“The hand and the machine” has been the balance at the heart of Sophie Hallette, a company that has associated the engineering of Leavers looms with the excellence of top craftsmen since 1887.
It is also the theme that has drawn fashion fans all Summer to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. From the beginnings of haute couture to the invention of the sewing machine, from the needle to the laser, the “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology” exhibit explores (until September 5th) a duality that often results in amazing unions and sometimes turbulent contrasts … Though today the hand has become a prerogative of haute couture while the machine tends to be associated with ready-to-wear or fast fashion … what about the experiments of the greatest designers who, from Issey Miyake to Karl Lagerfeld, from Thierry Mugler to Martin Margiela, catapulted the newest techniques to the heart of creation? In dozens of dresses and many passionate themes (embroideries, featherwork, pleating, soft dressmaking, leathergoods), the MET explores questions that make up the inexhaustible energy of fashion … with, in passing, a nod to Sophie Hallette, cited as one of the companies that preserves a manual, ancestral skill in a field dominated by mechanical lace!
From Caudry to New York… There’s no need to mention that today we are extremely proud to be honored by our American friends.
More information on the Met Museum website.
Photos by Amelia Holowaty Krales, The Verge
