François Lesage

[2] The workshop, founded in 1858, was known for working with Parisian theatrical costume designers and producing special orders for the court of Napoleon III.

He was taken prisoner during World War I and began a new life in Chicago, where he was hired as director-designer of the women's clothing department at Marshall Field's in 1919.

"Embroidery is to haute couture what fireworks are to Bastille Day" was a maxim Lesage liked to repeat, summing up his philosophy about the craft.

[citation needed] His boldness and imagination gradually opened the doors of international fashion, and American, Italian and Japanese designers drew on his talent.

One, Elsa Schiaparelli,[1] became a faithful customer and began ordering embroideries inspired by the circus, astrological signs and the marine world in 1936.

He crushed gelatin sequins to give them the appearance of hammered coins, combined chenille and mink, and used metal blades and fish scales.

Arguably the most famous are jackets with Vincent Van Gogh's Irises and Sunflowers for the summer 1988 collection, each of which required 600 hours of work.

[1] Claude Montana at Lanvin, John Galliano for Dior,[1] Thierry Mugler, Marc Jacobs (at Louis Vuitton) and Jean-Paul Gaultier called on Lesage and his embroiderers.

Lesage creations include a dress with a panther-skin effect, embroidered with tubes in color gradients from beige to brown, for the Jean Paul Gaultier winter 1998 collection.

A loyal customer and friend, Christian Lacroix never stopped calling on Maison Lesage: "It is he who gave me a taste for embroidery.

"[citation needed] Lesage embroidered a "black tide" dress as a gift for the young designer Christian Le Drezen, who died in 2003.

In the dress, crafted with bird feathers, shards of granite and seashells, Lesage wanted to commemorate the ecological disaster caused by the oil tanker Erika on the Brittany coast.