Madeleine Vionnet — the legendary creator of the “oblique cut”
Do you know who invented the 45-degree rotation of fabric when cutting?
Sit back and let us tell you about the talented woman of her century, Madeleine Vionnet.
Vionnet was one of the leading fashion designers of the 1910s and 1940s. She was crowned “queen of fashion” and “architect of fashion” and in 1919 she was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest honor.
A woman with a difficult fate, but a strong character — already at the age of 11 young Madeleine began working as a seamstress to support herself. To make its way to the pinnacle of fame has helped her innate perfectionism, passion, and an incredible sense of beauty.
Early in her career, Madeleine had the chance to work with the Callot sisters and famed couturier Jacques Doucet.
On recounting her experiences with Callot, she said: “It was here that I realized that fashion is art. If I hadn’t come here I would have kept sewing Fords, but now I’ve learned how to sew Rolls-Royce.
As it often happens, the young fashion designer’s innovations sometimes caused resistance and misunderstanding of her colleagues. But that didn’t make her give up on her desire to sew her own way.
Having reached another turning point in her life, she finally made up her mind and opened her own fashion house, Vionnet, where she brought her most famous collections to life.
The oblique cut was used even before Madeleine, but in small details. She used the same method throughout the dress, thereby achieving “fluidity” of the material in motion. The couturier freed women from corsets and introduced silk crepes into fashion. In her collections the dresses in the Greek style dominated and draperies were actively used.
Famous is her saying that a really beautiful figure should not be formed by the corset but by exercises and a healthy lifestyle.
It is worth noting that Madeleine Vionnet also remains in history as the first person who began to fight for copyright. Her models were so popular that almost everyone tried to copy them. She designed brand tags, documented all the models and made sure to photograph each outfit from three angles.
The revolutionary nature of her designs was astounding. She got rid of symmetry and side seams, the clothes were perceived as a natural extension of the man and his image.
After causing outrage in parts of French society with her frank styles of dresses almost naked, she attracted a lot of brave liberated women, whom she later called “an outstanding member of the frivolous tribe of Amazons”.
Vionnet mingled in the circles of the most eminent reformers of her time — with the Futurists, Cubists and avant-garde artists. The fashion designer was friends with the outstanding architect Le Corbusier, and her pupils included Cristobal Balenciaga himself.
Vionnet created dresses on a mannequin with the same inspiration with which an artist paints a picture, or a sculptor sculpts a statue. Conservative fashion was becoming a thing of the past, and Madeleine was creating a modern image of a woman-muse, a woman-goddess…
Friends, were you inspired by Madeleine’s images? Share in the comments :)
