ARTSOFFASHIONSYMPOSIUM OCT. 27-28 | SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE

CINETOILE-SERIES SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE - LECTURE HALL OCTOBER 27, 8:00 - 9:00 PM

This video screening is an occasion to invite the public to view short films, documentaries or feature films that are not widely distributed in the US and are related to the world of fashion and the arts. TOPIC: The prestigious embroidery House of Lesage

FILM: FRANCOIS LESAGE - A LIFE IN EMBROIDERY

The story of Lesage began in 1858, when Charles Frederick Worth opened his haute couture fashion house and started making use of the prodigious talent of the embroiderer Albert Michonet, whose studio was purchased by Albert and Marie-Louise Lesage in 1924. This was the beginning of a period of fruitful and close collaboration with the best- known names of the time.

In 1949, upon the death of his father, François Lesage took over the management of the house at the tender age of 20. For 50 years, he has cleverly combined the skills of a traditional craft with meeting the pioneering requirements of the new generation of fashion designers including Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, Jean-Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, up to new talents such as Anne-Valerie Hash, Bouchra Jarrar and Alexandre Vauthier.

François Lesage sold the Maison Lesage to Chanel in 2002. Paraffection, a specific independent company created in 1997 through Chanel SA, had begun its acquisition of many of Paris’ top specialty ateliers in a bid to ensure their continued survival in a changing fashion industry and saving the precious Parisian know-how of the haute couture.

For each haute couture collection, the House of Lesage, directed today by Murielle Lemoine and her team of designers and embroiders, develop a hundred new embroidered pieces, which are added to a collection built of some forty thousand samples dating back to 1858.

Francois Lesage died on December 1, 2011, at the age of 82. PHOTO: ARTS OF FASHION SUMMER MASTERCLASS PARIS 2012 - DESIGN: FLORINA IVASCU - PHOTOGRAPHERS: LUCAS LAURENT & RAFFAELE CARIOU LUCAS & RAFFAELE LAURENT - PHOTOGRAPHERS: FLORINA IVASCU 2012 - DESIGN: SUMMER MASTERCLASS PARIS OF FASHION ARTS PHOTO: