Madeleine Vionnet, puriste de la mode

In 1952, French couturier Madeleine Vionnet donated 125 dresses, 750 patterns and 13,000 photographs from 1912 to 1939 to Les Arts Decoratifs museum in Paris, to educate future generations about her work. The museum is currently exhibiting this legacy and proving the enduring influence this pioneering designer has had on the world of couture.


The House of Vionnet opened on the Rue de Rivoli in 1912. Inspired by the draping cloth of Greek art and the fluid, modern movement of dancer Isadora Duncan, Madeleine Vionnet was dedicated to the liberation of the female body through design. She turned her back on buttons, zips and corsetry, instead designing garments to float around a woman’s body, exuding a femininity that was strong and unconfined.


Her designs were a rigorous study of circles, squares and triangles. She was fascinated by the Grecian formation of clothes, knotting square fabric at the shoulder or tying the waist with cord and has been credited as the creator of the modern Grecian dress, the bias-cut, handkerchief dress, single-seam dress and the cowl neck. She did not use sketches to design, but would drape live models or a 2ft wooden mannequin with luxurious and sensual materials, which she twisted, knotted, pleated gathered and slashed to explore ways to best accentuate the natural beauty of the female form. These stylistic principles have become an intrinsic staple in fashion as we turn into the new generation, post millennium and post GFC.


At the approach of World War Two, she chose to close her fashion house and held her final showing in August 1939. But her influence is as long-lasting as the architecture of her designs. ‘Like it or not, everyone is under the influence’, admitted Karl Lagerfeld on the effect Vionnet has had on generations of modern couturiers. High-end names such as Gaultier, Galliano, Chanel, Valentino and Balenciaga are all recognisably influenced by Vionnet’s timeless designs. And the dresses in the collection at Les Arts Decoratifs could easily be walked down a 2010 runway without a flutter of an eyelash.


As she clearly stated herself, "what I do is not fashion - it was designed to last forever".