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The legacy called Lesage
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Did you know that Vastrakala, a quiet shop off Kasturi Ranga Road, has been furnishing some of the richest homes in the world? MEERA MOHANTY talks to the people behind it
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PHOTOS: MONICA GHURDE
EYE FOR DETAIL A craftsman at Vastrakala cutting the edges on a sample with the original 17th Century tapestry on the side.
From a quiet little by-lane, off Kasturiranga Road, Vastrakala has been translating the fantasies of some of the best designers on to cloth. Embroidering designs worthy of royalty is more than a decade old story here.
Run by Jean-Francois Lesage, Malavika Rao, Patrick Savouret and Sandeep Rao, the workshop has been furnishing the richest private homes, ranging from the King of Thailand to the giants of cinema and music, the Steven Spielbergs and the David Bowies. Now its fine craftsmanship can be viewed by a larger public, as part of three prestigious restoration projects: The Opera Monte Carlo, the Lanvin Room at the Louvre and the Chateau Vaux le Vicomte (see box).
The embroidery in progress for the Opera Monte Carlo
For Vastrakala, it's a matter of great honour, not just because two of the four partners are French but also because it doesn't get any bigger than this. Imagine being entrusted with embroidering 40 panels insured for a cool 250,000 euros — a national heritage considered important enough to be escorted to the airport by France's special police force for arts. And imagine recreating the richly embroidered 17th Century panels that once hung around the bed in the Queen's room. It's facts like these that make the work that the craftsmen at Vastrakala are engrossed in completing, embroidery's answer to art restoration.
"It's not art, it's craft and I am proud to be a craftsman," says Lesage, son of Francois Lesage from the renowned house of embroidery Maison Lesage. This is the house of which Karl Lagerfeld is reportedly to have said, "I cannot conceive of any fashion without embroidery. Nor of any embroidery without Lesage."
At the age of sixteen, Jean-Francois Lesage vowed never to join the family business, studying at the Louvre, training as an auctioneer, then travelling the world and rediscovering the same embroidery techniques on Indian shores, before finally setting up Vastrakala. "I guess I must have a genetic weakness for embroidery," he says.
With detailed research and documentation, meticulous draftsmanship and layers of embroidery, Vastrakala's craft can demand seemingly ridiculous levels of perfection. "We have received this offer to stitch a band of 8.23 mm! You must be a little mad to be in this profession," says Malavika Rao. The smile is a complete give away. "Yes" she admits, "we've agreed to do it." In the world of the few but exclusive luxury worshippers, redoing a few thousand hours of intricate work because the shade of apple green didn't quite look the same in Parisian daylight is not a sign of insanity. It is a reflection of Lesage's belief that the craft of embroidery will always be, at least at Vastrakala, a philosophical exercise and not a mere profession.
The designers, managers and craftsmen, Malavika Rao says, understand the social and historical frame on which their canvas is stretched. Why it's not just about the little flower motif but also about the material, the plaster detailing, the chandeliers and the architecture among other things.
With his passion for arts and history, Lesage makes sure his craftsmen understand even if it means explaining a lord as a zamindar, or allowing a seductive collection of books, from expensive coffee table books on architecture to matter-heavy anthropology ones to lie on open bookshelves. "Craft can reach a certain level of excellence only if the team works together and understands this passion for perfection," says Lesage.
"There's a great future for Indian craft," says Lesage. "In a globalised world where things are increasingly standardised, to have an object handcrafted just for you is the ultimate luxury," explains Lesage. Their client list also includes the occasional passionate student who can afford just that one cushion. "In fact in ten years," he predicts, "50 per cent of Vastrakala's clients will be Indians." There are no haute couture plans yet, but Lesage would love to do a sari collection some day.
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