Vionnet, Madeleine (1876-1975)

French fashion designer. During the 1920s and 1930s she achieved critical acclaim when she developed the bias cut (cutting the fabric at an angle of 45 degrees from the selvage across the thread that runs lengthways through the fabric). This enabled her to create simple fluid shapes in crêpe de chine, satin, and gaberdine. She also became known for her draped and handkerchief-pointed dresses. By 1934 she had changed her look to clinging skirts, bare backs, and light crêpe de chine evening dresses. She retired 1939.

She started a dressmaking apprenticeship when she was 12 years old and worked in Paris until moving to London around 1897 to work for the dressmaker Kate O'Reilly. She returned to Paris 1901 and joined the fashion house Callot Soeurs, before working for the fashion house of Doucet in 1907. In 1912 she opened her own house (although it was closed 1914-22 because of World War I).