Maison Lesage : Haute Couture Embroidery

Founded in 1858 under the name of Michonet (then supplier to such fashion legends as the House of Worth) before being bought by the Lesage family in the 1920s, Maison Lesage has created exceptional embroidery motifs, often requiring hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of precise beadwork, for star fashion designers across the decades.

Fashion legends such as Elsa Schiaparelli (with her famous 'Circus' and 'Zodiac' collections) and Yves Saint Laurent (whose 'Van Gogh' iris-embroidered jackets number over 200,000 pearls and 250,000 sequins) worked exclusively with Maison Lesage, but the embroiderer also collaborated with a raft of international designers, including Balmain, the House of Worth, Vionnet and Lacroix. Perhaps best known today for the masterpieces it creates for Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel collections, Maison Lesage was bought by Chanel in 2002 to ensure the survival of its unique history and extraordinary skills.

Illustrated with specially commissioned photography of the house's archives and illuminated with texts by Patrick Mauris, Maison Lesage is both a tribute to exceptional craftsmanship and a journey through a hundred years of fashion at its most sumptuous and inventive.

Featured in the January 2020 Design newsletter.
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