Where fabric meets fantasy: The savoir-faire behind Chanel’s 2024/25 Métiers d’art collection
When Chanel’s 2024/25 Métiers d’art collection graced the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou this past December, it wasn’t merely a fashion show—it was an intricate display of centuries-old French artisanship. Taking Chanel’s seasonal ready-to-wear collections up a notch, the annual Métiers d’art aims to celebrate and showcase the extraordinary skills of the maisons d’art housed within le19M, Chanel’s dedicated atelier complex in Aubervilliers.
The 2024/25 Métiers d’art collection proved particularly poignant, drawing inspiration from the coromandel screens that once adorned Gabrielle Chanel’s private study at 31 Rue Cambon. The choice of Hangzhou—depicted in those cherished screens—created a poetic full circle, where East met West. Against the lush backdrop of this historic city, each piece in the collection carries not just fabric and thread, but generations of knowledge, skill and artistry now expressed by the artisans at Chanel's prestigious ateliers.
Tatler reveals the artistry behind Chanel’s 2024/25 Métiers d’art collection, from featherwork and embroidery to pleating and millinery.
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Maison Lesage
Since joining the Chanel family in 2002, Lesage has been the quiet architect behind some of the fashion giant’s most breathtaking embellishments. Last year marked the embroidery atelier’s centenary—a milestone that coincided beautifully with their interpretation of coromandel motifs in the Chanel 2024/25 Métiers d’art collection. For the garments, the textile design team developed tweeds that echoed the rich lacquered hues of antique screens, while embroiderers transformed abstract florals into wearable art.
Perhaps most remarkable were the boots created in collaboration with shoemaker Massaro, inspired by a pair once owned by Gabrielle Chanel. Each stitch told a story of heritage meeting innovation, proving that some techniques simply cannot be replicated by machine.
Montex
Founded in 1949 and incorporated into Chanel’s Métiers d’art in 2011, Montex has built its reputation on fearless experimentation, pairing time-honoured embroidery with cutting-edge techniques. For the Hangzhou show, the atelier created phosphorescent braids embroidered with flowers, each thread hand-painted to evoke shadow effects that came to life as dusk settled over West Lake.
It was more than technical mastery—it was poetry in thread, a luminous example of how traditional craftsmanship can embrace innovation without ever losing its soul.
Lemarié and Lognon
The collaboration between feather and flower specialist Lemarié and pleating atelier Lognon resulted in some of the collection’s most captivating silhouettes. Lemarié’s long-standing relationship with Chanel, dating back to the 1960s, was evident in the way fabric was brought to life—jade-green silk jackets trimmed with marabou, and light blue velvet layered with embossed flowers tucked into quilted hollows.
Lognon, meanwhile, transformed an off-white silk satin jacket into a feat of textile architecture. By varying pleat widths and orientations, the atelier achieved a three-dimensional quilted effect that shifted with every step—elevated further by Lemarié’s delicate smocking and beadwork.
Maison Michel
No traveller’s wardrobe is complete without the perfect hat—and Maison Michel, part of Chanel’s Métiers d’art since 1997, knows this well. For the 2024/25 collection, its leather and felt designs, including narrow-brimmed hats, lent the final flourish to belted jackets and pleated skirts, capturing the collection’s spirit of refined wanderlust.
Goossens
Perhaps most moving was Goossens’ contribution: a series of gilded metal pieces inspired by a heart-shaped jewel from Chanel’s own archive. The texture of waterlily leaves on the reverse side of each piece referenced Robert Goossens’ original table created for Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment, bringing the founder’s personal story full circle.
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