The first international exhibition on the fashion designer Madeleine Vionnet was held in Marseille at the Centre de la Vieille Charité in 1991. The idea came from Azzedine Alaïa, President of the Institut International de la Mode (now Maison Mode Méditerranée) and a great admirer of Madeleine Vionnet.
Exhume and present to the public the modernity of the bias cut, for which she was both the designer and sculptor of a new feminine silhouette. Fashion owes her the invention of copyright and the first logo for a fashion house. She was also a business leader at the forefront of the social project, with the right to professional training, paid vacations and maternity leave, well before 1936. The Vionnet spirit is outside fashion and outside time. She remains a timeless master thinker.
This exhibition, conceived by Catherine Ormen, Curator of the Musée de la Mode, and her assistant, Nancy Racine, also provided an opportunity to experiment with working with artist Daniel Cendron to create resin and Plexiglas shells molded to the exact measurements of each dress, as well as research work with CIRVA (Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plastiques), which produced glass busts. It was also an opportunity to work with a young photographer from Marseilles, Michel Sedan, who has become one of our most sought-after artistic directors.
(Photos E. Montagnier)