Lesage, François

(1929- )

   Born in Chaville, France, François eventually took over the family's embroidery business, the House of Lesage, which was founded in 1922. The "House" supplied couturières with magnificent hand embroideries. François continued with the family tradition and expanded the traditional embroidery applications. His client list included Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Givenchy, and Dior as well as American designers like Geoffrey Beene and Oscar de la Renta. Each creation can take from a dozen to hundreds of hours and everything is done entirely by hand. A collection can consume as much as 25,000 hours of work.