“What I did is not fashion. It was designed to last forever” said the woman known as the architect of dressmakers. I attended Madeleine Vionnet, puriste de la mode, exhibit last week at The Musée des Arts Décoratifs (107 rue de Rivoli, Paris, Mo Palais Royal). Thrice I was in Paris in the last months, twice I couldn’t attend the exhibit. You imagine how I was thrilled to eventually do it last week. The exhibit lasts until end of January 2010 and showcases more than 130 (fairy) dresses that Vionnet fabricated. I was stunned to figure out how modern the dresses are. They date back to the beginning of the century and they look like contemporary dresses. If you pay a visit, do not hesitate to take the guided tour to understand the era’s context and get full explanation about Madeleine Vionnet’s talent.

A bit of history. Madeleine Vionnet was a French haute couture designer of the first half of the 20th century. She was born in 1876 in la province française. She began her apprenticeship as a seamstress at 11, got married at 18, lost her baby girl at 20. At the end of 19th century, she was yet an early feminist. She left her job, France and her husband and went to London while she didn’t speak english. She learnt british tailors’ renowned techniques at Kate Peilly atelier, which copied French creations. Back in Paris, she got hired by Callot soeurs, the most important fashion house at that time, and later Jacques Doucet. It was at Jacques Doucet’s atelier that she got rid of the corset. It was a revolution. Successful by her own, she opened her fashion house at 222, rue de Rivoli, in 1912. She moved out the house later at 50, avenue Montaigne. Madeleine Vionnet is considered the most influential figure in fashion of the 20th century.

222, rue de Rivoli today

At a time women and their body were not free at all, Madeleine Vionnet unveiled them. She designed apparently simple, yet modern, luxurious and sensual dresses. Madeleine Vionnet dresses’ shape was clean enough to fit either young women or older ones.

At that time, women were way curvier than they are now. The (in)famous corset drew a body considered attractive at that time: comfortable boobs, opulent arms, thin waist, and round hips. While Madeleine Vionnet was round herself, she admired slender bodies. She wanted to free woman from their mental and physical cages. She got rid of corset, padding, stiffening or anything that distorted women bodies. She designed her dresses for women to look thinner using techniques such as layers, loose collar holes or slightly defined waist. You guess how revolutionary it was at the beginning of the 20th century. Remember women in the 20s. I’m not saying you’re that old, but you can see that in movies. This dress below is a revolution.

I remember seeing Elizabeth Taylor or Liza Minnelli with the kind of dress below, but I couldn’t find out pics.

She oversimplified dresses. Women shouldn’t have fitted their dresses. The dresses should have adapted to women curves and flattered – not hide – their shape whatever they did. All of a sudden, corsetless women breathed. No wonder why her first customers were stage actresses/ courtesans. They liked having a freeing and sexy outfit for playing on stage and seducing gentlemen. Obviously, Madeleine Vionnet’s house created great scandal in haute society. Later, she invented the bias cut that created a natural elasticity allowing fabric to draw the body shape giving a sleek and elegant look to the dress.

Vionnet didn’t sketch. Sketch below – keep scrolling down – is not hers. It was just aimed to get published. She cut, draped and pinned the fabrics on dolls 30” tall (80 cm), before doing it again directly on life-size models. One of those dolls is the first thing in sight when you enter the exhibit.

Delicate fabrics such as chiffon, silk, Moroccan crepe, lame, lace, silk mousseline, velvet were materials she shaped into gorgeous dresses. To avoid copies, she used to take pics of her dresses as shown just below. Can you imagine wearing this bare back and halter top few years before World War II. Scandalously sexy yeah.

With Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo or Wallis Simpson as devotees,¬†Vionnet dominated Haute Couture in the 1930s. She was a technical seamstress and a creator. Most of all, she was a woman lover. Her influence over generations of designers is undeniable. Karl Lagerfeld has said in 1974 that “Vionnet has influenced everyone, whatever one says”. Fernand Leger has said that one of the finest things to see in Paris was Vionnet’s cutting. He used to go there when he felt depleted in his own work. Age (she was 63), the upcoming World War II and the end of her lease made Madeleine Vionnet close her fashion house. It’s probably the reason why she’s not as widely known from public as other fashion houses. She died in Paris in 1975 at 98.

I played to find out Madeleine Vionnet inspired creations in the last RTW collections and red carpets. Check it out. (click on the pics to have them full size)

Here it’s the deep décolleté and high waist thin belt

Straight dresses with slightly defined waist. The collar are private school-like, very covering. Halstom orange dress has the same fantasy underneath armpits than Madeleine Vionnet’s. Unfortunately it’s not visible on the pic. You can figure it out at the exhibit. On Madeleine Vionnet’s gown, the side is cut as if it’s opened. Actually there’s a piece of fabric underneath, to cover the ribs.

I find that Narciso Rodriguez dress is very similar to Madeleine Vionnet’s: chiffon collar, black over skin tone, sleeveless. The Marchesa gown borrows only the loose chiffon collar and wide skirt.

Here, the drapé, straps around the neck and fabric belts are look-alike.

The drapé, asymmetric shoulders, uncovered neck, half covered chest. There’s asymmetry on: either the shoulder, or the top or the skirt or three of them.

The wide belt tightens the waist. The deep décolleté.

Oscar de la Renta dresses get the same black over skin color, and lace/ chiffon sexy effect. The 2nd Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera dresses get the same covering private-school-like collar. They look covering at first sight. Actually, they are utterly hot.

Sorry, I couldn’t post a larger pic to make it more obvious. Here, the bouffant sleeves, and tightly covered neck are the common point between those dresses.

The chest band and the drapé

Uncovered shoulders, and covered neck. Those dresses suggest more than they show. Hot!

asymmetrical shoulder for Freida Pinto’s dress. Uncovered chest and covered neck for Halstom and Elisabeta Canalis’ dress. That’s so sexy.

“Insofar as one can talk of Vionnet school, it comes mostly from me having been an enemy of fashion. There is something superficial and volatile about the seasonal and elusive whims of fashion which offends my sense of beauty.” Madeleine Vionnet.

pics from NYT/Style&Fashion, JustJared, NYT, Mus√©e des Arts Décoratifs

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Author: Gaelle