Marie Madeleine Valentine Vionnet

Place: Chilleurs-Aux-Bois

Born: 1876

Death: 1975

Biography:

Madeleine Vionnet was a French fashion designer born on June 22, 1876 in Chilleurs-aux-Bois, France. She is 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. She 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. She died on March 2, 1975 in Paris. Vionnet is considered one of the greatest geometricians among all French couturiers and is best known for her elegant Grecian-style dresses and for popularising the bias cut within the fashion world. She is credited with inspiring a number of recent designers.