Madeleine Vionne(Madeleine Vionnet, 1876-1975) is still little known to the general public, although her contribution to 20th century fashion cannot be overemphasized. Born into a poor family, Madeleine was forced to work from the age of 11 as a dressmaker's assistant. Her young years cannot be called cloudless - she moved from place to place, worked in London and the suburbs of Paris, got married and survived the death of her little daughter. But in 1900, luck smiled at her for the first time - she went to work in one of the most famous French fashion houses of that time - the Callot Soeurs sisters, where she soon became the right hand of Madame Gerber, the eldest of the three sisters, who was responsible for artistic direction. Home. Vionne always remembered this collaboration with gratitude: “She taught me how to create Rolls-Royces. Without her, I would have produced Fords. This was followed by work in another fashion house - Jacques Doucet, after which in 1912 Vionne matured to open her own House.

M. Vionne at work, second half of the 1930s.

Madeleine Vionne's real success came after the First World War, when women appreciated the sheer elegance of her extremely sophisticated dresses. Madeleine did not know how to draw, but she had brilliant mathematical skills and special spatial thinking. She “sculpted” her dresses on a small mannequin half a person's height, re-threading the fabric hundreds of times, achieving a perfect fit with a single seam.


Model of the second half of the 1920s biennium Vionne demanded that the fringe of such dresses, intended for dancing, be attached not in a single piece, but in separate fragments, so as not to disturb the plasticity of the material.

Her most famous invention, without which it is difficult to imagine the most refined and feminine fashion of the last century, the fashion of the 1930s, remains the oblique cut (at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the base of the fabric), which she used from the second half of the 1920s for the product in the whole, and not for individual small details, as it was before. This cut involves the use of flowing, flowing fabrics - silk, satin, crepe. Vionne ordered a two-meter wide fabric from her supplier, the largest textile manufacturer Bianchini-Férier; for her, a special material was invented at the factory from a mixture of acetate and natural silk of a pale pink color.


1920s dresses The wedge-shaped inserts that make the hem "rattle" were introduced with the help of Vionne in the second half of the twenties, breaking the clear geometric lines of the la garconne style.

Madeleine was indifferent to color, but had a passion for shape, which she understood as devotion to the natural lines of the female body. “When a woman smiles, the dress should smile with her,” she said. Most of her creations look shapeless and lethargic while they are hanging on a hanger, but, being put on, they come to life and begin to "play". Her merits include the creation of things assembled with a single seam or knot; invention and popularization of the neck-collar, collar-pipe; cut details in the form of rectangles, rhombuses and triangles. Often, her dresses were a single piece of fabric, fastened at the back or had no fastener at all, and clients were forced to learn how to put them on and take them off.


Such models were the pride of Vionne. The design of this blouse rests exclusively on a bow tied in a knot at the chest.


Once found the idea Madeleine used many times, honing and bringing to perfection. "Rustic" dress, model no. 7207, 1932


Model No. 6256,1931 year... A crepe dress with a bodice that is most difficult to manufacture, woven from strips of fabric, complemented by a cape with cape-like sleeves. Capes have been in great demand since 1930, while wing sleeves came into wide use in 1932.



Perhaps the most famous depiction of Vionne's creation. The model imitates a nymph from an antique Louvre bas-relief inspired by Madeleine. 1931 Photograph by George Goiningen-Hüne.

In the 1930s, she gradually abandoned oblique tailoring in favor of classic draperies and antique aesthetics, thus sharing the passion of designers such as Augustaberbard and Madam Gres. Often, her models imitated antique models and, along with fluid forms, could include ropes, knots and elaborate draperies, and the models depicted celestials against the background of antique masks, columns, ruins and other antiquities.


Dress from a pleated silver lamé with a "yoke" neckline, consisting of rhinestones. The curtain in the background imitates the flutes of Greek columns and echoes the light pleated fabric of the dress. 1937 g.


Ivory viscose satin dress crafted from a single piece of fabric held together by precious bow-shaped brooches. 1936 g.

Fearing counterfeits, Madeleine documented each of her creations, photographing models on models in front of the trellis (front, sides and back) and placing the photographs in albums. During the work of her House, 75 such albums have accumulated, which Madeleine later donated to the Paris Museum of Fashion and Textile. Vionne closed her House in 1939 and lived for 36 long years in almost complete oblivion. Madeleine Vionne was the most talented innovator of her time; there is no other designer who can match her contribution to the technical and technological piggy bank of fashion.

Creation Madeleine Vionne considered the pinnacle of the art of fashion. Her love of geometry and architecture allowed Vionne to create sophisticated cuts based on simple shapes. Some of her patterns are like puzzles that still have to be solved.

Craftsmanship Madeleine Vionne was of such a high class that she was called a "fashion architect". To create masterpieces, she did not need luxurious fabrics and intricate finishes. Vionne 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 work box. There is always a needle, scissors and thread in it. Even when I'm just walking down the street, I can't help but watch the clothes of passers-by, even men! I say to myself: "Here it would be possible to make a fold, and there - to expand the shoulder line ...". She constantly came up with something, some of her ideas have become an integral part of the fashion industry.

Madeleine Vionne (Madeleine Vionnet) was born in 1876 in France in the Loire department in the town of Chilles-Haut-Bois (Chilleurs-aux-Bois) 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 excellent studies, Madeleine was forced to go to work when she was only 11 years old. Subsequently, she bitterly recalled that she was never destined to receive the prize for good studies, which she had hoped for.

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

In 1896, a young dressmaker went to England, where she had a hard time without connections and almost without money. 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), hosted by Kate Rayleigh (Kate Reily)... They made magnificent ladies' outfits, including replicas of Parisian toilets. This place became an excellent school for Madeleine, and she proved herself so well that she was soon able to head a department in which twelve seamstresses worked.

In 1901, Vionne 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 Gerbert ( Marie Callot Gerber)... Subsequently Madeleine Vionne she recalled with gratitude: “Madame Gerbert taught me how to make Rolls-Royces. Without her, I would only make Fords. "

After working for the Callot sisters for five years, Vionne moved to the equally eminent French couturier Jacques Doucet. (Jacques Doucet). Doucet believed that the young and talented Madeleine would be able to bring a new spirit to the work of his fashion house, and promised her creative freedom. But after a while, Doucet and Vionne had disagreements. It got to the point that the employees of the house suggested that the clients not pay attention to Vionne's models!

Madeleine Vionne wanted to make dresses that don't need a corset. She believed that a woman should look slim through sports, not gimmicks. She said: “I myself have never carried corsets. Why would I put them on other women ?! " These were the years of the gradual liberation 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 changes in fashion.

Among the innovators was Madelene Vionne, 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 models released barefoot, which caused conflicting opinions among the public. Vionne also found a fan - actress Genevieve Lantelm (Genevieve Lantelme), who wanted to financially support the young rebel. But, unfortunately, Lantelm soon died, and Vionne managed to acquire her own fashion house only a few years later.

In 1912 Madeleine Vionne, with the financial support of one of her clients Germaine Lillas (Germaine Lilas), daughters of Henri Lillas (Henri Lillas), the 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 a lot of creativity, but lacked business acumen, therefore, despite the fact that dresses from the Vionne house began to enjoy popularity, at first things did not go as well as we would like.

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

After the closure of the fashion house, Madeleine Vionne helped many of her employees find new places, so when her house started working again in 1918, some of the former workers returned to her with gratitude. Henri Lillas and his new companion, Argentine Martinez de Oz (Martinez de Hoz), financed the project again, and Vionne started all over again. In 1922, Théophile Bader joined the fashion house's shareholders. (Théophile Bader), one of the founders of the legendary Galeries Lafayette department store. The fashion house became known as Vionnet & Cie. Business went well, in 1923 Vionne was able to purchase a mansion on Avenue Montaigne (Avenue Montaigne). The number of its employees grew steadily 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, Vionne began making models in antique style. She managed to revive the idea of ​​draped clothing to a new level, to create toilets that fit the spirit of the times. Vionne made dresses with draperies, cut along the bias, which amazed with the simplicity of forms and at the same time were distinguished by the complexity of the cut, for example, 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 Vionne fashion house in New York appeared, located on Fifth Avenue (Fifth Avenue). Vionne was the first, or one of the first, French couturiers to start producing ready-to-wear clothes for American wholesalers. On the labels there was an inscription - "a repetition of the original of the fashion house Vionnet & Cie".

The first perfume was released in 1925 Madeleine Vionne, but soon their production ceased.

The main passion of the designer was the shape of the created toilet, which corresponded to the natural lines of the body. Vionne made sophisticated and elegant outfits. She could 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, Vionne 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 pricked it on the client's figure.

The peculiarity of Vionne'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 Vionne became the most significant master in the work with the fabric on the bias. She is often called the inventor of this cut, when the fabric is rotated at an angle of 45 degrees relative to its base. Of course, the oblique cut was known even before Vionne, however, it was used mainly for individual parts of the toilet. Madeleine Vionne showed that with the help of such a cut, you can achieve amazing results, demonstrated all its capabilities and made it popular. The slanting cut made the fabric flexible and flowing, perfectly fitting the figure.

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

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

It is believed that Vionne invented the collar neck (cowl neck) and loop-neck (halterneck), sometimes she was called "Vionne's drop", a dress with a hood, and also that she was the first to make evening dresses without fastening and sets consisting of a dress and a coat, in which the lining of the coat was of 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, suggesting to tie it around the neck or hips. She created dresses that were 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 a special processing of the fabric.

Vionne attached much less importance to color than cut. She mainly used gentle, light colors. In terms of finishes, that has been kept to a minimum. Considering the beauty of the draperies of Vionne's outfits, they were quite self-sufficient. If embroidery was used, then an area was chosen that did not violate the structure of the fabric and did not break the lines that were formed in motion.

Remembering my lack of rights at the beginning of my career, Madeleine Vionne sought to protect her work from copying, pioneering the fashion industry's copyright system. Fearing that her models would be faked, she photographed each item from three sides and assigned a number to it. All data was stored in special albums. Over the years, Vionne has collected 75 such books. They were later 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 Vionne was one of the first couturiers to hire professional fashion models. She made a significant contribution to improving working conditions, giving her employees a break for rest, paid leave, material support for illness. In addition, Vionne set up a staff canteen at her atelier and brought in doctors who served the employees of her company.

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

In 1940 Fashion House Madeleine Vionne had to close. After that, Vionne herself lived for many more years, being completely forgotten by the public. At the same time, she continued to follow with interest the events in the world of haute couture.

Madeleine Vionne died in 1975, a little before her century.

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

The patterns of even seemingly simple models by Vionne resembled geometric and abstract figures, and the models themselves looked like sculptural works, characterized by asymmetric forms. In the 1970s, fashion designer and researcher of historical costume Betty Kirk devoted a lot of time to the study of Vionne's dresses. (Betty Kirke), and as a result, many of the peculiarities of Vionne's work, which remained a mystery, became clear. 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 Vionne.

In 2007, the Madeleine Vionnet fashion house resumed its work, Arnaud de Lummen became its CEO. (Arno de Lummen). As a designer, he invited the Greek woman Sofia 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 Mardzotto (Matteo Marzotto), the former CEO of Valentino SpA, who recruited Gianni Castiglioni (Gianni Castiglioni), CEO of the fashion brand Marni.

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

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

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


Goddess of style - otherwise you cannot say about this woman. She not only always dressed impeccably herself, but also created stunningly beautiful outfits for her contemporaries: among the most famous admirers of her art were Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo.

O Madeleine Vionne (Madeleine vionnet), which was considered by contemporaries to be the “architect of fashion” and “queen of slanting”, many of whose creations still remain unattainable peaks of haute couture, are known and remembered today by few.

Her design skills and, in particular, her technique of cutting fabrics with geometric patterns, revolutionized the sewing industry. In the world of Haute Couture, Vionne made a splash, introducing many constructive innovations that are relevant to this day: a slanting cut, a circular cut with curly undercuts and triangular inserts, a top style with two straps tied at the back of the neck, and a hood collar. Having studied the cut of Japanese kimonos, she became the author of a dress made from one piece of fabric.

It is believed that Madeleine Vionne's special approach to creating clothes was born from her childhood dream: little Madeleine, who was born in 1876 in the small town of Albertville, dreamed of becoming a sculptor.

However, her family was poor, and therefore the girl was forced to earn a living herself, even before reaching the age of 12: like many French girls from poor families, she went to a local dressmaker as an apprentice.

The prospects for Madeleine, who had not even received a school education, were not very bright. It seemed that her life was already determined and did not promise great joys.

Even the fact that at the age of 17 the girl, who had already become a fairly experienced seamstress, moved to Paris and got a job at the Vincent fashion house did not portend a radical change in her fate.

Little is known about Madame Vionne's personal life. It seems that the tragedy experienced in her youth made her focus only on work and creativity. It is known that at the age of 18 she got married, almost immediately gave birth to a girl and immediately lost her. The death of a child destroyed the young family.

Since then, she (at least officially) remained alone throughout her long life. Madeleine Vionne died in 1975, a little short of her centenary).

Perhaps it was the family drama that made her leave Paris. Madeleine travels to England, where at first she even takes on the job of a laundress.

And only then she managed to get a job as a cutter in the London studio "Cathy O'Reilly", which specialized in copies of popular French models.

However, at the turn of the century, Madame Vionne, despite her youth, was already fully ripe to create her own models, and not work on copies of others.

When she returned to Paris, she was able to get a job in one of the most famous fashion houses for her time - the Callot sisters.

Very soon, one of the sisters, Madame Gerber, made Madeleine Vionne her main assistant. Together they took care of the artistic direction of the company's work. Subsequently, Madeleine recalled her mentor this way:

“She taught me how to make Rolls Royces. Without her, I would have produced Fords " .

After the House of Callot, the woman went to work for the famous couturier Jacques Doucet.

However, cooperation with the master was not very successful. Madeleine Vionne was so enthusiastic about the creative interpretation of fashion ideas that she scared both the couturier and his clients.

So, for example, she eliminated the torturous rigid corsets and various pads that shape the figure. It was Madeleine who first announced that a woman's figure should be shaped by a healthy lifestyle and gymnastics, not a corset.

In addition, she shortened the length of the dresses and used soft, form-fitting fabrics. To top it off, the fashion models who represented her dresses did not wear underwear, which turned out to be too scandalous even for the free morals of Paris.

It all ended with the fact that Madeleine Vionne decided to implement her innovative ideas on her own.

She started her business back in 1912, but Madeleine managed to open her own atelier only in 1919, as the First World War intervened.
In fact, we can say that the Vionne fashion house was able to work only from one world war to another and closed at the turn of 1940-1941.

However, even such a short history turned out to be very rich in bright innovative ideas. Moreover, this revolutionary innovation concerned not only the creation of clothing.

It is Madeleine Vionne who can be considered a pioneer in the fight against such a modern phenomenon as counterfeit. To protect her models from counterfeiting, she began to use branded labels and a specially designed logo as early as 1919.

Moreover, each model created in her fashion house was photographed from three angles, described in detail, and all this was entered into a special album.

In essence, this can be considered a fully qualified prototype of modern copyright. By the way, Madeleine created 75 such albums during her creative life. In 1952, she donated them (as well as drawings and other materials) to the UFAC (UNION Franfaise des Arts du Costume).

Read also your favorite romantic heroine and character

It is believed that it was the Madeleine Vionne collection and her so-called "copyright albums" that later became the basis for the creation of the famous Museum of Fashion and Textile in Paris.

Vionne's main principle is that clothes should naturally follow the lines of a woman's figure; fashion must adapt to the female body, and not the body "break" under the bizarre, sometimes even cruel fashion rules.

Vionne worked only in the so-called tattoo technique, that is, she created volumetric models. To do this, she used special wooden dolls, around which she wrapped pieces of fabric and pricked them in the right places with pins.

When the fabric fits perfectly, the same is transferred to the figure of a particular woman. As a result, Vionne's models sat on women as if they were gloomy, fully adapting to the lines of a particular figure. For her outfits, Madeleine used crepe fabrics, which gave the toilets "fluidity" and lightness.

True, putting on such clothes was not easy, and Vionne's clients had to train specially for some time in order to learn how to do it on their own.

Vionne's main experiments relate to the cutting technique. She introduced the oblique cut into use, in which she managed to make clothes with almost no seams.
Once, specially for her, woolen cuts 4-5 meters wide were created, from which she created a coat without seams at all.

By the way, it was Vionne who invented the dress and coat sets, in which the lining is sewn from the same fabric as the dress. In the 60s, such kits received a rebirth.

Madeleine Vionne's style focused on geometric shapes. When creating her models, she was inspired by works of art in the style of "Cubism" and "Futurism". Her models were similar to sculptural works, characterized by asymmetric forms. The fashion designer often mentioned the following phrase in interviews:

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

In addition to the filigree cut on oblique steel and numerous draperies, many of the secrets of which have not yet been unraveled.

Madeleine Vionne became especially interested in draperies after her long internship in Italy: after the outbreak of the First World War, Vionne closed his salon and left for Rome. Studying the history of architecture and art, in Italy she found a new source of inspiration - antique costumes. Greek and Roman styles served as the basis for a series of designs with incredibly intricate draperies.

pictured by Madeleine Vionne


Madeleine Vionne was born in a small French town in 1875 to a very poor family. In order not to starve, she had to start working very early. Already at the age of 11, Madeleine helped a local dressmaker, although in her dreams she imagined herself as a sculptor. When she was only 17 years old, she went to Paris without education, but with a lot of experience as a talented seamstress.

Before Madeleine's career took off, she managed to work as a laundress, get married and divorce.

Madeleine's radical views on women's fashion at that time became the starting point for opening her own atelier. In her understanding, it was necessary to change tight corsets and fluffy skirts for dresses made of flowing fabrics. The First World War prevented the implementation of plans. But after its graduation, not only the time changed, but also the attitude towards women's fashion and the new brand gained fame.


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The oblique cut has been used in modeling before, but only in details. And Madeleine began to create collections of dresses, completely cut in this way.

Before cutting the fabric for work, she created mini-versions, studied how the bias-cut patches played with each other using miniature mannequins.


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So, with the precision of a mathematician, Madeleine practiced her cutting technique. With tireless meticulousness, the designer created sophisticated, innovative outfits. The creations of the hands of the great master looked strange and shapeless on a hanger, but as soon as the dresses were put on, they turned into unique masterpieces with exceptional charm. According to Vionne, the cut should adjust to the figure, and not vice versa.

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Madeleine Vionne lived 99 years! She is familiar to few, but her creation is known by everyone who is somehow connected with the world of fashion and sewing.

Madeleine Vionne dresses


The oblique cut does not lose its relevance to this day. There is not a single designer in modern fashion who does not work with this cutting technique.

Features of a cut on an oblique

In a cut along an oblique thread, the warp lies at an angle of 45 degrees. The fabric becomes flexible and stretchable.

The bias cut provides a special fit silhouette - gently emphasizes all curves of the body, while maintaining complete freedom of movement and maximum comfort.


Traditionally, silk and crepe are used for bias cut. But almost any fabric can be cut obliquely. Even thick wool to get the necessary stretch in the fabric or to achieve a good fit, such as a collar.

Bias cut allows you to change the position of the pattern, give it an optical effect. This is especially noticeable on tissues in the cage.

In contrast to the classic cut for the share, for, a much higher consumption of fabric is required.

On Burda sewing patterns, the bias cut is indicated by an arrow. And the instructions indicate the consumption taking into account such a cut and a detailed description.

For the first experience, you should choose fabrics with a flexible character, for example, thin cotton and linen, dress viscose.


The ideal model for a pen test - or.
The bottom of the product, cut along an oblique, is processed with a rolled seam on an overlock, a narrow zigzag stitch on a sewing machine, or manually. But, before doing this, they let things hang for a while, after which they are adjusted (leveled) and only then processed.

Visually stretches the figure, hides imperfections due to a soft fit and incredibly slims.

(French Madeleine Vionnet; born June 22, 1876) - French woman couturier. She owns many inventions in the field of fashion, which are still relevant today. Today, Madeleine herself is known only to a few, 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 rue Cadet. Madeleine was 17 then, and her prospects were not bright, because the girl did not even have a school education. However, she has already become an experienced and skillful seamstress.

At 22, Vionne went to London. There she first got a job as a laundress, then ended up in the workshop of "Katie O'Reilly", which was engaged in copying fashionable models of 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 grieving at the loss, and her family immediately disintegrated after the death of the child. Therefore, the woman had no choice but to plunge 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 Vionne her main assistant. Together they took care of the artistic direction of the company's work. Subsequently, Madeleine recalled her mentor this way:

“She taught me how to make Rolls Royces. Without her, I would have produced Fords. "

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

In 1912, Madeleine decided to open her own business, and it was then that the fashion house Madeleine Vionnet appeared on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Though in fact, the full-fledged work of the studio began only in 1919, the First World War prevented him. However, immediately after its graduation, the new brand gained real fame, it was at this time that women were finally able to understand and appreciate Madeleine's views. 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 was called the fashion architect. Her sketches were not born on paper, but directly on a mannequin. True, he was small, half the height of a man. Madeleine meticulously cut through the fabric until she achieved the perfect shape of the dress.

Vionne's innovation

The main and most famous invention of Madame Vionne is the bias 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 design before, but they were used only in details, because dresses with corsets did not give complete freedom to design creativity. Madeleine, in turn, created whole products in this way. This cut gave the fabric a natural elasticity and made it fit perfectly. The material I chose was fluid and fluid, such as satin, crepe and silk. It was she who introduced the fashion for these fabrics.

The Vionne atelier was supplied by the Bianchini-Férier factory, the largest textile manufacturer at the time. Madeleine ordered very wide strips of fabric, they reached two meters. A new soft pink material would have been created especially for her. 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 outfit, which matched 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 Vionet's creations is that they are absolutely 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. So the workshop has moved to a new, more spacious room on the rue Montaigne. The interior of the studio and workshop was created according to the sketches of such artists as Georges de Feure, Rene Lalique and Boris Lacroix.

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

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

Another invention of Vionne was outfits, the fabric of which is collected either in one seam or in a knot. She came up with a pipe collar and a collar, as well as details in the shape of a triangle, rectangle and diamond. She invented evening dresses with a hood and lining in the same fabric and the same color as the outfit. 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 did not have any fastener at all. This was unusual for the clients and they had to specially learn how to put on and take off these models. However, the dresses were to the liking of freedom-loving women, because now they could cope with their toilet themselves, without outside help. In addition, such outfits were simply created in order to dance fashionable jazz and drive a car. Madeleine sewed dresses that were held only thanks to the bow tied at the chest. This outfit was the real pride of Madame Vionne. In general, Madeleine subsequently used each new idea regularly, each time trying to bring it to perfection. Fashion House Vionne was visited by the wealthiest and most stylish ladies of that time. A distinctive feature of Madeleine's products was harmony, which was the amazing combination of simplicity and luxury of her outfits. This is what modern fashion strives for. Her clients included Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich.

With the onset of the 30s, Vionne almost ceases to use oblique cut, and gives preference to classic and antique styles. In this she was not a pioneer, but followed the example of other fashion designers such as Madam Gres and Agustaberbard. Ancient Roman motifs were traced in knots, cords, intricate cut and fluid forms. Models posed as nymphs and goddesses against the backdrop of ruins, columns and antique ornaments. This direction of evening fashion is called "neoclassicism". As for the draperies, then Madame Vionne was an unsurpassed master. They emphasized the figure and did not make the outfit heavier. The secrets of creating some of them still remain unsolved.

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

Madeleine was one of the first to hire professional fashion models in her firms. She made a significant contribution to the fact that this profession began to be considered prestigious. Relations with employees in general at the House of Vionne were built at a high level. Rest breaks in the routine of the working day were mandatory, besides, workers could go on vacation and receive financial support due to illness, which at that time was very rare. Moreover, Madeleine has set up 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 Madeleine's company, in spite of everything, was depressing. She was a great fashion designer and a kind person, but a bad businessman. The company did not have stability and good earnings. The decisive blow to the House of Fashion was dealt by the Second World War, 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 completely forgotten by the public. At the same time, she continued to follow with interest the events in the world of haute couture. Her products were sold all over the world, they were sold at auctions for huge sums of money, from which Madeleine did not receive anything. Vionne died in 1975, a little before 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 ingenious ideas of Madame Vionne. Thus, she determined the development of fashion for several decades to come.

In 2007, the Madeleine Vionnet fashion house 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 hired Sophia Kokosolaki, a fashion designer from Greece. However, she soon left the brand to work for her own name. After her, there was Marc Audibet, who in the past worked on