Weekend Read: Maison Lesage: Haute Couture Embroidery, Patrick Mauriès
Maison Lesage: Haute Couture Embroidery by Patrick Mauriès is a richly immersive tribute to the world’s most celebrated couture embroidery house, offering readers a visually opulent journey through nearly a century of exceptional craftsmanship. Founded in 1924, Maison Lesage has played a defining role in shaping the decorative language of haute couture, collaborating with an extraordinary roll call of designers including Madeleine Vionnet, Elsa Schiaparelli, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and, most enduringly, Chanel, which welcomed the atelier into its Métiers d’Art in 2002 to safeguard its future.
Maison Lesage: Haute Couture Embroidery, Patrick Mauriès
Rather than presenting a dense chronological history, Mauriès allows the work itself to take centre stage. The book unfolds as a series of thematic chapters, ranging from early technical innovations and the influence of the bias cut, to landmark collaborations, transatlantic adventures and the enduring relationship with Chanel. Chapter titles such as Mainteuses and Lunévilleuses, Six Hundred Hours, and A Passage to India give a clear sense of the scope: this is a story told through techniques, time, materials and movement, as much as through names and dates.
Elsa Schiaparelli Evening Blouse, as featured in Maison Lesage: Haute Couture Embroidery
Illustrated with specially commissioned photography, the volume is as much a visual archive as it is a monograph. Whole garments are shown alongside intimate close-ups that reveal the astonishing precision of beadwork, sequins, tweeds and tambour embroidery worked with the Lunéville hook. These images trace the evolution of Lesage’s aesthetic—from the sculptural embroideries created for Vionnet and Schiaparelli, including motifs from the famed Astrology, Pagan and Circus collections, to later works for Dior, Balmain, Balenciaga, Lacroix and Saint Laurent, and the contemporary grandeur of Chanel under Karl Lagerfeld.
Chanel Haute Couture, Spring/Summer 2017. For a dress embroidered with the Lunéville technique at Maison Lesage, featured in Maison Lesage: Haute Couture Embroidery
One of the book’s most compelling elements is its presentation of embroidery swatches. Drawn from Lesage’s vast archive of over 75,000 samples, (the largest embroidery collection of its kind in the world), these close-ups highlight the importance of sampling as both record and inspiration. Sequins, crystals, threads and unexpected materials are layered, balanced and reimagined, offering invaluable insight for designers, students and textile enthusiasts alike.
Resplendent imagery of archival embroideries are featured in the book throughout, spanning many decades from the work of Maison Lesage.
Mauriès, an acclaimed writer and publisher at Thames & Hudson, brings a poetic clarity to the text, framing embroidery as an expressive art form that sits at the intersection of craft, fashion and culture. His writing complements the imagery, illuminating how hours of handwork translate into garments that define eras.
As Maison Lesage marks one hundred years of mastery, continuing its work across couture, ready-to-wear, interiors and education, Maison Lesage: Haute Couture Embroidery stands as a fitting celebration. Lavish, informative and deeply inspiring, it is a book to return to again and again, and an essential addition to any textile library.
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Further Information:
Published by Thames and Hudson
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Image Credits:
Lead: "Irises" by Yves Saint Laurent, Spring/Summer 1988. Manufactured by Maison Lesage.
All further images as credited to Thames and Hudson.