Goddess Worship; Sophia Kokosalaki is resurrecting the mythic house of Vionnet.(Madeleine Vionnet)

Byline: Sarah Mower

The story of how Sophia Kokosalaki arrived at Vionnet is a tale of such symmetry that it echoes the geometrical elegance of a Madeleine Vionnet original. "Of course, everyone in fashion knows about Madeleine Vionnet," Kokosalaki says. "The first thing you do when you arrive at college is go into the library and find the book about her. You open it and gasp. These clothes are still completely modern." She is flipping through the definitive Madeleine Vionnet, by Betty Kirke, which was published in 1998, a year before Kokosalaki arrived from Athens to take her master's at Central Saint Martins in London. "Look!" she exclaims, running her hand over page after page of draped, folded, wrapped, and pleated gowns from the twenties and thirties. "You could wear one of those to go out tonight. And someone would ask, 'Oh, is that a Japanese dress?' "

Kokosalaki is sitting in the black lacquered and mirrored Vionnet studio on the Place Vendome in Paris, scrutinizing the Vionnet pieces she is about to allow into the public domain for the first time via Vogue. They are, frankly, gorgeous. A streak of pale-gold lame undulates to the floor without clinging; a water-blue gown with knotted straps twisting through the bodice and crisscrossing the spine is embossed with a minute 3-D pattern of waves; a diagonally tiered spiral of chiffon is tinted from ecru to mauve at the hem. And there's more in the back: trenches, tops with scarf-wraps to tie on the body, suspended cocktail dresses. All will be available exclusively at Barneys New York in January.

This is a moment of truth for the two others at the table, as well. One is Ar_naud de Lummen, the CEO of Vionnet, whose father has owned the label since the eighties. The other is the American author and conservator Betty Kirke, who met Madeleine Vionnet in 1974 and dedicated herself to forensically copying 38 of her designs. The patterns are published in her book.

At 33, Kokosalaki is both brave and humble enough to stand up to this scrutiny and the general comparisons that will be strewn in the way of the designer daring enough to pick up the hallowed scissors of Vionnet. Her dry sense of humor helps. "We talk a lot about 'the spirit of Vionnet' here," she says, laughing. "After the fourth hour, I sometimes get ...