Five Minutes with a Friend: Nadia Albertini
Nadia Albertini is a Franco-Mexican embroidery and textile designer based in Paris. Her interest in embroidery started in Mexico City at just eight years old, when her grandmother taught her the basic stitches for the first time. Embroidery has been her language ever since…
Since then she has studied textiles in Paris at the École Duperré Paris and got her Textiles MA from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. Since graduating she has worked with fashion houses such as Chloé, Chanel, Balmain, Marc Jacobs, Schiaparelli, Jason Wu, Dries van Noten, Tory Burch and The Row, among others. Working closely with the creative directors, she imagines and develops embroideries for their ready-to-wear and haute couture labels.
In expectation of her upcoming workshop with Selvedge, 3-D Beaded Embroidery on Saturday 8 March & Saturday 15 March 2025, we speak to Nadia about her life and inspirations in textiles.
What is your first memory of a textile?
I grew up in Mexico City and, I can still remember the vivid colours and textures we used to see all around us - in the streets, the markets, the churches, even at home. One memory recurs often, of my childhood huipiles made of cotton and hand embroidered with lines of animals. The colours used were dark brown, red and yellow. The patterns repeated: chickens, birds, insects, so on and so on.
If you make textiles, where is your most inspiring space / place to create?
I like working from my home studio in Corsica. I bought this space a few years ago in a small village (800 inhabitants) in the Cap Corse, the northern tip of this beautiful Mediterranean island. It’s very peaceful and quiet and the beautiful light comes in the room in the afternoon. I like setting up my embroidery frame by the window and see the trees from it.
What has inspired you recently?
I recently saw the fabulous exhibition Soieries Impériales at the Trianon in Versailles. They showed incredible silk jacquards and embroideries ordered by Napoleon for Versailles in 1811. They hadn’t been shown all together in public in 200 years. The pieces were spectacular.
What is your most cherished textile, and why?
I have been collecting antique and vintage embroidery for most of my life so there are many pieces I love. But my favourite one is this sampler I bought in St. Petersburg on my 34th birthday when I was there for a week on my own. It was probably made by a young girl, maybe 10-12 years old. It reminds me how I learnt and the sort of pieces I practiced with and it reinforces my belief that embroidery is a universal language accessible to everyone around the world. Whether you have just started with basic stitches, which to me are similar to letters, you can start experimenting and expressing yourself through some simple words.
Where did you learn your craft?
I learnt my craft with and through my grandmother in Mexico from a very young age. I must have been six years old when she first showed me how to thread and needle and follow a floral cross-stitch pattern. Later on, I trained in fashion and textiles in Paris at Ecole Duperre, a fabulously creative school where taking risks and thinking outside the box were the only rules. It was a very hands on education. I learnt the most in the couture ateliers, mainly at Chloé, Chanel, Balmain and Dries van Noten as well as the embroidery ateliers I have collaborated with around the world: from France and Italy to India and Madagascar, China, Vietnam and Japan.
Photo credits: Images courtesy of Nadia Albertini and Anne Laure Camilleri.
Nadia Albertini will be hosting an online 3-D Beaded Embroidery Workshop on Saturday 8 March & Saturday 15 March 2025.
Find out more book your place:
www.selvedge.org/products/3d-beaded-embroidery-with-nadia-albertini
Since then she has studied textiles in Paris at the École Duperré Paris and got her Textiles MA from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. Since graduating she has worked with fashion houses such as Chloé, Chanel, Balmain, Marc Jacobs, Schiaparelli, Jason Wu, Dries van Noten, Tory Burch and The Row, among others. Working closely with the creative directors, she imagines and develops embroideries for their ready-to-wear and haute couture labels.
In expectation of her upcoming workshop with Selvedge, 3-D Beaded Embroidery on Saturday 8 March & Saturday 15 March 2025, we speak to Nadia about her life and inspirations in textiles.
What is your first memory of a textile?
I grew up in Mexico City and, I can still remember the vivid colours and textures we used to see all around us - in the streets, the markets, the churches, even at home. One memory recurs often, of my childhood huipiles made of cotton and hand embroidered with lines of animals. The colours used were dark brown, red and yellow. The patterns repeated: chickens, birds, insects, so on and so on.
If you make textiles, where is your most inspiring space / place to create?
I like working from my home studio in Corsica. I bought this space a few years ago in a small village (800 inhabitants) in the Cap Corse, the northern tip of this beautiful Mediterranean island. It’s very peaceful and quiet and the beautiful light comes in the room in the afternoon. I like setting up my embroidery frame by the window and see the trees from it.
What has inspired you recently?
I recently saw the fabulous exhibition Soieries Impériales at the Trianon in Versailles. They showed incredible silk jacquards and embroideries ordered by Napoleon for Versailles in 1811. They hadn’t been shown all together in public in 200 years. The pieces were spectacular.
What is your most cherished textile, and why?
I have been collecting antique and vintage embroidery for most of my life so there are many pieces I love. But my favourite one is this sampler I bought in St. Petersburg on my 34th birthday when I was there for a week on my own. It was probably made by a young girl, maybe 10-12 years old. It reminds me how I learnt and the sort of pieces I practiced with and it reinforces my belief that embroidery is a universal language accessible to everyone around the world. Whether you have just started with basic stitches, which to me are similar to letters, you can start experimenting and expressing yourself through some simple words.
Where did you learn your craft?
I learnt my craft with and through my grandmother in Mexico from a very young age. I must have been six years old when she first showed me how to thread and needle and follow a floral cross-stitch pattern. Later on, I trained in fashion and textiles in Paris at Ecole Duperre, a fabulously creative school where taking risks and thinking outside the box were the only rules. It was a very hands on education. I learnt the most in the couture ateliers, mainly at Chloé, Chanel, Balmain and Dries van Noten as well as the embroidery ateliers I have collaborated with around the world: from France and Italy to India and Madagascar, China, Vietnam and Japan.
Photo credits: Images courtesy of Nadia Albertini and Anne Laure Camilleri.
Nadia Albertini will be hosting an online 3-D Beaded Embroidery Workshop on Saturday 8 March & Saturday 15 March 2025.
Find out more book your place:
www.selvedge.org/products/3d-beaded-embroidery-with-nadia-albertini