Vionnet - Our Latest Collection
Drafting supplies from my year in Paris
A few years ago I really wanted to get back in touch with my fashion roots, I thought about starting to make clothes for myself to scratch that itch, but eventually I realized I just wanted to drape and play with fabric again - to explore and get inspired. I set the idea aside until mid 2019 when I started ordering yards and yards of fabric and decided to use empty stretcher bars instead of a dress form to start to create with. What would that do without a waist to or chest to give shape to the fabric? I really began working out the process while doing my artist residency at the @chateauorquevaux in France. I spent a month, not making what appeared to be progress, but it was - I was working out how to approach this idea, what was working and what wasn’t. Most of it wasn’t, but there is so much to learn in the failures of experimentation. Eventually I started making actual progress, started to have the ideas come to life - I looked at is sculpting with fabric. It is. I have these pieces hanging all over my house. Three dimensional pieces that are made, photographed and then translated to the flat print of wallpaper. That is also what is interesting about this collection - seeing the transformation from 3D to 2D. To see if we can keep the depth of the pieces. That transformation abstracts the original idea - takes it out of the literal and into the conceptual. Conceptual and experimental is where I like to live - it is what drives my creativity and I am doing my best work when I can find that place and stay there for a while. These designs are a big departure from our usual work and I hope you all enjoy them. As an artist, I am always looking to evolve and explore what is calling to me at the moment and letting that take me on a journey to a surprise destination.
One of the early experimental draping creations
“Forever a student of design, our founder tapped into her roots of fashion to create the Vionnet Collection. Inspired by Tracy’s time living in Paris and studying at Haute Couture School - Vionnet manipulates an assortment of textures into dramatic, epic scenery. By using draping techniques learned in her time as a student in Paris, the Vionnet Collection evokes a sense of indulgence without pretense by sculpting fabric as would be done in Parisienne Atelier. The collection brings experimental, dramatic artwork into the home or commercial space with an effortless, nearly tactile, monochromatic aesthetic.”
When I was 18 and had graduated high school in Garland, TX (suburbs of Dallas) I packed up and headed out to San Francisco for college. I earned a BFA at the Academy of Art University with a double major (I don’t think that is technically a thing, but I took all the courses for 2 majors) in Fashion Design and Textile Design.
I was always way better at the textile design part of school - pattern making was like a foreign language I always struggled to understand. I could get through it, but it always took me longer than everyone else.
Because I took all the extra classes it took 5 years to complete my degree and just before my last year I was given a scholarship to spend a year abroad in Paris studying at l’ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. It was taught fully in French and is the school associated with the federation that oversees the Haute Couture fashion industry. Basically the school was created with the intention of feeding the design students into the Haute Couture houses in Paris, so we would leave with the skills to work at that level.
I showed up speaking a little bit of French - conversational - quickly I realized I was in way over my head as far as understanding the assignments and keeping up when I didn’t have the same education as the students there. For example, I had a knitwear class. I had done knitwear before and was familiar with “hand knitting” with a carriage. This was hand knitting with 2 needles and the assignment given was design a piece of knitwear and knit it. Ummmm…..
I have a million stories from that year in Paris and I will share them over time, but where this ties back to the new collection is the draping class I took - Moulage.
It was so hard to learn when my French was not strong. I had definitely never learned the terms used in a fashion design curriculum , but the was so fun and challenging, I loved that class even when I could not keep up at all!! I’ve learned over the years that I deeply enjoy being dropped into challenging situations and being forced outside of my comofort zone. Over time I have started to feel at ease living outside of my comfort zone. Draping was kind of free, you could manipulate the fabric and let it lead you to an idea. Flat pattern making was taking your idea and engineering the pattern to creat the garment in your head from a blank piece of paper. They were opposite in the approach to constructing a garment. Draping offered a way to explore and create new things you would not have imagined on your own, this has always been part of my artistic DNA experimenting and letting that lead you to something new.
One of my final designs