Madeleine Vionnet
Invented the bias cut, draping fabric diagonally so it flowed and clung to the body without corsetry.
Veronica's Take
Madeleine Vionnet was a French fashion designer best known for being the "pioneer of the bias cut dress". 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.
By simply turning the fabric forty-five degrees, she taught cloth to move with the body, liberating women from the corset a decade before Chanel got the credit.
Key Facts
The people behind Madeleine Vionnet
Madeleine Vionnet
profileCouture — historical
Invented the bias cut, draping fabric diagonally so it flowed and clung to the body without corsetry.
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