Madeleine Vionnet is a fashion purist. School of stylish images and ideas Special features of creativity

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

At 22, Vionnet went to London. There, she first got a job as a laundress, then got into the Katie O'Reilly workshop, which was engaged in copying fashionable 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 very upset by the loss, and her family immediately fell apart after the death of the child. Therefore, the woman had no choice but to go headlong 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 Vionnet her main assistant. Together they managed the artistic part of the company's work. Subsequently, Madeleine recalled her mentor as follows:

“She taught me how to build Rolls-Royces. Without her, I would produce Fords.

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

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

Vionnet innovation

The main and most famous invention Madame Vionnet is a 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 modeling before, but they were used only in detail, because dresses with corsets did not give full freedom to design creativity. Madeleine, in turn, created entire products in this way. This cutting endowed the fabric with natural elasticity and gave it the opportunity to perfectly fit the figure. The material she chose was fluid and flowy, such as satin, crepe and silk. It was she who introduced the fashion for these fabrics.

The supplier for the Vionnet atelier was the Bianchini-Férier factory, the largest textile manufacturer at that time. Madeleine ordered very wide strips of fabric, they reached two meters. Made especially for her new material pale pink. 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 dress, which corresponded to 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 Vione's creations is that they are completely shapeless on a hanger, but incredibly lively and elegant when worn. After all main task Fashion Madeleine considered 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. That's why the workshop moved to a new, more spacious room on Montaigne street. The interiors of the studio and workshop were designed by artists such as Georges de Feure, Rene Lalique and Boris Lacroix.

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

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

Another invention of Vionnet was outfits, the fabric of which was assembled either with one seam or with a knot. She came up with a trumpet collar and collar, as well as details in the form of a triangle, rectangle and rhombus. She invented hooded evening gowns lined in the same fabric and color as the outfit itself. 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 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 every new idea used subsequently 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).

With the onset of the 30s, Vionnet almost ceases to use oblique cut, and gives preference to the classic and antique style. In this she was not a pioneer, but followed the example of other fashion designers such as Madame Gres and Agustaberbard. Ancient Roman motifs were traced in knots, plaits, complex cuts and flowing forms. Fashion models posed as nymphs and goddesses against the backdrop of ruins, columns and antique ornaments. This direction of evening fashion was called "neoclassicism". As for draperies, then Madame Vionnet was an unsurpassed master. 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. Therefore, each product was photographed in detail from three sides, and each was assigned its own number. The fashion designer kept all the data in special albums. For all the years of work in her atelier, Madeleine has collected 75 such books. Later they were transferred to the Paris Fashion and Textile Museum. This woman became the world's first fighter against counterfeit products. The works were for Vionnet as works of art, she believed that they should live forever, like the canvases of artists, and only add value over time.

Madeleine was one of the first who began to hire professional fashion models in their firms. She made a significant contribution to the fact that this profession began to be considered prestigious. Relationships with employees in general at Maison Vionnet were built on high level. Breaks for rest in the working day were mandatory, in addition, employees could go on vacation and receive material support due to illness, which was very rare at that time. Moreover, Madeleine created a hospital, a canteen and even tourist agency for staff.

The Decline of the House of Madeleine Vionnet

However financial condition Madeleine's company, in spite of everything, was depressing. She was an excellent fashion designer and kind person but a bad businessman. The company was not stable and good earnings. The Second World War dealt a decisive blow to the Fashion House, 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 in complete oblivion of the public. At the same time, she continued to follow the events in the world with interest. haute couture. Her products were sold all over the world, they were sold at auctions for a lot of money, from which Madeleine received nothing. Vionnet died in 1975, a little short of 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 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 her own name. After her was Marc Odibe (Marc Audibet), who in the past worked for

photo of Madeleine Vionnet

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

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

creative commons

Before cutting fabric for work, she created mini-versions, studying how the diagonally cut pieces play with each other, using miniature mannequins for this.

creative commons

creative commons

Madeleine Vionnet dresses

Features of the cut along the oblique

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

Traditionally, silk, crepe are used for oblique cut. But almost any fabric can be cut along the bias. Even dense wool, to get the necessary stretch of the fabric or to achieve a good fit, for example, a collar.

The oblique cut allows you to change the position of the pattern, to give it an optical effect. This is especially noticeable on fabrics in a cage.

Unlike the classic cut along the share, for, a much greater consumption of fabric is required.

On Burda patterns, the cut along the oblique 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 the oblique, is treated with a rolled seam on the overlock, a narrow zigzag stitch on sewing machine, or manually. But, before doing this, they let things hang for a while, after which they ground (level) and only then process.

Visually stretches the figure, hides flaws due to soft fitting and incredibly slim.

Even before the appearance of Chanel on the fashionable Olympus in Paris, the icon of style and the goddess of cut Madeleine Vionnet lived and worked. She owns many inventions - cut on the bias, clothing without seams, the use of labels. She called on women to be free, like her idol, Isadora Duncan. However, on long years Madeleine Vionnet's name was forgotten...

She was born in 1876 in Albertville, a small provincial town. As a child, she dreamed of being a sculptor, but the dream was not destined to come true - at least in the way that little Madeleine imagined. Her family was poor, and instead of an art school, twelve-year-old Madeleine went to be an apprentice to a local dressmaker. She didn't even get a full school education after studying for only a few years. A talent for mathematics means nothing if you have to earn your living from a young age.

At seventeen, Madeleine, who had mastered the art of sewing, got a job in a Parisian fashion house - and a fate awaited her, in general, completely ordinary. Some time later, she married a Russian emigrant and gave birth to a girl, but the child died and her husband left her. Since then, Madeleine no longer tied the knot.

Shortly after this tragedy, Madeleine lost her job. Completely crushed, she went to England, where at first she agreed to any hard work - for example, as a laundress, and then mastered the business of a cutter in a workshop that copied French outfits for English fashionistas.

Returning to Paris at the turn of the century, she took a job as a cutter at the fashion house of the Callot sisters, who saw potential in her and promoted her to assistant chief artist. Together with the Callot sisters, Madeleine came up with new models, silhouettes and decor. Then Madeleine began working with couturier Jacques Doucet, but the collaboration turned out to be short-lived and not particularly successful - Madeleine was seized by a thirst for experiments that turned out to be too extravagant.

She was a passionate admirer of Isadora Duncan - her freedom, audacity, liberated plasticity, and sought to embody in her models that strength, that joy of life that she saw in the great dancer.

Even before Chanel, she talked about the rejection of corsets, decisively shortened the length of dresses and insisted on the use of soft dresses that emphasized the natural curves of the female body. She invited Duce to hold fashion shows, but the very first show caused a scandal - even bohemian Paris was not ready for such innovations. Vionnet advised fashion models not to wear underwear under her tight-fitting dresses, they walked barefoot on the runway like the gorgeous Duncan. Doucet hastened to part with a too active assistant, and then the First World War broke out.

Madeleine opened her business back in 1912, but gained fame only in 1919 - and immediately gained wild popularity. She fought fakes using branded labels and a specially designed logo, which is now quite common in the fashion industry.
Each dress from Vionnet was photographed from three angles using a special mirror and placed in an album - such albums for more than thirty years of existence, the House of Vionnet has released seventy-five.

Madeleine believed that clothes should follow the lines of a woman's body, and not the body be disfigured and broken with special devices to fit. fashionable silhouette. She loved simple shapes, draperies and cocoons. It was Madeleine Vionnet who came up with the bias cut, which allows the fabric to slide around the body and lie in beautiful folds. Invented the hood collar and collar collar. She often experimented with seamless clothing - for example, she created a coat from a wide cut of wool without a single seam.

She often made sets of coats and dresses, where the lining of the coat and dress were made of the same fabric - this technique received a second birth in the 60s.

“When a woman smiles, the dress should smile with her” - Vionne repeated this mysterious phrase very often. What did she mean? Maybe Madeleine wanted to emphasize that her dresses follow the natural movements of the owner and emphasize her mood - or maybe some kind of modernist charade lurked in these words.

Vionnet was inspired by the sculpture of cubism and futurism, as well as ancient art. In the photographs, her models appeared in the poses of ancient vase painting and ancient Greek friezes. And ancient Roman statues served as the starting point for draperies, the secret of which designers and engineers cannot unravel to this day.

Vionnet was indifferent to color, although a new fabric was created especially for her - a mixture of silk and acetate in a soft pink hue.

Madeleine Vionnet left practically no patterns - each dress was created individually by tattooing, so it is simply impossible to repeat her outfits exactly. She left no sketches. Madeleine believed that it was necessary not to design a dress, but to envelop the figure with fabric, allowing the material and the body to do their work, she preferred to adapt to the individuality of the clients, and not dictate her will to them. She wanted to open up, liberate women.

True, no matter how beautiful the dresses from Vionnet were, the customers often returned them to their creator - because they could not figure out the folds and draperies on their own. In the box and on the hanger, the dresses looked like shapeless rags, and only on the female body turned into real masterpieces. Madeleine had to conduct dressing workshops for clients. It is surprising that these difficulties arose precisely with the dresses of the artist, who dreamed of giving women the freedom of ancient nymphs and bacchantes!

Madeleine never called what she does fashionable. “I want my dresses to survive the time,” she said.

The Second World War left Vionnet practically without a livelihood, her fashion house was closed, and her name was forgotten for many years. However, the achievements of Madeleine Vionnet were used by fashion designers around the world - stolen from the one that so protected her work from fakes. Only in the 2000s did the Vionnet fashion house resume work with young ambitious managers and designers.

For everyone who is interested in the history of fashion, a story about.

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

Madeleine Vionnet

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 clothing and has a huge impact on fashion in the future.

NOT ONLY A SEASMAN, BUT ALSO A CREATOR

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 clothing should completely repeat the shape of the female body, and not vice versa, the figure should adapt 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 training, 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 house fashion in Paris, but after 2 years she is forced to suspend his activities. The reason for this was the beginning of the First World War. During this period, Vionnet moved to Italy, engaged in self-development. In Rome, Madeleine became interested 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".

Around the same time period, the collection women's clothing The Vionnet fashion house crosses the ocean and ends up in New York, where it is so popular that 2 years later 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. A very important point is that Madeleine Vionnet was a socially oriented employer. The working conditions in her Fashion House were significantly different from others: short breaks were a prerequisite for work, workers had the right to leave 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 fixtures 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 pricked the fabric, bending it as necessary and stabbing it with needles into 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 no fasteners or 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 detailed description 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.

MODELS FROM EARLY COLLECTIONS

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  Evening ensemble, Madeleine Vionnet. ca. 1953

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  Evening coat, Madeleine Vionnet. c.1935

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. ca. 1937

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  Evening ensemble, Madeleine Vionnet. ca. 1936

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  Day Ensemble, Madeleine Vionnet. c.1936-38

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. ca. 1939

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. Spring-Summer 1938

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  Evening cape, Madeleine Vionnet. c.1925

Dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1917

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. Spring-Summer 1932

Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1930

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1939

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1932

Bathrobe, Madeleine Vionnet. 1932-35

Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1933-37

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  Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1936

Evening dress, Madeleine Vionnet. 1934-35

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Evening cape, Madeleine Vionnet. 1930

FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

From the moment Madeleine Vionnet opened her Fashion house, more than 100 years have passed, 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.

SIGNIFICANT DATES

Birthplace: Chiyeur-aux-Bois, north-central France.

In 1888 she became a student of the seamstress Madame Bourgeois;

In 1895 he went to London to study tailoring. There she works for Kate Reilly, an atelier that made replicas of Parisian models;

In 1901, he began working in the atelier of the Callot sisters in Paris, where he comprehended the strict standards of the art of design;

In 1906, Jacques Doucet invites her to his job to refresh the traditions of his Fashion House;

In 1912 he opens his own Fashion House;

Due to the First World War, he closes his fashion house in 1914, leaves for Rome, where he sews models for private clients;

In the period from 1918 to 1919, Vionnet reopens the atelier, organizes trial against a fashion designer who faked her models. In order to protect her creations from plagiarism, Madeleine decides to use special logos, numbers each model, photographs them straight, front, back, and then forms a special album of models;

1939 - after the outbreak of World War II, Vionnet decides to retire. A little later, due to lack of funding, the Vionnet Fashion House closes;

Since 1945, he began teaching at fashion schools in the direction of fabric drapery.

In 1952, Madeleine Vionnet donated her albums with dresses and sketches to the Museum decorative arts In Paris.

But her fashion house has not sunk into the ages of time, it exists to this day. Of course he was destined to survive several purchases and sales. The House is currently owned by Go TO Enterprise, owned by Goga Ashkenazi, a Kazakh-born billionaire.

She is called the queen of the oblique cut. Her unusual ideas were borrowed by leading fashion designers, and women from many countries fell in love with unusual styles of dresses. In our article we will talk about the famous Madeleine Vionnet, who practically organized a revolution in the fashion world.

Childhood and youth

Madeleine Vionnet was born in June 1876 in a small French town called Albertville, which is located in the picturesque Alps. The cleanest local air from childhood set the girl up for creative achievements, because it’s not in vain early years Madeleine had a dream of becoming a sculptor. Living in a low-income family, she went early to earn money for a living. At the age of 11, Madeleine was offered to become an assistant to a tailor who lived nearby.

At the age of 17, she left her native land and went to conquer the capital. Here she managed to get a job as a seamstress in the Vincent fashion house. At that time, the prospects were not very bright, since the girl did not have an elementary secondary education. True, she had already learned how to sew well and had decent experience in this area behind her shoulders.

Life in the UK

Five years later, Madeleine Vionnet, whose biography has many difficulties, left for London. At first she had to work as a laundress, then she got a job in a workshop where they copied fashionable clothes. french models clothes. In London, the girl married an emigrant from Russia. They had a daughter, but the girl died in early age which led to the breakup of the family. Madeleine long and bitterly experienced the loss of a child, so she completely plunged into work.

Activities at home

The first success came to Madeleine Vionnet in her native France. It was in Paris that she got a good job at the very famous Callot sisters fashion house at that time. Soon one of the hostesses offered the girl to be her assistant - together they led the artistic part of the company's activities. Here Madeleine really liked it, later she fondly remembered her mentors.

After Callot's house, the girl went to work for the famous Jacques Doucet, where she got the position of a cutter. However, here Vionne with his extraordinary ideas discouraged both the fashion designer and his clients. It seemed to her that it was time to remove the tight corsets, and gymnastics and diet, and not clothes, should outline a thin waist. Plus, Madeleine offered to show models without underwear, which no one liked. The girl had to leave this job with a scandal.

Own business

In 1912, Vionnet decided to start her own business. And so the Madeleine Vionnet Fashion House was born, which is located in Paris along Rivoli Street. But the full-fledged activity of the new studio began only in 1919 due to the First World War. Immediately after the end of hostilities, the new brand began to rapidly gain momentum: women accepted Madeleine's ideas, feeling their practicality. Much has changed, the old forms, silhouettes and general views on appearance and style have been replaced by new ones.

Madeleine Vionnet - a fashion designer by vocation - created unusual, complex outfits. It didn't even bother her that she didn't know the art of drawing. It was enough to have a mathematical mindset and excellent spatial thinking. She would later be called a fashion architect. She created new sketches directly on the mannequin, unlike many other couturiers who first made sketches on paper. Vionnet carefully pinned the fabric and made assemblies until it worked out perfect dress.

Innovative ideas

A little strange for that time, but only Madeleine Vionnet had interesting and unique ideas. Dresses had a light, flying silhouette, showing the dignity of the figure. But the most famous innovative idea is the oblique cut. Madeleine came up with the idea to fold the edge of the fabric at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the base of the product. In the 30s of the last century, fashion could not be imagined without the use of such a cut. Similar techniques were used earlier, but only in small details, since corset styles did not allow fantasy to "roam around". Vionnet decided to create whole outfits. Such cutting allowed the fabric to naturally lay down on the figure. As for the material, Madeleine preferred flowing silk, crepe, satin.

Materials and fabrics

To create masterpieces, the Bianchini-Ferrier textile factory supplied fabrics for fashion fashion Madeleine Vionnet. Its patterns were so unusual that it was necessary to purchase huge canvases of matter up to two meters wide to create the next new model. By special order of Vionnet, a soft pink fabric was created, which was a mix of acetate and silk. But the fashion designer was not interested in the color of the material, but in the shape of the dress. Everything had to emphasize the naturalness and beauty of the female body. As Madeleine herself said, a dress should smile along with its mistress.

Special features of creativity

It's no secret that Madeleine Vionnet's most popular products are dresses. Photos of models confirm their main feature - they have practically no shape on hangers or hangers, but come to life and play in a completely different way on the figure. Madeleine has always been of the opinion that clothes should be created for a person and for a person, satisfy his needs and requirements, so the body does not have to adapt to any silhouette or shape.

Career

Starting in 1923, the small atelier of Madame Vionnet became very famous among fashionistas and could no longer cope with the flow of orders that fell from all sides. I had to move to a more free and spacious room, the design of which was created according to the sketches of famous artists (Boris Lacroix, Rene Lalique, etc.). Literally a year later, the Americans already knew the name of Vionnet - her representative office was opened in New York. Later, in one of the most fashionable resorts in France - Biarritz - a new branch of the Fashion House was opened. Rich people from all over the world came to rest there, it was profitable to have a Madeleine Vionnet studio in such a place. The cut of her unusual and at the same time elegant outfits delighted even the most capricious young ladies.

It is known that the brand at one time even released its own perfume, but it was not popular for long.

Unusual inventions

Experienced fashion designers are familiar with another important invention of Madame Vionnet in the fashion world. She came up with the idea to create an outfit without fasteners - one seam or one knot is enough. Madeleine is the author of such details as a trumpet collar, a neck collar. In addition, small details in the form of a rhombus, a triangle and a rectangle are included in the treasury of her ideas. What other creative solutions have come to light in Madeleine's fashion house? Of course it's non-standard. Evening Dress with a hood, a coat with a plain lining (matching the color of the outfit). The last attire came into fashion again in the 60s of the last century.

Madeleine loved to create dresses without fasteners at all or with fasteners on the back. There were models that were kept only thanks to a bow tied on the chest. These outfits allowed ladies to easily drive a car, dance jazz and move freely. home distinguishing feature Vionnet products are a harmonious combination of luxury and simplicity, which modern fashion strives for. Among the regular clients of Madeleine were such famous people like Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, etc.

Interesting facts

Madeleine Vionnet is considered the first woman to fight fakes and counterfeit products. For these purposes, she carefully photographed each of her new inventions and pasted the photographs into a special album. Over the years, the designer fashion clothes collected 75 portfolios. Things were for Madeleine works of art that should live forever, like the paintings of great painters.

Also, Madame Vionnet was one of the first to hire professional models to show clothes. Thanks to Madeleine, the profession of fashion model has become more prestigious. In the Fashion House, the work order was quite strict, but the employees had many advantages: a hospital, a canteen and a travel agency were created on the territory.

Decline of the fashion house

Unstable income and lack of commercial flair led to a deplorable financial position of Madeleine's firm. With the outbreak of World War II, the Fashion House had to be completely closed. Later, the magnificent products of Vionnet will be sold at auctions for large sums, of which their author will not get anything, since the designer was forgotten by everyone after the closure of her brainchild. Madeleine died in 1975. She is remembered as a woman with impeccable taste, who herself always looked perfect and dressed her clients no less magnificently.