Augusta Bernard
About
the designers
Augusta Bernard was born in 1886 in Provence, France. She started her atelier in Biarritz, moving to Paris in 1922. She linked her first and last names together, to avoid confusion with other houses with similar names.
Throughout the 20's, she made slim, long, bias-cut evening dresses in pale, moonlit colours. Her clients, many of them Americans, liked her simple dresses which were an exquisite backdrop for their jewels.
The Look
Like Vionnet, she was a technician with a mastery of the bias cut. By cutting the fabric of the dress on the cross-grain, she achieved a fluidity which gave the evening gown great elasticity and a refined, draping quality. Decoration was achieved by the material itself, scarves floating at the shoulder or hip, flounces, scalloped tiers, or tucks applied in a neck-to-hem spiral. She avoided elaborate embroidery used by other couturiers.