To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the legendary embroidery atelier Lesage has opened the exhibition Lesage, 100 Years of Fashion and Decoration at the Le19m gallery in Paris. The company has played an important role in the development of haute couture, creating decorative elements for the garments of the world’s most renowned fashion labels. Alongside Chanel, Saint Laurent, Schiaparelli, and Balenciaga, the exhibition also features a look by designer Laima Jurča, created in collaboration with artist Marta Veinberga.
The history of Lesage dates back to 1924, when the Lesage family took over the Michonet embroidery workshop, which had worked with the first haute couture houses in France. Since then, the company has decorated garments for Chanel, Dior, Balmain, Givenchy, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Valentino, and others. Lesage not only works with established names in the fashion world but also with emerging talent, helping to design garments for the finalists of the prestigious Hyères International Festival.
Laima Jurča’s collaboration with Lesage also began at the Hyeres Festival, where she participated in 2021 with her collection Collective Blanket, created in collaboration with artist Martu Veinberga. «The collection is a project between fashion and visual art, pushing their boundaries and highlighting the particularities of both disciplines in a new way. When we submitted the collection to the Hyeres Festival, we had no idea where the experience would take us, so it is extremely exciting to see that three years later, one of the garments from the collection has caught the spotlight, making its way into a world-class fashion exhibition,» says Laima.
The designer notes that working with Lesage was one of the highlights of the competition. Each of the ten finalists had the opportunity to work with a different Chanel Métiers d’art workshop. Lesage was chosen for Laima’s and Marta’s collection. «The creative director of the atelier, Hubert Barrère, very organically picked up the idea and concept of the collection, so the collaboration was both very professional and easy, with a touch of humour. It was a great honour to meet Hubert at the opening of the exhibition and to hear that this project and collaboration were not only important for us but also for them. Embroidering supermarket and petrol station brand logos and pop culture characters required a completely different approach to working on other projects. That’s why our garments were included in the centenary exhibition,» Laima explains.
Highest Quality Advertiser is a utopian garment that creates a paradox of value by combining prosaic source material with exquisite handcraft. The Collective Blanket collection plays with elements of two very different systems: capitalism and the Soviet regime. The silhouettes are borrowed from the era of general scarcity, while the print of the garments depicts the seductive and colourful world of consumerism. The prints are based on Marta’s paintings, which are made from store prize stickers and speak of the unfulfilled dreams of modern man. Lesage has turned the stickers into delicate embroidery that ironises about the fashion industry’s practice of printing large brand logos on clothes.
Lesage, 100 Years of Fashion and Decoration is open until January 5, 2025, at Chanel’s home, the fashion artisan complex Le19M. The exhibition showcases the finest Lesage creations and provides a comprehensive overview of the various embroidery and decoration techniques. For more information on Lesage, 100 Years of Fashion and Decoration, visit the Le19M website.
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