Kokosalaki. The native to Greek, Sophia was greatly
inspired by antique silhouettes like Madeleine Vionnet.
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