Geometric

THE COUTURIER SHOULD BE A G E O M E T R I C I A N , F O R T H E H U M A N B O DY MAKES GEOMETRICAL FIGURES T O W H I C H T H E M AT E R I A L S S H O U L D CORRESPOND.

IF A WOMAN SMILES, HER DRESS MUST ALSO SMILE.

MADELEINE VIONNET

Designer Philosophy

In the early twentieth century, cubist painters adopted simple geometric shapes in depiction of their subjects in an abstracted form.

This portrayal of their subjects created a perspective with multiple viewpoints representing the artwork in a greater context.

As a geometrician, Madeleine Vionnet has done the same.

Creating all her designs using 3 basic shapes; the square, the triangle and the cricle.

Thus using geometric shapes to house the human body.

These shapes can be found through out the patterns of the designs.

Concept Board

The queen of the bias cut and the architect among dressmakers, Vionnet is best known for her elegant Grecian-style dresses and for introducing the bias cut to the fashion world.

Born into a poor family in Chilleurs-aux-Bois, Loiret, Vionnet began her apprenticeship as a seamstress at age 11. After a brief marriage at age 18, she left her husband and went to London to work as a hospital seamstress. While in London, Vionnet worked as a fitter for Kate Reily. Vionnet eventually returned to Paris and trained with the well known fashion house Callot Soeurs and later with Jacques Doucet. In 1912 she founded her own fashion house, “Vionnet”but forced to close it just two years later due to the onset of the First World War. She became enormously successful in the Twenties, a success that culminated in 1923 when she opened her new premises on Avenue Montaigne, referred to, at that time, as the “Temple of Fashion”, a spectacular venue-atelier-boutique. In the 1920s Vionnet created a stir by introducing the bias cut, a technique for cutting cloth diagonal to the grain of the fabric enabling it to cling to the body while moving with the wearer. Vionnet’s use of the bias cut to create a sleek, body-skimming look that revolutionize women’s clothing.

Eschewing corsets, padding, stiffening, and anything that distorted the natural curves of a woman’s body, her clothes were famous for accentuating the natural female form. Influenced by the modern dances of Isadora Duncan, Vionnet created designs that showed off a woman’s natural shape. Like Duncan, Vionnet was inspired by ancient Greek art, in which garments appear to float freely around the body rather than distort or mold its shape. As a skilled dressmaker, Vionnet knew that when fabric is cut diagonally or bias, it could be draped to hug the curves of a woman’s body. The bias cut also permits comfort and movement as well as form into her designs.

An intensely private individual, Vionnet avoided public displays and mundane frivolities and often expressed a dislike for the world of fashion, stating: “Insofar as one can talk of a Vionnet school, it comes mostly from my having been an enemy of fashion. There is something superficial and volatile about the seasonal and elusive whims of fashion which offends my sense of beauty.” Vionnet was not concerned with being the “designer of the moment”, preferring to remain true to her own vision of female beauty.

Madeleine Vionnet was 63 when, in 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, she finally closed Vionnet, her fashion house, with which, for 27 years, she had developed many of the concepts and creative and commercial strategies that still, today, characterize the fashion system. The celebrated queen of draping, which she tested using long cuts of crêpe, crêpe de chine, gabardine and satin . Madeleine Vionnet was a star player in that revolution which, starting from the nineteen tens, modernized women’s clothing. She liberated the body from stays and corsets, making women’s personalities, their wellbeing and their dreams the centre of fashion.

Drawing inspiration from Greek art, she created garments that clung to the shape of the body, with a fluidity that echoed its movements, in the conviction that dresses must take on the personality of the person wearing them. In fact, she would say, “when a woman smiles, then her dress should smile too”.

Impressing the world of couture with her totally innovative approach, her sartorial skills and the perfect balance between experimentation and elegance.

Brand Profile

Research Boards - Time Line

Research Boards - Biassociations

Vionnet often went to the Lourve to study classical Greek Art. Her inspiration comes from greek vases and sculptures where beautifully clothes women were dicpited.

Key garment types from classical greek styles are Chiton, Peplos, and Himation. Common characteristics of the 3 garments are drapy designs, absence of darts and mostly significantly, all three are made from a single piece of rectangular fabric, which appeals to Vionnet most.

Following the simple instructions, I made a 1/2 scale Chiton. It is fascinating when I realized that a solid rectangle shape transforms into a fluid garment.

Historical Garment Research

As a geometrician, Vionnet was also inspired the kimono. Similar to the Greek historical garments, the kimono is also made up of rectangles. What Vionnet wanted to achieve was the combination of both the “movement” of the Greek dresses and the “fluid line” of the kimono. Vionnet was particularly fasinated by the kimono sleeve. The above illustrations depicts the design feature of the kimono sleeve and the obi belt as inspiration in her designs.

Historical Garment Research

Features Bias cut quadrant evening gown. Gussets placed in two slashes at the back waist. Slashes of different lengths give an even flare at the hem of the skirt.

Materials Black Satin-back crepe, 3 meters 60’’ wide. Ivory buckle

Collection Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Selected Garment

Final Garment

100% Transparency Information

100% Transparency Information

Toile no. 1

Toile no. 2

Scale : Half

Scale : Half

Pattern Cutting Paper : 1 m

Pattern Cutting Paper : 1 m

Pattern Cutting Paper Price : $8 / 30 sheets

Pattern Cutting Paper Price : $8 / 30 sheets

Fabric : 100% Cotton Calico, 45’’ width

Fabric : 100% Polyester Satin, 45’’ width

Amount of fabric : 3/4 m

Amount of fabric : 2 m

Price per meter : n / a

Price per meter : $8

Total price : n / a

Total price : $16

Drafting

Drafting

Sewing

Sewing

Date

Time

Date

Time

Date

Time

Date

Time

24 / 3

0900 - 1300 hrs

24 / 3

1400 - 1800 hrs

26 / 3

1930 - 2330 hrs

27 / 3

0930 - 1200 hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

(4 hrs)

(4 hrs)

(4 hrs)

Notes :

Notes :

- Toile does not drape appropriately due to inappropriate fabric.

- Circular gathered design feature rises too high on the back.

- Insufficient fabric at the back of the waist to create more drapes on the front waist.

- 45’’ wide fabric is sufficient for the pattern.

- Difficulties sewing fabric with a domestic machine.

- Used paper glue to hold fabric to enable more accurate sewing.

Transparency Information

(2.30hrs)

100% Transparency Information

100% Transparency Information Toile no. 3

Final Garment

Scale : Full

Scale : Full

Pattern Cutting Paper : 6 m

Pattern Cutting Paper : 6 m

Pattern Cutting Paper Price : $8 / 30 sheets

Pattern Cutting Paper Price : $8 / 30 sheets Fabric : 100% Silk Satin Back Crepe

Fabric : 85% Cotton 15% Polyester Satin, 60’’ width

Amount of fabric : 2 1/2 m

Amount of fabric : 3 m

Price per meter : $65

Price per meter : $10

Total price : $162.50

Total price : $30

Drafting

Drafting

Sewing

Sewing

Date

Time

Date

Time

Date

Time

Date

Time

29 / 3

1430 - 1730 hrs

31 / 3

1400 - 1800 hrs

7/4

0900 - 1300 hrs

9/4

1630 - 1830 hrs

/

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

7/4

1400 - 1800 hrs

10 / 4

1300 - 1800 hrs

/

__________ hrs

2000 - 2200 hrs

/

__________ hrs

__________ hrs

/

__________ hrs

/ /

(3 hrs)

__________ hrs __________ hrs

Notes :

/

(4 hrs)

(4 hrs)

7/4

/

__________ hrs

- Toile drapes appropriately.

- Fabric is not sufficiently wide, CB seam is added.

- Insufficient fabric to drape on the front waist.

- Gussets on the back waist is too small, needs to be enlarged, to allow more fabric to drape on the front waist.

Transparency Information

(4 hrs)

Notes :

(2 hrs) (5 hrs)

(2 hrs)

- Difficulties in sewing as fabric is slippery.

- Enlarged gussets allows more fabric to the front waist.

- Hem line lowered by 12 cm

Design Sketch & Details Design Sheet

Pattern Drafter : Mark Heah

Category : Womenswear

Folder Approval Status : Neither Approved nor Rejected

Style Name : Bias Cut Quadrant Dress

Season : Fall / Winter 2014

Date Folder Created : 28 - 3- 2014

Style Number : FW14 - 1637

Production Fabric : 54’’ PLN CDC SILK, TAUPE

Date Folder Modified : 11 - 5 - 2014

Fabrics

54” Strech Silk Satin, Taupe 100% Silk S$ 65 / m

Trimmings

4 Row Swarovski Crystal Rhinestone Band 8 cm wide

Front

Technical Information

Back

Design Sketch & Details Construction Sheet

Pattern Drafter : Mark Heah

Category : Womenswear

Folder Approval Status : Neither Approved nor Rejected

Style Name : Bias Cut Quadrant Dress

Season : Fall / Winter 2014

Date Folder Created : 28 - 3- 2014

Style Number : FW14 - 1637

Production Fabric : 54’’ PLN CDC SILK, TAUPE

Date Folder Modified : 11 - 5 - 2014

Seam Finishing

French Seam The centre front & centre back seams are finished with a french seam of 1 cm wide.

Hem Finishing

Roll & Top Stitch The width of the rolled hem is 0.5 cm. It is double rolled.

When sewing the first roll, it is important to ease the hem slightly while sewing. Otherwise, hem will pucker.

Front

Technical Information

Back

Design Sketch & Details Patterns Sheet

Pattern Drafter : Mark Heah

Category : Womenswear

Folder Approval Status : Neither Approved nor Rejected

Style Name : Bias Cut Quadrant Dress

Season : Fall / Winter 2014

Date Folder Created : 28 - 3- 2014

Style Number : FW14 - 1637

Production Fabric : 54’’ PLN CDC SILK, TAUPE

Date Folder Modified : 11 - 5 - 2014

CENTRE FRONT

As the pattern too wide to fit in a 60’’ wide fabric on bias, the pattern piece of the body will be divided at the centre back. Consequently, a centre back sea will need to be added to the dress.

E

TR

N

CE

FOLD

CENTRE FRONT

CK BA

Technical Information

NECK STRAP

This gown made from a single quadrant skirt, has bias extensions that gather on the shoulder strap and cover each side of the bodice. There are two slashes, with a square gusset insertion at each side of the back hip.

Twisting the shoulder strap prevents it from falling off the shoulders. The diamante buckle, attached to the fabric on one side of the waist, hooks at the other side of the front waist. It creates a simulated belt that is aesthetically pleasing, but also secures the excess fullness of the skirt underneath.

Design Sketch & Details Construction Sheet

Pattern Drafter : Mark Heah

Category : Womenswear

Folder Approval Status : Neither Approved nor Rejected

Style Name : Bias Cut Quadrant Dress

Season : Fall / Winter 2014

Date Folder Created : 28 - 3- 2014

Style Number : FW14 - 1637

Production Fabric : 54’’ PLN CDC SILK, TAUPE

Date Folder Modified : 11 - 5 - 2014

Notes :

Seam allowances are 1.5 cm all around.

II

I

Two Pieces

Two Pieces C

G F A

A

B

Order of Assembly FOLD

B

1. Form the gown

N

CE

PE

O

i. Match centre back lines of Parts II and stitch. ii. Match gusset lines A and B or Part I on lines A and B of part II and stitch. Gussets will be the side pieces of the back bodice.

E

TR

N

E

CK BA

iii. Make the tube. Stitch line D of part II up to point E. III

CENTRE FRONT

NECK STRAP

D

iv. Bend edges in, fold, and stitch lines C, F, and G of parts I and II to make a tunnel for the strap.

2. Attach the buckle on the right side and sew eyelets on the left side.

3. Complete the strap. i. Finish neck strap of part III. ii. Insert strap through tunnel. iii. Cross strap at back before joining.

4. Attach buckle to eyelets after wearer pulls on over head.

Technical Information

Design Sketch & Details Measurements & Specifications

Pattern Drafter : Mark Heah

Category : Womenswear

Folder Approval Status : Neither Approved nor Rejected

Style Name : Bias Cut Quadrant Dress

Season : Fall / Winter 2014

Date Folder Created : 28 - 3- 2014

Style Number : FW14 - 1637

Production Fabric : 54’’ PLN CDC SILK, TAUPE

Date Folder Modified : 11 - 5 - 2014

NAME : MARK HEAH SEASON : FALL / WINTER 2015 DESCRIPTION :

DATE : 12 - 4 - 2014 SIZE :

STYLE :

FABRICATION : ACCESSORIES :

LABEL :

TRIMS :

FRONT 1 2 3 4 5 6

NECK DROP NECK - WIDTH NECK CIRCUMFERENCE SHOULDER - LENGTH ACROSS SHOULDER LENGTH * a. HPS b. CF / CB c. SIDE 7 ACROSS WAIST 8 ACROSS CHEST 9 WAIST - LENGTH * a. CF / CB b. HPS 10 ACROSS WAIST a. Relaxed b. Extended 11 HIGH HIPS (10.16cm from waist) 12 LOW HIP (17.78 from waist) 13 BOTTOM EDGE OPENING 14 HPS TO UNDER ARM

Technical Information

BACK

TOTAL

COMMETNS

FRONT 15 ARMHOLE CIRCUMFERENCE 16 UPPER SLEEVE - WIDTH 17 SLEEVE - LENGTH * a. Overarm b. Underarm c. CB d. HPS 18 ELBOW 19 SLEEVE HEM / CUFF OPENING a. Relaxed b. Extended 20 DEPTH OF SLEEVE HEM 21 CUFF HEIGHT 22 DART a. b. c. d. e.

23 BINDING WIDTH / HEM 24 BUTTON PLACEMENT

BACK

TOTAL

COMMETNS

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