The Designer Spotlight is a monthly column that features one impactful designer and what they did for the industry. The story of a designer truly never ends, so long as their clothing lives on. 

While history credits Paul Poiret with the demise of the corset, one of the driving forces behind the end of this particular awful trend often goes unnamed and unnoticed.

Madeleine Vionnet, a French designer from the early 1900s, was one of the first designers to remove corsets from her dresses altogether.

Vionnet’s dresses are beautifully draped and draw on silhouettes much like the ones we saw in Ancient Greece. She also invented the bias cut, a cut that other designers still use and comes in and out of style as most trends do.

Her silhouettes were famous in the early 1900s, but really took off around the 1930s, making her truly famous.Her evening gowns became iconic.

As far as designers go, she lived a quiet life. Her name isn’t known like Coco Chanel, nor is she credited with her part in ending corsets, nonetheless, her contributions to fashion were significant, and they are noticed here.

Photo from: Vionnet, Madeleine. Evening dress. ca. 1934. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Bloomsbury Fashion Central. Web. 15 Aug. 2017. <https://www-bloomsburyfashioncentral-com.ezproxy.emich.edu/products/berg-fashion-library/museum/victoria-albert-museum/evening-dress-26483&gt;.