In the Eyes of Josette Peltier - Première Atelier Tailleur for the Maison CHANEL
A sensation of soft, white silence. Of rounded concentration. An organza petticoat seems to float on a table, 12 metres of fabric. And yet it looks like a cloud. Two muslin sleeves escape from a tailored jacket, reminiscent of a chemise à la Reine. Here, too, the line is supple, the shoulders curve, and the tweed is often laid over double tulle for even greater lightness.
If the button was the theme of the film written and directed by Dave Free for Chanel, the ones featured here evoke sparkling water pearls. Silk tulle, tutu tulle, illusion tulle, rhinestone macramé, sequins, invisible dots. This season's main focus is dance. Jackets are transformed into a cache-cœur, a braid at the waist. A guipure moulding is created on an organza base, the dress alone requiring 200 hours of work. A pleated organza coat sparkles with embroidered silver threads.
We are in the Tailleur atelier of Madame Josette, who joined Chanel in May 2008, after 20 years in the Flou department at Yves Saint Laurent with Madame Catherine, then Madame Georgette, five years at Alaia with the same Madame Georgette, and a brief stint at Gaultier Paris. Until 2020, Madame Josette visited China once a month. The orders keep coming in. “I work with the mirror. You have to have a photographer’s eye, and I owe that to Karl Lagerfeld.”
What's changed since he started in the business? “We're still here for excellence, but without the rigidity. Know-how and behaviour form a whole.” She adds: “I want to expand this atelier, not necessarily in terms of numbers, but in terms of quality. So that when I leave, my Seconds will be serene.”
It’s a story of pins, rulers, proportion, direction, and height. But it's also about the confidence and mastery that make the unexpected possible. Even if it's all a question of millimetres, you have to let the creation flow towards chance. With Virginie Viard, “you have to listen to a gesture, a look. In haute couture, silences are listened to.”