Madeleine vionnet book pdf
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Designer Madeleine Vionnet (1876 – 1975) was one of Europe's greatest couturiers, famous for pioneering the revolutionary 'bias-cut' dress, draped expertly over the body, which changed the shape of women's fashion.
Born in Chilleurs-aux-Bois, France, Vionnet worked as a lacemaker's apprentice from the age of 12. Fleeing her underprivileged upbringing and an unhappy marriage, she travelled to London and found a job as a dress-fitter with couturier Kate Reilly, around 1897. With her new knowledge, she was determined to become a dressmaker, and returned to Paris in 1900, where she worked for the prestigious couture houses Callot Soeurs and Douçet. She opened her own house on the Rue de Rivoli under the name 'Vionnet' in 1912.
The couture house was forced to close during the First World War, but Vionnet re-opened in 1918, moving to larger premises on 50 Avenue Matignon, Paris. She experimented intensively with fabrics, often letting them dictate the shape or the effect of a garment. In the early 1920s, her couture house became known for championing the bias-cut, a technique
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Vionnet, Madeleine
Born in Chilleurs-aux-Bois in 1876, Madeleine Vionnet was apprenticed to a dressmaker while still a child. She began her career in fashion working for makers of lingerie, as well as dress-makers
and couturiers in London and Paris. These early experiences of craft skills and, in particular, the relationship between body and fabric involved in making under-garments, influenced the future direction of her own designs. She learned to respect the intricate skills of craftspeople, who were able to produce delicate effects through, for example, drawn threadwork and fagoting, which created spatial patterns by moving and regrouping the fabric's threads. This fascination with minute detail and the possibilities of fabric manipulation formed the foundation of her approach. Her background in the couture trade was fundamental to her later status, since it distinguished her as a craftsperson who was knowledgeable about the various dressmaking skills and decorative trades that supported designers. She was therefore not only tutored in practical skills but was also aware of
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Madeleine Vionnet
French fashion designer (1876–1975)
This article is about the haute couture designer. For the fashion label, see Vionnet (company).
Madeleine Vionnet (pronounced[ma.də.lɛnvjɔ.ne]; June 22, 1876, Loiret, France – March 2, 1975) was a French fashion designer best known for being the “pioneer of the bias cut dress”,[1][2] Vionnet trained in London before returning to France to establish her first fashion house in Paris in 1912. Although it was forced to close in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, it re-opened after the war and Vionnet became one of the leading designers of 1920s-30s Paris. Vionnet was forced to close her house again in 1939 at the start of the Second World War and she retired in 1940.[2]
Called "perhaps the greatest geometrician among all French couturiers" in 1925 British Vogue, Vionnet is best known today for her elegant Grecian-style dresses and for popularising the bias cut within the fashion world and is credited with inspiring a number of recent designers.[2]
Biography
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