Vionnet

Madeleine Vionnet is regarded by many connoisseurs as the greatest dressmaker of the 20th century. Apprenticed at the age of thirteen, Vionnet worked for the Callot sisters and for the House of Doucet before opening her own couture house in 1912. She closed it in 1914 and reopened in 1919.

Over the next twenty years, Vionnet created some of the most beautiful dresses ever made. Her technique was unusual, for she worked directly in the material, creating three-dimensional designs on a small wooden mannequin. This allowed her to concentrate on the abstract, architectural properties of a dress. She studied the way the fabric draped - with, against, or across the weave - and then she would make a life-size dress to fit a living, moving woman, such as the Duchess de Gramont. "Ah, she was a real model," Vionnet recalled. "Tall and lovely. When I was designing a dress, I had only to ask her to come and try it on … and I knew exactly where it was wrong." Vionnet made women look like goddesses - partly through the genius of her designs, and partly because she only liked to dress beautiful women. She was justifiably proud of having "made a revolution" with her uncorseted, lingerie-inspired dresses.