Paris - Les Merceries: June 2023

The Ribbons of Paris with Rebecca

Rebecca Devaney is a textile artist, researcher and educator. She moved to Paris from Ireland to study the art of embroidery, and in 2018, graduated from the École Lesage, the legendary school of embroidery. She became a professional haute couture embroiderer for the fashion houses of Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Dior, Valentino, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton.

We were fortunate to meet Rebecca as part of our Paris with Dressed: The History of Fashion Tour led by the fashion historians, Cassidy Zachary and April Calahan. Gathering at Au Ver à Soie, a 200-year-old emporium and producer of silk threads for sewing, embroidery and tapestries, we listened to Rebecca's lilting Irish voice as she described her journey in embroidery and her current endeavor, Textile Tours of Paris.

Au Ver à Soie was created in 1820 when French silk

and haute couture led the world in fashion.

There are hundreds of colors

available for their various types of silk threads.

Rebecca created this beautiful embroidery

kit in a hand-made box. We each received one.

Housed within is A Brief Dictionary of Stitches, an 

embroidery pattern drawn on Italian linen, a hoop,

gold-plated scissors in the traditional stork design, a needle book

and silk embroidery threads from Au Ver à Soie.

I gifted my kit to a talented teenager named Sienna

Hornberger. Sienna is the daughter of good friends, Andy and Julie

Hornberger. Andy studied with my husband, Richard, at

Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

This is Sienna's finished sampler. It was a serendipitous gift

because Sienna had been thinking about learning to embroider.

She is in the 11th grade in high school and has spent her summer

attending the precollege program, Designing a Fashion Mini-Collection,

at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. 

Sienna models one of her creations, an outfit

made of knotted yarn.

The word "mercerie" is French for notions. It includes fun things to shop for like ribbons, buttons, feathers, artificial flowers, yarns and beads. So off we hiked with Rebecca to discover the notion shops of Paris.

Here are some of the shops that we visited.

Rebecca displays yellow netting which might 

adorn a hat at Ultramod, since 1832 providing

millinery supplies and trims to fashionable Parisiens.

"Dressed" tour members exploring the

wonders of Ultramod.

Rebecca talks about the artificial flower process

while Wendy and April inspect les fleurs.

One of the joys of our Paris sojourn was meeting

our fellow tour members. Here are (L-R) Bobbi, Bethany and Gemma.

We represented 7 countries: USA, Canada, England,

Costa Rica, Norway, Mexico and Australia.

Annie Bouquet's beautiful sign.

We met her at her shop which sells designs for embroidery.

À Bientôt!