Vionnet

Introduction:
In 1991 Betty Kirke published “VIONNET” – a book about the artist Madeleine Vionnet, who left an indelible mark on the history of fashion. It told us her story, and provided commentary, patterns and structural details for thirty-eight key designs chosen from the over 12000 Vionnet is said to have produced in her lifetime.
Upon acquiring this book, struck by Vionnet’s revolutionary cuts, we were driven to reconstruct her designs in actual size, and began as a group to investigate ways to achieve this goal.
Since it proved impossible to source the materials that Vionnet used from modern suppliers we concentrated on examining the structure of the garments themselves, constructing three-dimensional pieces from the patterns with just the explanations provided in the book as our guide. The labor of conjecturing scale from the drawings, calculator in one hand, resulted time and time again in a beautiful silhouette and a moment of enlightenment, and we began to gradually unravel the mysteries of Vionnet’s dressmaking technique. As we exchanged information on the pieces we had chosen to work on, we began to see what Vionnet had looked for, and this understanding provided additional motivation for each subsequent reconstruction. We realized that the process of actually piecing the designs together in three dimensions was essential to understanding her technique, and that it was the way that their structure (design lines) took into account the movement of the human anatomy, combined with a cut (geometric shaping) that took into account the nature (grain and drape characteristics) of the fabric that resulted in their beautiful silhouette and movement.
As we completed one reconstruction after another we saw that each one of Vionnet’s designs had much potential for adaptation in terms of both pattern shaping and fabric handling. Thinking this would be useful for learning design expression we incorporated the exercise into the school curriculum.
We were convinced that exposing students to Vionnet’s technique by letting them sew the flat patterns into their three-dimensional shapes would prove a very effective way to expand their design ideas.
We also felt that actual scale drawings and illustrated sewing instructions would help inexperienced pupils learning to sew the designs in a school environment to gain a deeper understanding of the subject – and thus compiled the results of our own reconstruction work into a “research manual”.
In May 2001 our reconstructed pieces were displayed at the Culture Academy gallery under the title “Madeleine Vionnet Research Exhibition.” The response from both apparel school and industry personnel was much greater than expected. We were very pleased that this exhibition allowed us to show the young students and other industry people some of the work by the great artist Madeleine Vionnet.
The actual size patterns and sewing instructions for the pieces were also displayed at the exhibition, and many of the visitors asked for copies. Hoping to fulfill their wish we contacted Tokai Harumi, the editor of “Vionnet”, and after receiving permission from Betty Kirke, the author, proceeded in April 2002 to publish this companion volume. The research group hereby expresses its gratitude to Betty Kirke and Tokai Harumi for understanding our motive for writing this book.
It is our sincere wish that this companion volume will be of use to readers of “VIONNET” who endeavor to study Vionnet’s ideas and way of thinking.
September 2002
Bunka Fashion College
Vionnet Research Group