Simple Virtues: Maison Lesage

The art of embroidery.

Truly an incredible art!

This is François Lesage.

Owner of 'Maison Lesage'.

One of the great institutions of Parisian Couture

Ever since his company became part of the Chanel family in 2002, François Lesage has retained his position as the key supplier to all the great names in fashion, and, for Karl Lagerfeld, an irreplaceable partner. Every season, Karl Lagerfeld, admired by François Lesage for “his intelligence, culture and creativity”, hands over the sketches and ideas on which he bases his work.

The story 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, on the death of his father, François Lesage took over management of the company 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.

For each haute couture collection, François Lesage, and his team of designers and embroiders, develop a hundred new embroidered pieces, which are added to some forty thousand samples created since 1858 and which have today become the inspiration for many designers.