CHANEL Jacket Embroidery by Lesage: The Craft Behind Tweed | US

For CHANEL collectors in the United States, a Lesage jacket often reveals its best detail only at close range. Pearls surface between threads, and the embroidery changes as the light moves. Maison Lesage is the specialist house behind that depth.

Lesage is both an embroidery atelier and a textile workshop. It creates the ornament on a dress or coat as well as the complex tweed that gives a CHANEL jacket or suit its structure and character.

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CHANEL and Lesage: a collaboration that began in 1983

Lesage traces its roots to Michonet, a Paris embroidery atelier founded in 1858. Albert and Marie-Louise Lesage took over the workshop in 1924, establishing Maison Lesage.

Their son François Lesage succeeded them in 1949, when he was only twenty. From haute couture dresses to ready-to-wear, the atelier has translated designers’ ideas into dimensional work made with thread, beads and sequins.

Lesage did not begin as a workshop created only for CHANEL. A house with a long embroidery history met the CHANEL of Karl Lagerfeld, and that relationship has continued ever since.

CHANEL embroidery rises from the reverse of a flat piece of cloth

Lesage does not begin by sewing decoration directly onto a finished garment. Fabric is stretched on a wooden frame, then embroidered while the collar, front panel or dress hem is still a flat component.

A signature tool is the Lunéville hook, with its tiny hook-shaped tip. Working from the reverse, an artisan forms chain stitches and secures beads or sequins one by one. Needle stitches are added to control shine, quiet areas and shifts of colour; a complex design can require hundreds of hours.

Only when the embroidered panels return to the CHANEL atelier and become a three-dimensional garment does the full composition appear. The decoration that catches the eye in an instant on the runway begins as a sequence of minute gestures in a quiet workshop.

More than embroidery: the CHANEL tweeds woven by Lesage

Lesage also creates the tweeds that give CHANEL jackets and suits their distinctive depth. It opened a textile atelier in 1996, began proposing fabrics for CHANEL ready-to-wear in 1998, and has also worked on haute couture tweeds since 2008.

The effect does not come from wool alone. Fancy yarns, pearls, sequins, organza ribbon, lace, chiffon and even denim may be combined with torn shirting, chains, tape, knitting yarn or synthetic material. Ingredients that sound unexpected can become remarkably soft and refined once woven together.

New samples are handwoven one at a time on the atelier’s loom. ACT3, a weaving workshop in south-western France, then develops the selected sample into the required length of cloth. Invention, sampling and reliable production pass from one specialist to another—a useful glimpse of how Métiers d’Art craftsmanship works in practice.

Why a thirty-year-old Lesage jacket can still feel compelling

A 1994 Lesage jacket owned by a member of the TC JAPAN team still holds its shape without a severe twist between the front and back seams. No two garments age in exactly the same way; fibre, storage and wear all matter. Yet when an older jacket lies flat and its buttoned front still forms a clean line, the quality of the work is easy to appreciate.

Some returning clients tell us they now want to collect Lesage pieces alone. Every combination of materials is different, and the clothes can be satisfying to wear or simply to study in a wardrobe. They also tend to pull an outfit together without effort. In the trade, Lesage pieces are often described as ‘holding their value even pre-owned’, reflecting their continuing recognition in the resale market.

The close-up work is just as striking: watching beads fixed one by one to sheer silk organza is so precise that it almost makes your shoulders tense in sympathy.

Watch Lesage craftsmanship unfold on video

The first film is CHANEL’s official making-of for Spring-Summer 2019 Haute Couture. It follows the CHANEL ateliers and several Métiers d’Art houses rather than Lesage alone; Lesage created the floral embroidery for this collection.

The second, ‘Lesage and Balenciaga’ from the Victoria and Albert Museum, is not a CHANEL project. It is included because the recreation of a 1967 Balenciaga evening coat clearly shows a design being transferred to cloth before beads, sequins and crystals are layered into place.

An archive of more than 75,000 samples—and a notebook for the future

Lesage preserves more than 75,000 samples testing colour, thread, reflected light and dimension—one of the world’s largest couture embroidery collections.

This is not simply a storehouse. Earlier techniques inspire new colours and materials for future collections, making the archive both a historical record and a working book of ideas.

Métiers d’Art brought the artisans behind the clothes into view

Since 2002, CHANEL has presented an annual Métiers d’Art collection that places specialist workshops at the centre. Lesage embroidery and tweed meet Desrues buttons, Lemarié feathers and flowers, Massaro shoes and Maison Michel hats within a single look.

A runway first draws the eye to silhouette and model. Enlarge the image and the focus may shift to pocket braid, a light-catching bead or a colour-deepening thread. Lesage work succeeds from afar and becomes even more interesting close up.

Three close-ups United States collectors should inspect

When considering a pre-owned Lesage piece from the United States, look beyond the full-length photograph and review these close-ups.

Fancy tweed naturally varies in yarn thickness and texture. A visible thread is not automatically damage: compare the description and close-ups to distinguish the original finish from wear.

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