What I did in Paris part I
The city of love, Eiffel Tower, fashion week, macarons, je ne sais quoi and so much more: Mais oui Paris! I love this place since I can remember and a couple weeks ago, I spent a full week there…
Previous visits were for sightseeing purposes only and although this city is great for strolling around in a holiday mood, last time was different. I tell you why; The main reason for my visit was starting my first module at Ecole Lesage. For everybody that doesn’t know Lesage, it’s like a holy institute for haute couture embroidery and was founded in 1992 by Francois Lesage to preserve embroidery techniques that otherwise would disappear.
My first lessons at Ecole Lesage
As part of the Chanel group it provides beautiful embroidery for the well-known fashion houses in Paris and beyond. Besides that, the school teaches all embroidery techniques and attracts people from around the world to learn the magic skills.
I am one of them and so I headed up there on this Tuesday morning. The school is situated in the Pigalle area (near Montmartre) and kind of hidden (I missed the Lesage sign totally and walked past it). What I quickly found out is that the lessons are a mixture of cultures and levels. The teachers speak English so no language barrier here :)
You see different people in your class every day and every student works on its own level/module. I liked it because It allowed me to see a sneak peak of different embroidery designs. Downside can be that you don’t have a lot of contact with others because of the different time slots. Lessons start mornings or afternoon and in between (or evenings) you need your time to finish your homework.
I started with the first module in a series of 8. It’s called Michonet, a beautiful design around leaves in a combination of gold, brown and silver from the archives. The modules continue further up from 1920’s to the 00’s era. Each module has its own design and techniques so at the end you have a good knowledge of different embroidery styles and techniques.
My days at Lesage where filled with embroidery lessons and I used the afternoons for a nice lunch and a LOT of homework. There is such a difference between touristy Paris and walking here as a student! Walking on the streets while carrying my embroidery frame, I felt a bit like a Parisienne :)
I could honestly live here!
My last lesson in this week was at a Thursday and my love Jan-Simon joined me the next day because of another event which I will tell you more about in my next blog!
Embroidery design by Ecole Lesage
Interested in Ecole Lesage?:http://www.ecolelesage.fr/en/#lecole
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