Jean Francois Lesage has just returned from Paris when I meet him for lunch at the Bombay Brasserie in a quiet tree-filled by-lane off the very busy College Road, Chennai. It is one of the new popular restaurants in the city. Chanel, Paris, has just taken over Vastrakala embroidery atelier which he set up in Chennai 21 years ago. Chanel has acquired a 70% stake in the very private Jean-Francois Lesage SAS, which owns the Indian company. Lesage is a third-generation member of the Paris-based House of Lesage, which was also acquired by Chanel in 2002.
He launched Vastrakala with three business partners, independently of the House of Lesage, although his company is registered in France. The House of Lesage was France?s most respected embroidery workshop. His father, Francois Lesage, had made it a symbol of the highest craftsmanship in fashion, producing haute couture embellishments for houses such as Chanel, Lanvin, Balmain, Givenchy and Christian Lacroix. Today, the son collaborates on projects with world famous interior decorators including Peter Marino and Robert Couturier of the US and France?s Jacques Grange and Alberto Pinto. He has worked with Christian Louboutin on a capsule collection of men?s shoes, called Mikaraja. Most of his clients are French, American or from the Middle East. His work, all done in Chennai, finds its way all over the globe.
Having been visiting India since he was 19 and moving to Chennai when he was 27, he naturally likes Indian food. We decide to go to the Bombay Brassiere. It is very crowded, but we manage to get a corner. We order coconut water and celery soup with vegetables thrown in; we also ask for gunpowder potatoes and Lucknowi paratha paneer as starters. ?I really overdo Indian food,? says Lesage. His family has been running an embroidery house since 1860 in Paris. They have also been exploring new avenues. ?My grandfather went to Chicago at the age of 19, my father to Hollywood at 18, and I continued the tradition?coming to India for the first time when I was 19.? He fell in love with India and particularly Chennai. In 1993, he met Malavika Shivakumar, one of his partners in Vastrakala, at a party, and the seeds for the enterprise were sown. ?She spoke French and it was two days after I landed in Chennai. I was at the right age and had the right energy.?
Lesage as a young man rebelled against embroidery. He wanted nothing to do with it during his student years. He studied art history at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris, and became an auctioneer for the auction house Binoche et Giquello. But coming to India changed all that. ?After all, I am my grandfather?s grandson, and my father?s son.?
A friend took him to the temple town of Sriperumbudur, now known as an automobile hub. Lesage and his partners discovered that Sriperumbudur had a strong heritage of embroidery. They met third- and fourth-generation embroiderers who kept up the craft as a part-time job when they were not involved in farming. ?Sriperumbudur and embroidery?? I am surprised. Digging deep into their history, Lesage found that these families could have been making embellishments on the clothes of Nawab of Arcot?s and Tipu Sultan?s courtiers. ?Before the arrival of the British, these princes were inspired by the Mughal lifestyle.?
Both France and India have a tradition of embroidery. ?The stitches and the frames are the same. The way we combine motifs and colours and create symbolic embroidery makes our work special.? There are many differences as well in the way the artisans of both countries worked. ?French artisans create designs on light and airy material. They will not do repetitive work. Indian craftsmen, on the other hand, recognise repetitive work. No French embroiderer will do paisley motive in six colours 200,000 times. Indian craftsmen can take on giant projects with no issues. They can do repetitive work on heavy fabrics and leather?the kind of work that lends itself to thick curtains and other home furnishings.?
Having polished off our starters, we order the main course. We ask for paperwali machchi for Lesage and lasooni baingan for me. We decide to share burani raita and a salad called Bombay in a bowl. All these appear with the customary naans and rotis.
Lesage decided to marry both the traditions together. Vastrakala was set up in Chennai with just six craftsmen. The initial years were difficult. He had to market ?made in India? to prospective clients. He was not selling off the shelf products. What he was marketing was very exclusive home furnishings to even more exclusive customers. To cater to the luxury market for the super rich, he had to train his artisans. He had to teach them to focus on quality, discipline and the use of the right tools. ?I used to use the word pakka all the time, not realising it was not Tamil,? laughs Lesage.
The Lesage name helped to attract customers. ?What we developed got recognised by a certain clientele. We then had to work towards getting an income on a regular basis. This is why I combined fashion and interiors together. Material for interiors is in demand the year round, unlike fashion. I don?t want to limit embroidery to a particular style. We can do chikan work, British art, anything that works. We combine quality with a certain level of invention.?
It took Lesage 10 years to create what he wanted. Now, Vastrakala employs more than 200 people with salaries ranging from R8,000 to R40,000 a month. ?Deloitte, which did a study on us, says people in Vastrakala are happy. We are possibly the only embroidery unit in Asia to have won the quality certification SA8000.? Then why are he and his partners selling out to Chanel? ?When Chanel took over Lesage Paris, they kept up to all their commitments. They respected our ethical standards, creativity and employees. Their large platform will help and sustain crafts to move ahead in the 21st century. If anything happens to us promoters, we don?t want the artisans to suffer.?
We have espresso to keep us alert after this rather heavy meal on a hot day. What are Lesage?s plans? ?I remain the artistic director and chairman. None of us are going to stop working hard.?