Styles and technique
Alongside Coco Chanel, Vionnet is credited with a move away from stiff, formalised clothing to sleeker, softer clothes. Unlike Chanel, Vionnet had little appetite for self-promotion; her retirement in 1940 marginalised her contribution to the wider movement.[9] Madeleine Vionnet is quoted as saying that "when a woman smiles, her dress must smile with her".[15] Eschewing corsets, padding, stiffening, and anything that distorted the natural curves of a woman's body, she became known for clothes that accentuated the natural female form.
Influenced by the modern dances of Isadora Duncan, Vionnet created designs that showed off a woman's natural shape.[16] Like Duncan, Vionnet was inspired by ancient Greek art, in which garments appear to float freely around the body rather than distort or mold its shape. Her style changed relatively little over her career, although it became a little more fitted in the 1930s.[9]
In the 1920s, Vionnet had created a stir by developing garments utilizing the bias cut, a technique for cutting cloth diagonal to the grain of the fabric, enabling it to cling to the body while stretching and moving with the wearer. While Vionnet herself did not invent the method of cutting fabric on the bias, she was the first to utilize bias cuts for the entirety of a garment. Her work contrasted existing garments that utilized bias cutting for trims and embellishments placed on fabric pieces cut along the straight-of-grain.[17]
Vionnet's use of the bias cut to create a sleek, flattering, body-skimming look revolutionized women's clothing and carried her to the top of the fashion world. Although sometimes credited with its invention, Vionnet claimed to have applied the technique, already used in skirts, trims, and embellishments, to full-body dresses.[9] As an expert couturier, Vionnet knew that textiles cut on the bias could be draped to match the curves of a woman's body and express fluidity of motion. She used the cut to promote the potential for expression and motion, integrating comfort and movement as well as form into her designs.
Vionnet's apparently simple styles involved a lengthy preparation process, including cutting, draping, and pinning fabric designs on miniature dolls.[6] She recreated full garments in chiffon, silk, or Moroccan crepe on life-size models. Vionnet used materials such as crêpe de chine, gabardine, and satin to make her clothes; fabrics that were unusual in women's fashion of the 1920s and 30s.[6]
She ordered fabrics two yards wider than necessary to accommodate draping, creating clothes – particularly dresses – that were luxurious and sensual but also simple and modern. Characteristic Vionnet styles that clung to and moved with the wearer included the handkerchief dress, cowl neck, and halter top.
