Afternoon dress
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Afternoon dress
- Design House: House of Vionnet (French, active 1912–14; 1918–39)
- Designer: Madeleine Vionnet (French, Chilleurs-aux-Bois 1876–1975 Paris)
- Date: 1931–32
- Culture: French
- Medium: silk
- Credit Line: Gift of Miss Isabel Shults, 1944
- Object Number: C.I.44.64.22a, b
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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House of Vionnet
Madeleine Vionnet
1924
House of Vionnet
Madeleine Vionnet
ca. 1936
House of Vionnet
Madeleine Vionnet
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House of Vionnet
Madeleine Vionnet
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