Evening dress

Madeleine Vionnet

ca. 1936 · silk · Costume Institute

Vionnet's method was to use a diminutive dress form so that she could work front and back as well with a minimum of cloth's weight and drag. Her front and back are unified via the neckline buttons at the far sides that attach a front flap of the bodice with over-the-shoulder pieces coming from the back. Vionnet purposely denied the usual dialectic of front and back, preferring that shifting Mobius plane that Cubism used so purposefully as pictorial convention.

Artist

Madeleine Vionnet

Date

ca. 1936

Medium

silk

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brenner Couture Inc. Fund, 1978