CHANEL COLLECTION CROISIERE PART I
Dominique, embroiderer and fairy at Lesage, teaching me to embroider a model from the collection that will be on show in a few hours...
Well, as some of you already know, I'm in Dubai to attend the Chanel cruise show, the theme of which is Paris/Dubai. Yes, you read that right, I'm in Dubai with Chanel, seriously!? I want to scream in hysterics. Ahaha, already when the house's sweet press attaché contacted me about the show at the Grand Palais ( remember ), I almost wanted to cry, and when I received the invitation, I was rolling around in my living room. I told myself I could die in peace (or almost). What's the craziest thing that could happen to me with Chanel, apart from going out for a Diet Coke with Karl in a parallel reality? Nothing could. And then this sweet press attaché reminds me of a month or so ago, I remember the scene very well, my friend Nardjisse up to her eyes in pregnancy in front of me, Charlotte a little further away... And me, trying as hard as I can to remain normal, yes everything's fine, I'm offered to go and learn how to embroider a piece from the Cruise collection in the Lesage workshops, and to learn how to make a Camellia at Lemarié, and then if I'm ever available, to go to Dubai for 3 days to attend the fashion show in the desert, on an island. Hehehe, imagine the scene: the girls half understand what's going on and are dumbfounded. I'm laughing nervously, but I've got a blissful smile on my face - THANK YOU, my lucky star. Afterwards, of course, we listened to Larusso to celebrate. Madness.
Karl's designs and embroidery trials validated by Chanel.
The days went by and the big day was just around the corner. I was already familiar with the House of Lesage, having seen numerous reports on the behind-the-scenes workshops and its little hands, and I recommend the magnificent documentary Signé Chanel by Loïc Prigent for Arte. For me, this know-how, this craft, is just as important as a work of art, it's a kind of world heritage to be protected, and I have the right to be there, to touch, to caress, to photograph, to film. We're welcomed into the archive room, where some 60,000 embroidery samples from 1805 to the present day are on display. I'm excited, it's a treasure trove. In 1924, Maison Lesage bought the Albert Michonet embroidery workshop and all its archives. In 1997, Chanel bought the luxury craft houses working on its collections, including Lesage and Lemarié, which we'll be talking about today. And last year, Lesage bought the Lanel workshops and the archive collection grew even larger. 60,000 pieces of history carefully arranged in black boxes, classified, dated and displayed in this room. I'm getting dizzy writing this.
That morning with Tania, it was at a time when I was particularly tired, and I didn't really know what was going to happen, how we were going to be welcomed, whether we were going to be a nuisance etc... And then we went for it, the archive room had already shaken us up, and now it was time to go and learn, discover and wrap ourselves in beauty, these three things did me a world of good, nourished me. We looked at each other like two children who'd just received a present. "It's beautiful" was all that came out of our mouths. The people at the workshops are incredibly kind and available, and above all they're driven by an uncommon thirst for sharing and transmission. I'm still in shock.
Better than Disney, I asked Dominique if she wouldn't adopt me.
Even in the chaos and stress of the day, because you couldn't tell that the workshops were particularly ahead of schedule at the time, all was calm and silent, the studio flooded with light, it was almost divine. Dominique, whom I met, the embroiderer who was going to teach me how to embroider, told me that you can't move faster when you're stressed and agitated. Amen to that. This woman is a fairy.
I discovered that it's the embroiderers at the workshop who offer embroidery samples for the Chanel collections. In fact, the theme of the collection is given, as is the color range, and then each of the little hands proposes their variations on the imposed theme. I can only imagine how proud you must be to have your design selected and to see it on parade!
Within the same walls are the Lemarié workshops, which handle all the feather creations and flowers, as well as the sewing. Well, not sewing, in the sense of assembling the garment, but really working on the surface, like machine-sewing all those little white neoprene flowers. Or, as in the image below, sewing all those multicolored flowers together to create an openwork flowerbed. This is surface ennoblement.
I'd love to make you a little DIY, a Chanel-inspired "swim cap" swimsuit with hundreds of little white neoprene flowers!
The visit to these workshops ended with a little Camellia class with Elsa, the head of the Atelier Fleurs (a great title, don't you think? Head of Flowers).
I have to admit that I was much less at ease than with the embroidery, it was really technical and then the use of the little burning ball to preform the shape of each petal, was quite impressive. I had no idea how to do it, and I was far too focused on not burning myself to hear Elsa's instructions. A camellia like this takes about 20 minutes to make, but the more complex ones can take up to 4 hours....
And TA-DA! 10000 thanks to Angélique and Agnès for this magical opportunity! To Elsa and Dominique for their patience and passion. And I'll see you tomorrow with images from the show! I'm off to the desert!
