How Are Aesthetics and Function Combined to Create Fashion in the Work of Madeleine Vionnet and Jacqueline Durran?

How Are Aesthetics and Function Combined to Create Fashion in The Work of Madeleine Vionnet and Jacqueline Durran?

This Essay aims to compare and contrast the works of the esteemed designer Madeleine Vionnet and the admired, contemporary works of costume designer Jacqueline Durran.

The nineteen thirties was a time of great change for women. Millicent Fawcett, the leader of the original suffragettes relentlessly attacked politicians, went on hunger strike and even burnt churches in protest for women's rights. She argued that wealthy women who employed men as cooks and gardeners etc were not given the right to vote, yet the men in her employment were, and the few women that did work paid the same amount of tax as men and nor were they allowed to vote. Despite her pleas for reason, she was disregarded with contempt. Some statements made by men were incredulously rude in retort:

"Political power in many large cities would chiefly be in the hands of young, ill-educated, giddy, and often ill-conducted (badly behaved) girls."

Frederick Rylands (1896)

(From:http://www.baolucgiadinh.net accessed 15/01/11)

After countless, unyielding protests by the growing number of suffragettes, a law was passed in nineteen twenty eight giving women the same political rights as men. From this moment onwards women's lives were changed radically forever, and fashion took a drastic and liberating turn for the better

Fig. 1 Fig. 2

The nineteen thirties waved goodbye to the promiscuous, immoral flappers of the twenties and gave way to more courteous and chivalrous women. Women's body shapes were revealed with the tightening of waistlines and accentuated busts. Perms improved which meant that hair became softer, shinier and lavish. Female attire was prettier with charming, clean cut day dresses and glamorous, beautiful evening gowns by night.

Up until the nineteen thirties, women had no reason to require practical wear, but now they played sports, had jobs, took care of the housework and generally lived much more active lives. Their wardrobes were emptied of stiff, starched, impractical day suits and replaced with much looser, fluid garments that allowed for more movement.

One designer of the thirties who was illustrious for creating these new exciting, playful and elegant dresses was Madeleine Vionnet. She discovered the technique of cutting on the bias and then created spectacular, usually Grecian style gowns made of silks, chiffons, crepe de chines and satins.

Vionnet was known chiefly for her work with draping. She had an incredible talent for turning any fabric into a beautiful, flowing and almost liquid garment that moved with its wearer and accentuated the natural human form. Before dresses had thick wads of padding, flattened busts with restricting corsets and stiffened fabric. Vionnet strongly opposed this distorted way of dressing. She said: "when a woman smiles, then her dress should smile too."

Her garments were usually greatly inspired by her deepest passion - Greek art. She was enthused by how liberating Grecian attire was. No matter what size or shape a woman was, Grecian clothing could make the wearer look and feel like a goddess.

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Madeleine Vionnet's innovative cutting techniques gave the wearer the ability to use her garment for expression and motion and her choice of fabrics allowed freedom and movement as well as drawing attention to the female form.

Vionnet said that one reason she began to use bias cut fabric was that it "possessed an inherent stretchability." By creating dresses that could be put on over the head, she formed pieces that were both extremely comfortable and easy to put on and take off (something women hadn't experienced before due to restricting corsets and steel hoop skirts). This anticipated the functional quality we find in knits today.

Vionnet was a deeply private person and often avoided any large public gatherings such as frolicsome parties. She would also, ironically, frequently express an aversion to the world of fashion. She said:

"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."

(From: 'Madeleine Vionnet' by Pamela Golbin, 2009)

Vionnet designed, not for recognition, acknowledgement or to become the next big thing, she designed for personal achievement, for female liberation and to stay true to her own individual vision of what female beauty should be.

When Vionnet purchased the fabric for a garment she would buy two yards more than necessary in order to accommodate draping and detail. She made sure that not an inch of material went to waste.

Madeleine Vionnet's garments are effortlessly identifiable. Many designers at the time tried to copy her beautiful bias cuts, but the copies with their lumpy seams and cheap fabric are easy to pick out against Vionnet's flawless cuts. She also knew just how to manipulate fabric. The signature twist at the shoulder or in the bust area often re- placed a dart. It functions both structurally and aesthetically, pulling in surplus material that would normally had to have been cut off or sewn up making the dress bulkier than it needed to be.

Vionnet's garments were faultless. Not just in the draping, but in the seams, hems, facing and stitching too.

Another respected designer who took inspiration from Vionnet's methods is British costume designer Jacqueline Durran. She is known chiefly for her wonderful collection of costumes for the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice for which she received an Oscar nomination and won a Satellite award, and for her stunning creations on the set of Atonement where her incredibly beautiful and unmistakable green silk dress won 'best film costume of all time'.

Fig. 4

Durran designed and created the dress from scratch. Her target was to steer away from the 'scruffy, slumpy and bumpy' garments so often worn by upper- middle class families of the 1930's and create something of highest couture instead.

The down to the ground, 1930's style evening gown in emerald green silk has a striking sinuous bias cut bodice with a tangled bow image perforated below the neckline. It is loosely fitted around the bust with