Francois Lesage: A Person Called "Little Beads" By Fashion Experts.

December 1st, the 82 year old French embroidery master. Francois Lesage (Francois Lesage) died, he is the world's most famous embroidery workshop Mason Lesage (Maison Lesage) leader, by fashion experts called "little beads", he is an innumerable senior. Custom fashions The unsung hero released. The senior custom garment industry in Paris has held a memorial ceremony for the embroidery artist.

　　 Fashion masters mourn for master craftsman

When Francois Lesage left, garlands, sprays, milky white flowers - even the elegant boots made of rose petals - were the proper background for the formation of St. Rocco cathedral.

From the rose of Dior (Dior) to the lilies of Valentino (Valentino), the names of flowers and eulogy indicate everything. And the flowers of Eve Szentloran (Yves Saint Laurent) commemorating the great master of embroidery.

Karl Lagerfeld (Karl Lagerfeld) and Lai SA Ji have worked together for 30 years, they jointly produced the ebony screen for coco Chanel's factory in 1996. Karl Lagerfeld presented a rose ring at the funeral of Lai SA Ji, the color of the wreath from chalk white to condensed cream white.

Karl Lagerfeld said: "Lai SA Ji is very interesting, many times can jokes, drinks the small wine, has a cigarette, he is the French" likes the rich clothes, the food person ", he is very talented person. Not long ago, he demonstrated the skills of the Paris based workshop in the India theme fashion series.

At the funeral, Christian Lacroix, who had been helped by Lesage at the beginning of their career, recalled the tension between them when they first met. At that time, he was working in Jean Patou fashion house, and he kept the famous embroidery master waiting for a long time. (Lacroix) But from the initial cold encounter, enthusiasm and close cooperation sprout.

The church in Paris is full of fashion people, from designers such as Azzedine Araya (Azzedine Alaia) and Christian Louboutn (Christian Loubutin) to ordinary craftsmen. Lesage's family was crowded with the front row: his son Jean Francois set up a embroidery studio in India; his daughter, Marion, was an artist wearing a jacket embroidered with a heart embroidered in his early fashion series, and his son Jean Lewis, who read the speech prepared by his father in November, when he was awarded the highest cultural honor of France, the master craftsman.

In this speech, 82 year old Lai SA Ji talks about his "humble" industry, and thanks to Chanel company, because Chanel bought its embroidery workshop in 2002, which also guaranteed the future of the workshop. Chanel has also bought other workshops, such as feather maker Andr e Lemari.

Lesage's grandchildren also made a statement about their holiday in Corsica island. The nocturnal grandfather spent half a night playing games on their computers, and then he turned off the game on the ship in the morning on the second day. {page_break}

　　 The family expands the family workshop.

Why is the death of this elderly celebrity considered so important in the cultural circle? In 1949, Lesage took over the family industry from his father Albert (Albert). Lesage is one of the most important contacts extending to the chain of advanced custom fashion gold age. He has witnessed the golden stage of advanced custom clothes, and his creation has been on the big screen. He has made many clothes for many Hollywood stars. He once said: "embroidery is like weaving a dream with a needle, choosing jewelry or any ornament that can bring vitality to clothing, and a souvenir comes into being."

His father, Albert, founded the family industry in 1924, when he bought the studio of Napoleon III, the embroidery worker Michonet, and Michonet worked for Charles Frederick Voss, the founder of Paris's top fashion industry (Charles Frederick Worth). Albert then married Mary Louise Feft, a embroidery worker in the workshop of the Wei Nai workshop.

Albert's original business was mainly based on a large number of sparkling beads. Albert's son, Francois, was born in March 31, 1929. As he said, he was born on a pile of pearls.

In infancy, Francois Lesage skipped on the knee of Madeleine Vione, a skein master, in his childhood (he began to remember), waiting with his father, like a retailer, in the back door of designers such as Balenciaga and Schiaparelli. Life is not easy, especially in the war years. He recalled: "when I was 15 years old, my duty was to run to all the fashion houses, ring the doorbell and ask for wages. Sometimes they are forced to sell patterns to pay. "

Francois created his first embroidery in 1946 when his parents were on vacation. At that time, an important Italy customer appeared. He wanted a costume designed by Botticelli, the painter of Italy, who was born in Venus. Francois studied philosophy at Sanjohn Bethune college, but he came up with a flower design based on this painting.

In the following year, he was sent to Losangeles to learn English. There he met Lauren Bakar, Claudette Colbert and Lana Turner (Francois had a big event with him). In 1948, Francois Lesakili built his own embroidery workshop on Sunset Avenue with his father's sample. He made costumes for Ava Gardiner and Marlene Dietrich, and worked with Edith Hyde and other movie designers.

In 1949, when his father died, Francois returned to Paris and took over the family business. With the transformation of post-war clothing from simplicity to luxury, Mason Lesage workshop started using the Rue de la Grange Bateli re Street 13, a rabbit farm, to expand the family workshop and form a certain scale. But he found that when he was still in the United States, what he had to do was adapt to his father's design, but things changed in France: "I must understand that in my career, I can't put any pressure on the designer. They want everything to be in their own mind. "

　　 The "United Nations ambassador" in fashion

In the next 60 years, Lesage collaborated with many designers, such as Pierre Balmain (Pierre Balmain), Bell de Giwrence (Hubert de Givenchy), Christian Dio (Christian Dior), Cristobal Baron Xia Jia (Cristobal Balenciaga), Karl Lagerfeld, and the United States Calvin Klein (Calvin Klein), Bill Blas (Balenciaga), Klein and Bell de Giwrence. He created more than 65000 designs, and his workmanship, skillful and skillful, was then made into sparkling and perfect costumes. These "skillful hands" were female technicians. They made a design for luxury items, and made hand stitched flash decorations, beads, synthetic diamonds, shells, ribbons and feathers to make exquisite fabric costumes.

In the 1988 Winter's advanced order series, it was the lazzaci, who made a sparkling grape string on the satin jacket, and won a long and warm cheer for Eve Szentloran. When Eve Szentloran saw the design, he told him, "unbelievably, like the wind stirred the herb." Lesage's other famous designs include Chanel's chess jacket.

Slowly, he could accurately understand the vague, sometimes strange instructions of the female designer, who refused to accept the Commission unless he could face to face contact. He once explained, "I want to meet the designer, the sparks in these people's eyes. What do they think? I have to understand. "

When Eve Szentloran wanted something like a chandelier and reflected the background of the Paris sky in the mirror, he immediately knew what he wanted. When Xia La Lai Li asked him for shells, the entire studio was eating shellfish all winter. Other unusual designs include the ornament of artificial diamonds, freshly preserved asparagus, designed for Jacques Faas (Jacques Fath), and Eve Szentgrolan's dress designed for Saraja Kashusha (Soraya Khashoggi), embroidered with overlapping "fish scales" sequins.

In order to satisfy the customers' sudden whims, Lesage always tries his best. When Thierry Muller (Thierry Mugler) wanted to "crumb Beach", Lesage's embroidery workers began to use the flash decoration pieces and beads to sew up the pull rings and bottles on the evening dress. But he has his own limits. When Muller asked him to add some rubber sleeves, Lesage thought it was enough -- "we did two such clothes: one for T show, and one for Tina Turner (Tina Turner)." He said.

Lesage's job is not so cheap: his typical embroidery is about 100 thousand to 150 thousand dollars for a gown and 60 thousand dollars for a jacket. The exceptions include a 20 metre long gown, only 1 million 600 thousand dollars for embroidery and a coronation dress for an African Queen. The whole work took 11 thousand hours. "You can't be vague about something, just like asking about the price of a custom car," he said.

In a recent interview, Lesage said that after more than 60 years of contact with various fashion celebrities, he could almost become ambassador to the United Nations. I'm afraid the only woman designer he hasn't worked with is Alexander MacQueen. He explained, "we have misunderstood a piece of clothing, so now I get punished."

　　 Emerging markets are life-saving weeds.

In the golden era of the 80s of last century, Mason Lesa workshop employs more than 100 embroidery workers. But by the early 90s of last century, with the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991, he had been affected by the Royal customer base in the Middle East, and his career was close to closing.

With the decline of demand, in order to maintain business, he spent nearly 40 years of savings in just a few years, and Lesage was forced to cut about half of his workers. In order to ensure the future of the company, he set up his own embroidery school.

With the development of luxury goods in India, China, Russia and Brazil, the demand for the company began to recover. But Lesage began to notice the pressure brought by cheap embroidery workers in developing countries. In 2002, Chanel acquired 5 major suppliers in the fashion industry, including Lai SA Ji.

Lesage, the rich man, smoked French cigarettes and boasted that he did not even know how to sew buttons, but he continued to work until he was more than 80 years old. In 2007, he became the recipient of the medal of honor in France. He was awarded the title of master of Arts by French culture minister Frederick Mitterrand a week before his death.

Francois Lesage was married and had 4 children, but he once explained, "I'm married, but I have several girlfriends. I am French; this kind of love flows in my blood. He said he could even write a book for his life, but "X class".