chic lit
Runway Bestsellers
“Madeleine Vionnet,” edited by
Pamela Golbin ($75, Rizzoli).
Long before Narciso Rodriguez
and Reem Acra trotted elegant, liquid-satin gowns down the runway,
early 20th-century Parisian designer
Madeleine Vionnet was pioneering
such figure-enhancing, evening
wear innovations as the bias cut and
architectural draping. In this lush
volume, her work gets its Technicolor
due with photos and sketches of
flapper- and starlet-worthy clothes
from 1919 to 1940. Winners include a
1927 frock spiderwebbed with beads
and a bell-sleeved, 1936 organdy
coat (above) stiffened with — gasp! —
horse-hair piping. JENNIFER BARGER AND BETSY LOWTHER
