Madeleine Vionnet (pronounced [ma.də.lɛn vjɔ.ne]; June 22, 1876, Loiret, France – March 2, 1975) was a French fashion designer best known for being the “pioneer of the bias cut dress”, Vionnet trained in London before returning to France to establish her first fashion house in Paris in 1912. Although it was forced to close in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, it re-opened after the war and Vionnet became one of the leading designers of 1920s-30s Paris. Vionnet was forced to close her house again in 1939 at the start of the Second World War and she retired in 1940.
Called "perhaps the greatest geometrician among all French couturiers" in 1925 British Vogue, Vionnet is best known today for her elegant Grecian-style dresses and for popularising the bias cut within the fashion world and is credited with inspiring a number of recent designers.
