Evening dress

Madeleine Vionnet

ca. 1928 · silk · Costume Institute

Vionnet stated, "I have never insisted on ornaments: I use them on the sole condition that they complement the construction of the dress, drawing out the entire effect as if to exalt it." In her disciplined modernism, Vionnet found abundant expressive value in the joinings and suturings of the constructive pieces and little else. Thus, the integrity and the entirety of the design reside in the hinging of the plane to the necessary, but understated, three-dimensionality of the body.

Artist

Madeleine Vionnet

Date

ca. 1928

Medium

silk

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Herman F. Clarke, 1940