In Paris, the Palais Galliera is drawing attention to the often-unseen artisans of haute couture with its expansive exhibition: Weaving, Embroidering, Embellishing: The Skills of Fashioning.
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| Voluminous sculptural dress and shoes by Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, for her "18th Century Punk" Haute Couture Collection. The Japanese designer reimagined in 2016 how Punk might have seemed during the period of 18th-century revolutions exploding across Europe. |
Running until 18 October 2026, the wide-ranging exhibition, dedicated to the technical métiers that underpin the fashion industry, foregrounds craftsmanship rather than celebrity designers, offering visitors a detailed examination of the processes behind some of fashion’s most intricate creations.
The exhibition’s emphasis is on craft rather than on blockbuster-style display of iconic couture pieces.
As digital tools increasingly influence design and marketing, exhibitions such as this underscore the argument that the enduring appeal of haute couture lies in embodied knowledge — the precision of the hand, the trained eye, and the accumulated skill transmitted across generations.
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| Mise-en-carte (Point-paper design), 1770 - 1780, France, from an Album showing painters' designs transferring onto hand-drawn graph paper to created instructions for a weaving look. |
By foregrounding these crafts, the Palais Galliera situates fashion’s future resilience in the preservation and valorisation of its most traditional competencies.
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| Chanel evening dress by Karl Lagerfeld, Haute Couture SS 2019. |
In this context, the reaffirmation of artisanal expertise functions not only as cultural homage but as economic positioning. For luxury brands, savoir-faire remains a core differentiator: hand-executed embroidery, heritage weaving techniques and workshop-based production cannot be easily replicated by algorithms or mass automation.
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| Cristobal Balenciaga evening dress and bolero ensemble haute couture SS 1947, from the wardrobe of Daisy Fellowes, heiress of the Singer forturne, French socialite and columnist of the American Harper's Bazaar magazine. |
"Weaving, Embroidering, Embellishing: The Skills of Fashioning" (Tisser, broder, sublimer. Les savoir-faire de la mode) brings together more than 350 works, spanning garments, textile samples, tools and archival materials.
While spotlighting the myriad of techniques and craftsmanship related to ornamentiation - from weaving, dyeing, printing, embroidery, to artificial flowers, lace-making and decorative embellishment, all are explored through the single unifying theme: the flower.
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| Jean Patou by Christian Lacroix Poker d'as Evening Gown Haute Couture AW 1986 - 1987 |
The aim is to demonstrate the variety of techniques, embellishments, the interplay of materials, the treatment of colour, volume and so forth - all ingenious and creative variations on the floral motif, which has been ubiquitous in fashion and the decorative arts for over three centuries. To this, the exhibition showcases the masterful use of artisans' techniques on haute couture designs. For his final couture collection before his death, Karl Lagerfeld's evening dress dress inspiration dfrom the 18th century featuring embroidered flowers that imitate Vincennes and Sevres porcelain. The embroidery took 1,205 hours of work incorporating 3D techniques to sculpt volumes in high-relief. An evening ensemble from cristobal Balenciaga's Haute Couture SS 1947 collection depicts a floral print that evokes the designs of the Lyon silk maker Duchante. The embroidered details are the work of Metrl that specialised in high quality mechanical embroidery.
Rather than presenting couture as spectacle alone, the curatorial approach emphasises crafts as disciplines in their own right. Magnification devices and close-up displays allow visitors to examine stitching, beadwork and fabric structures in forensic detail.
Cultural commentators in Paris have praised the exhibition’s balance between visual appeal and technical insight, noting that it avoids overwhelming audiences with specialist terminology while still conveying the complexity of the trades involved.
One would applaud the curators’ decision to spotlight the “petites mains” — the skilled workshop artisans whose labour sustains the haute couture tradition but who rarely receive public recognition.
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| Embroidery example from the Maison Beauvais & Cie ca 1830 featuring metallic thread on silk mousseline. Maison Beauvais was renowned for its fine laminated threads that ensure the lasting brilliance and fluidity essential to First Empire and Restoration of court gowns. |
The exhibition is contemplative and intellectually rigorous, paying tribute to intergenerational knowledge and the preservation of craft. Rather than centring on runway glamour, the show positions material technique and artisanal expertise at the heart of fashion’s cultural value.
Being both visually enticing while being elegant and educational, there is a wide diversity of trades represented — from broderie and plumasserie to specialist weaving — and the opportunity to better understand the layered production process behind finished garments.
Its focus on savoir-faire arrives at a moment of strategic significance for the luxury sector. High fashion houses are grappling with slowing global demand, particularly in key markets where aspirational spending has softened.
At the same time, rapid advances in artificial intelligence — from generative design tools to automated production modelling — are reshaping creative and commercial workflows. While AI promises efficiency and speed, it also intensifies questions about authenticity, originality and the human value embedded in luxury goods.
