Vionnet Scales: Slick as a Fish

Excerpt from the Met Costume Institute:

Evening dress

spring/summer 1938

Madeleine Vionnet French

Though there are separate specialists for applied braid and fringe, known as the crépinières, Vionnet chose in this instance to employ an embroidery of individual graduated lengths of silk thread passed and looped through the fabric, with each thread forming two drops of fringe. The scallop arcs constitute the sole decoration of the dress.