ALLIANCE Française (French Cultural Center) here under the leadership of its energetic director Daniel Baillon has been organizing events recurrently enlightening karachiites propos occidental traditions in general and French culture in particular.
And arranging French Haute Couture Embroidery workshops in the Metropolis under the supervision of celebrated brodeuse Elisabeth Roulleau, he had distinguished this Center as the first to offer such practicum in the country’s history.
In an exclusive interview given to this scribe, renowned French Haute Couture embroiderer Elisabeth Roulleau {hailing from Lyon (who had made prototypes for Hermes; made hand embroidery of the last fashion shows of Jerome Dillinger; worked in the studio Cecile Henri for Christian Dior, Chanel, Azzaro and with Alexis Mabille-Impasse & 13 Treizeor)} has mused that Haute Couture was a magic that offered an opportunity to dream: “Wearing Haute Couture is a gift for a woman. For me embroidery is magical as with little things you can make something so beautiful”.
Elisabeth talking candidly informed that she had learned the art from famous Ecole Lesage in Paris. She perfected her skills in traditional embroidery by taking lessons from the best embroiderer in France Le Vaillant, before commencing teaching and doing embroidery for renowned fashion designers. Commenting on Pakistani embroidery Elisabeth said: “Work here is so marvelous, so nice, so beautiful and a little bit different from what we have in France. I think the diversity is regarding the culture also. Here you do a lot of things with gold thread; it is so shining - very interesting! If the techniques are same the works are varied”.
Clarifying she stated: “May be, even if it is to do the same embroidery, French technique is different from Pakistani technique. You see, besides the shape (pattern), in Pakistan embroiderers work on the front while we work on the back of the design, the basic difference is this. The second dissimilarity is that Pakistanis put the beads on the needle of the hook and we put the beads on the thread under the frame”. Elisabeth noted that the students (including deaf participants) attending the workshops at Alliance Française de Karachi were very interested to learn new techniques.
Elisabeth travels a lot: “It is so interesting to discover that various stitches are used globally. When I was in China I saw that technique was the same as in France but it was practiced in a different way. In China they use silk thread with very small needles; in Pakistan they use it with cotton thread with a bigger needle. The stitch is the same but it is done in different ways in different places”. In her pursuit of quenching thirst for more knowledge on the subject of embroidery techniques, she had also been to Thailand & Laos. Elisabeth taught (at Central Saint Martins) in London, Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland, Croatia, Trinidad & Tobago. Elisabeth, who maintains her own atelier in France, had also worked for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, Mulhouse, Esmod International, Parsons School of Design and Institut Français de la mode.
Maintaining that embroidery commenced with the beginning of humanity she informed that the tradition for Haute Couture Embroidery started in the 1900. Explaining the dissimilarity between traditional embroidery and Haute Couture Embroidery she informed that traditional embroidery (was also done for Kings & Queens, for instance in the period of Napoleon - the resultant work furthermore) demonstrated individual’s social status. She further told that the Haute Couture featuring beads and sequence started just before the First War in Europe as a sort of symbol of freedom for women who took off their corsets and started to wear shorter dresses.
She said that she learned every day as with practice her work was getting more beautiful and her hands were getting more dexterous: “More able to do things the right way”! She said that one could find scores of patterns from books, could invent, as well as amalgamate designs from different countries. Showing a work to this scribe Elisabeth told that initially it appeared in UK, later came to France and Italy: “The name was rococo but now it is ribbon embroidery. So it is very very nice to mix the techniques”. Elisabeth Roulleau further held: “It is very nice when you are a teacher and you go to trainer’s school and you become a student to learn new techniques. When you are a teacher and you want to learn more, one day you are the teacher and the other day you are the student”!
Brodeuse Elisabeth Roulleau plans to organize an exposition in September in Lyon with an aim of presenting what she had observed and learned during her travels all over the world: “I would be able to give back what I have seen. It is so rich to meet so many different people with different cultures; to see so many different techniques; so different colors. It is very exciting but very demanding work; a real big challenge to be able to give back to my family, to my friends and to the people what I have taken during all those travels.” Further elaborating she said it would be an exhibition only of embroidery.
I don’t know exactly what will be the size of the embroideries; I just want to express myself saying OK! I am an embroiderer!” Her daughter will soon be joining a design school in Lyon, and Elisabeth (daughter of a couturier) anticipates: “May be one day she would be able to make drawings for me”.
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