Ma tres Chere Aspasia

I went to this fabulous exhibit and I thought of you….. I think you and Madame Vionnet would have been great friends!

When I first arrived in the fashion capital earlier this year, Madame Channel was the talk at every Parisian rendezvous. Of course the movie Coco avant Chanel, presented a fabulous display of this determined lady, her novel designs inspiring her avante –garde creations and her triumphant establishment of her Maison de Couture despite her numerous life difficulties and dilemmas. It’s Paris in the roaring twenties, Chanel at the height of her creativity, it is style and sophistication – it’s another French Delicacy.

Just as we reach the end of the Chanel commemoration, with typical French finesse, they pull out an even older fashion muse and this time stage yet another breath taking spectacle, taking place at 107 rue de Rivoli, honoring and admiring puriste de la mode – Madeleine Vionnet. Chanel’s designs may have been considered as fresh, mature and uplifting, but it was this leading lady, avant Channel, who fashioned innovation, introduced the particularized procedure of structuring a garment and who tastefully presented and perfected Parisian refinement.

Rue de Rivoli is bustling with the beautiful people, the stylish people, the Parisians, queuing in the ccccold, determined to feast on Vionnet’s treasures. The exhibition presents 122, fine crafted and exquisite Vionnet robes, including the hallmarks of her career which are regarded as representations of absolute attainment of purity of line, structure and decoration. As I snoop through the exhibition, my eyes are getting bigger and my desire for each garment is becoming ravenous. I spot my engagement gown, my wedding dress, my honeymoon outfit, my garment for when appearing on Oprah, my ball gown for accepting my first Oscar – oh goodness I still need to write the acceptance speech, not forgetting to thank Madame Vionnet for her breathe taking creation! (Excuse my little escape to Fantasy land, but when faced with such magnificence this seems as the next normal thing to do – dream, fantasize, marvel!)

Not only did Madame Vionnet have an intrinsic eye for fashion, but she also possessed a business savoir faire. She opened her own couture house at 222 rue de Rivoli in 1912 and in 1950, in an attempt to capture her most refined international clientele, she moved her maison de couture to the exclusive avenue Montaigne, transforming this area into the temple of fashion as it is known today. Reputed to have run her maison de couture like a modern company, in a highly progressive manner for the time, Vionnet was additionally considered as an artistic visionary. She supported the “Association for the Defence of the Fine and Applied Arts”, protecting the interests of the Haute Couture industry by combating counterfeiting. In 1952 she also made an exceptional donation to the Union Francaise des Arts du Costume, including 122 robes, 750 dress patterns, accounts books and books from her personal library and 75 photo albums of copy rights, acknowledging the importance for preserving her artistic heritage.
Madame Gertrude Stein was utterly precise when she observed, “…in Paris between 1900s – 1940’s, the men were fashionable and the women were elegant” Well now we know who was responsible for all these femmes Parisiennes…. the architect of poise and grace, Madeleine Vionnet, yet another factor contributing to the flair and flamboyance which is so exclusively Parisienne.

XX petite E

Related posts:

1. Haute Couture genius takes talent to the stage So, what exactly happened to Christian Lacroix after his last...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.