Afternoon dress

Madeleine Vionnet

1931–32 · silk · Costume Institute

In his preface to Betty Kirke's monograph on Vionnet, designer Issey Miyake compared his first impression of Vionnet dresses with his first view of the Nike of Samothrace. The sculpture of body transcendent through drapery and despite abbreviation is an evocative equivalent to Vionnet, whose adaptation of cloth on the body is so supple, clinging, and natural A gold dress is almost more an Ian Fleming "007" fantasy than it is a conventional garment, as the dress approximates a sheathing in gold leaf with just a few curling sleeves and junctures to suggest that dress and body are almost one, but not quite.

Artist

Madeleine Vionnet

Date

1931–32

Medium

silk

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Gift of Miss Isabel Shults, 1944