Credit: Chanel
Embroidery on leather and fabric, intricate metal and stone embellishments: Chanel's Métier d'Art 2024-2025 fashion show is a wonderful new celebration of the savoir fair of the artisans who collaborate with the maison, which over the years has forged ever-closer collaborations with the atéliers who develop the workings of its collection. But who are these historic maisons that make each garment and accessory unique? Here are 3 who have distinguished themselves in this Métier d'Art edition, and who are part of the residents of Le19M, which gathers under its roof 12 manufacturing workshops partnered with Chanel.
MAISON LESAGE
Founded in 1858, when couturier Charles Frederick Worth began collaborating with embroiderer Michonet Albert, it took its current name when the atelier was taken over by Albert and Marie-Louise Lesage in 1924. His great ability to innovate traditional techniques in order to remain contemporary led him to collaborate with the great maisons of the past and present, from Vionnet for whom they developed a technique for bias embroidery to Schiaparelli whom they accompanied in her eccentricity by knowing how to bring to life the designer's surrealist fantasies. With nearly 60 tons of supplies and 75,000 embroidery samples, Maison Lesage has the largest collection of artistic embroidery in the world and an expertise that it has been passing on to students around the world with the Ecole Lesage since 1994. He has collaborated with Chanel since 1983 and has been a member of the Métier d'Art since 2002: for the brand he developed a particular type of tweed that has changed the face of the French fashion house's modern creations.
MONTEX ATELIER
Masters of sewing, Lunéville crochet embroidery or embroidery with the ultra-centennial hand-operated Cornely machine, the artisans of the maison Montex, are among the great protagonists of this collection. Founded in Paris in 1949, it has partnered with Chanel since 2011 and for this collection developed much of the embroidery using traditional techniques with innovations such as the use of luminescent threads that glow in the dark.
GOSSENS
A member of the Métier d'Art since 2005, he is a truly historic collaborator of Gabrielle Chanel's: ever since she was able to recreate Byzantine bijoux in 1954, the designer has wanted him by her side, even commissioning furniture for her rue Cambon apartment. It is his jewels that we see shining on the necks and wrists of the models in the show, and even some of the jewel-clutches that walked the runway, which feature intricate patterns of symbols dear to the fashion house.
