Madeleine Vionnet (June 22, 1876 – March 2, 1975) was a French fashion designer. Called the "Queen of the bias cut" and "the architect among dressmakers", Vionnet is best-known today for her elegant Grecian-style dresses and for introducing the bias cut to the fashion world.Born into a poor family in Chilleurs-aux-Bois, Loiret, Vionnet began her apprenticeship as a seamstress at age 11. After a brief marriage at age 18, she left her husband and went to London to work as a hospital seamstress. While in London, Vionnet worked as a fitter for Kate Reily. Vionnet eventually returned to Paris and trained with the well known fashion house Callot Soeurs and later with Jacques Doucet. In 1912 she founded her own fashion house, "Vionnet". In the 1920s Vionnet created a stir by introducing the bias cut, a technique for cutting cloth diagonal to the grain of the fabric enabling it to cling to the body while moving with the wearer. Vionnet's use of the bias cut to create a sleek, flattering, body-skimming look would help revolutionize women's clothing and carry her to the top of the fashion world.
Madeleine Vionnet believed that "when a woman smiles, then her dress should smile too." Eschewing corsets, padding, stiffening, and anything that distorted the natural curves of a woman's body, her clothes were famous for accentuating the natural female form. Influenced by the modern dances of Isadora Duncan, Vionnet created designs that showed off a woman's natural shape. Like Duncan, Vionnet was inspired by ancient Greek art, in which garments appear to float freely around the body rather than distort or mold its shape. As an expert couturier, Vionnet knew that textiles cut on the diagonal or bias could be draped to match the curves of a woman's body and echo its fluidity of motion. She used this "bias cut" to promote the potential for expression and motion, integrating comfort and movement as well as form into her designs.
Vionnet's apparently simple styles involved a lengthy preparation process, including cutting, draping, and pinning fabric designs on to miniature dolls, before recreating them in chiffon, silk, or Moroccan crepe on life-size models. Vionnet used materials such as crêpe de chine, gabardine, and satin to make her clothes; fabrics that were unusual in women's fashion of the 1920s and 30s. She would order fabrics two yards wider than necessary in order to accommodate draping, creating clothes - particularly dresses - that were luxurious and sensual but also simple and modern. Characteristic Vionnet styles that clung to and moved with the wearer included the handkerchief dress, cowl neck, and halter top.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Vionnet
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More Fashion Designers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art
David Stukas has not written any screenplays, has never received a Pulitzer, and is not a regular contributor to National Public Radio. SOMEONE KILLED HIS BOYFRIEND is his first book. He lives in Palm Springs, California and is now using the pseudonym of David James.
Someone Killed His Boyfriend by David Stukas
Lesbian Anthology / Historical Romance
Office romance is a my kink, probably due to my chosen profession. I can relate to the office dynamics, and yes, even to the worries Harrison was having in being involved with Gray, who was one of his employees. This is not a long novel, actually it's a novella, so it's not surprise that the reader was plunged right in the middle of the action, meaning that, attraction is already in place and both Harrison than Gray know each other well, and also that both of them are available, and willing in body if not in mind. There is no hesitance of such, is he gay or not, is he interested or not, and the only obstacle is their professional relationship.