Madeleine Vionnet is something of a mystery. She greatly influenced the course of fashion during the 20s and 30s, but, in contrast to so many fashion creators, she chose an intensely private lifestyle, avoiding public displays and mundane frivolities. A native of the Jura mountains, she never fit the fashion stereotype of the social butterfly. 
    Madeleine Vionnet’s ideas led to a more natural trend in women’s fashion: freeing women from the constraints of the corset, her models followed the body’s forms, rather like Greek sculpture. Her work has been compared to that of the cubists in art, who freed painting from the confines of the traditional style of representation. She added a third dimension to clothes, giving them a flowing and supple structure, which not only expressed the body’s shape, but giving them an emotional dimension as well. To quote Madeleine Vionnet, When a woman smiles, her dress should also smile. 
    A brand new Madeleine Vionnet boutique has just opened near Opera in the first arrondissement. The elegant and refined interior has been designed in ebony and ivory, in the Art Deco style typical of the Vionnet period. It’s a must-see, for its limited-edition hand-painted silk mousseline scarves, its crocodile purses with buckles shaped like deer, and its unusual and high-quality fashion accessories.