1
Cotton Muslin Toile
Betty Kirke reproduction of a gown by Madeleine Vionnet (1876-1975) dated 1918-1919.
The original gown is made of an off-white silk crêpe and is in the collection
of the Musée de la mode et du textile, U.F.A.C., Paris.
On loan from Betty Kirke

 

Designer, costume conservator and author Betty Kirke has been researching the work of Madeleine Vionnet for over thirty years. She met with Vionnet in 1974 in an effort to understand her extraordinary body or work. Mrs. Kirke was able to examine many gowns in Vionnet's collection and in museums around the world. Fascinated by the technical innovations of Vionnet's work, she observed every garment in detail. Because many gowns had been cut on the bias, gravity had distorted the cloth. As a result, Mrs. Kirke painstakingly measured the warps and wefts of pieces of many gowns in order to un-skew each part and obtain the original pattern shapes. This led to the discovery of Madeleine Vionnet as a master geometrician and to the creation to one of the most original, important and impactful book in the field of costume history: Betty Kirke's Madeleine Vionnet (Tokyo: Kyuryudo Art Publishing Co., 1991).

In the book, pattern one presents the four modified quadrates of the spiraling gown seen in the exhibition (#1). A quadrate is a geometric shape with four sides that intersect at right angles, such as a square or rectangle. There are essentially two pattern shapes in this gown: one used in the front and in the back and another for both sides. Although each pattern piece is cut on the grain, Vionnet turned the quadrates diagonally so that the grain of the cloth and seams are placed diagonally over the body. Seams are placed midway in the quadrates which leaves excess fabric exposed. Although this gown is not cut on the bias, it is draped to use the cloth in this direction which causes the grain to spiral around the body and ease movement. According to Mrs. Kirke, the manipulation of the large pieces of cloth used for gowns created ca. 1918 may have forced Vionnet to use a half-scale mannequin which would have eased the manipulation of smaller pieces of cloth. (1) In her opinion, the fall of the garment on the bias may have been meant to simulate the jabot-like folds of the Classical Greek Chiton and its cowl neckline. (2) The gown also dates from a period of collaboration between Vionnet and the artist Thayaht, a proponent of Futurism she had met in Italy during World War I. (3) The spiraling structure and winding fall of exposed excess fabric would have contributed to the art movement's search for dynamic energy and movement.

(1) Betty Kirke, interview with Anne Bissonnette, August 9, 2005. Discussion in Mrs. Kirke's home in New York City.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Betty Kirke, Madeleine Vionnet, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998, 63.

 

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2
Cotton Muslin Toile
Betty Kirke reproduction of a gown by Madeleine Vionnet (1876-1975) dated 1919-1920.
The original gown is made of an off-white silk crêpe and is in the collection
of the Musée de la mode et du textile, U.F.A.C., Paris.
On loan from Betty Kirke.

 

The third pattern of Betty Kirke's book presents the four modified quadrates of the gown with twisted shoulder seams seen in the exhibition (#2). The gown is essentially composed of four square-shaped quadrates cut on the grain. Vionnet used the quadrates diagonally to cover the body: each piece has a narrow diagonal section that becomes one quarter of a tube encircling the body. All excess fabric becomes exposed triangles. These triangles are held open by a sash at the hips. The quadrate edges achieve an effect of diagonal lines that crisscross around the body. The winding fall of the triangles remains jabot-like and reminiscent of the Classical Greek Chiton, as does the shoulder treatment where the back shoulder seams are twisted wrong side out and attached to the front shoulder seams. This creates a twisting effect at the shoulder. Lastly, the proportion of the gown with the hip sash corresponds to Vionnet's desire to apply the principles of Ancient Greek dynamic symmetry to clothing design.(4)

(4) Betty Kirke, interview with Anne Bissonnette, August 9, 2005. Discussion in Mrs. Kirke's home in New York City; Betty Kirke, Madeleine Vionnet, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998, 116.

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3
Cotton Muslin Toile
Based on the Betty Kirke reproduction of a gown by Madeleine Vionnet (1876-1975) dated 1925.
The original gown is made of red silk crêpe romaine and is in the collection of Mark Walsh, New York.
Pattern 23 from Madeleine Vionnet by Betty Kirke (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998)
reproduced by Anne Bissonnette, August 2005.

 

A deceptively simple gown from 1925 is the focus of the twenty-third pattern of Mrs. Kirke's book. By this time, hip emphasis had become widely adopted and helped to create the typical unbroken rectangular silhouette of the twenties. Still playing with geometric shapes, Vionnet slashed the cloth vertically and inserted an isosceles triangle with a narrow base centered under the arm to create a side portion to the upper bodice. This provided additional fabric to accommodate the bust and create a cowl neckline. The other side of the triangle was stitched to the main pattern piece which forms a quarter of a circle, or quadrant. The furthest corner of each quadrant meets at the opposite hip and thus crisscrosses at center back. This floating section creates the illusion of an Ancient Greek cape as it partially loops on itself at the hips. (5)  The bottom section of the main pattern piece creates a simple straight cut skirt following the cross grain. A beaded section of the main pattern piece serves to simulate an elliptical hip belt that does not reach the center front of the gown. Mrs. Kirke alludes to the ingenuity and minimalism of this dress when noting for the reader that "each part is the result of the cut or manipulation of the previous one." (6)

(5) Betty Kirke, interview with Anne Bissonnette, August 9, 2005. Discussion in Mrs. Kirke's home in New York City.
(6) Betty Kirke, Madeleine Vionnet, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998, 153.

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4
Cotton Muslin Toile
Betty Kirke reproduction of a gown by Madeleine Vionnet (1876-1975) dated 1935.
The original gown is made of a red silk crêpe sash over black crêpe
and was in Madeleine Vionnet's private collection.
On loan from Betty Kirke.

 

A picture of this gown is included in Mrs. Kirke's book but the pattern is not. Upon meeting Madeleine Vionnet in 1974, Mrs. Kirke was invited to try on this gown and became perplexed by the long streamers that are affixed to the center front of the neckline. Spiraling symmetrically around the body, they are the expression of Vionnet's love of Ancient Greek vases. Guided by dynamic symmetry in their shapes and by a focus on positive and negative spaces, those ancient vases had an enormous influence on Vionnet's designs and on her methods of production. Though several mid 1920s Vionnet gowns reproduced the decorative motifs of red figure vases, the concept of positive and negative space was pushed further and was often attained through structural means, as seen in garment #3, and through the use of both faces of double-faced fabrics such as satin-backed crêpes. Early on, Vionnet put her half-scale mannequin on a revolving piano stool. She let the diagonally placed cloth spiral around the body, found ways to look at the body as a three-dimensional form and anthropomorphized the potter's work. (7) After a life's journey observing the work of Madeleine Vionnet, Betty Kirke has realized that, through her excursions at the Louvres to see Greek vases, Vionnet went beyond surface decoration: she internalized the aesthetics and proportions guiding Ancient Greek Art and revolutionized draping when faced with the limits of the orthogonal system of pattern-making. (8)

(7) Betty Kirke, interview with Anne Bissonnette, August 9, 2005. Discussion in Mrs. Kirke's home in New York City.
(8) Ibid.

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For more information on Madeleine Vionnet
Click here to visit Betty Kirke's Web site (external link)