REPORT
New technique In 2007 Mayumi designed for the first time the type of pleated hats she is now known for. “In 2006 I presented a collection of hats at a biennale in Saint- Etienne where next to me was an artist who showed objects made of pleated paper,” Mayumi recalls. “They were very interesting and inspired me to adapt this kind of technique for hats. I mentioned my interest in the subject to Sylvie Laroche, a Parisian artist and friend, and she introduced me to Atelier Lognon, a company specialised in pleating.” At that time Karen Grigorian, who
would later start his own pleating atelier Maison du Pli, was the head technician at Atelier Lognon. He took on the challenge to pleat some felts for Mayumi – a challenge because this type of pleating is usually only done with fabrics, which are much thinner and less stiff than felt. To be able to pleat felt, the material therefore needs to be as thin and soft as possible; for example, as thin and soft as
high-end vintage flat felts. “I bought my first vintage ‘manchon’
[a flat, tube-shaped piece of felt] in 1998 at Ultramod,” says Mayumi. “At the time, I didn’t really know what to do with it – I bought it just because it was such a lovely quality. I cut it in strips and mixed it with organza to create a braid, from which I made a beret. A few years later, in 2001, I won a prize in the international hat competition organised by the museum in Chazelles-sur-Lyon. Included in the prize package I received was a vintage manchon. By then I knew how special this material is, so for a long time I didn’t dare to touch it – until 2007, as it turned out to be the perfect type of felt for pleating.”
Supplier Vintage felts have a limited availability and are hard to find. Finding vintage flat felt is even harder. Luckily for Mayumi, Ultramod, the shop where she was already a customer, still has this kind
of material in stock, owing to its long history as a millinery supplier. Ultramod started its business about 200 years ago – the oldest mention of the shop dates from 1832 – and has always been located at its present address at 3 and 4 Rue de Choiseul.
Owner Anne-Christine Morin says:
“Right from the beginning the shop was dedicated to ladies’ hat and hat accessories. They had silk ribbons, flowers, basically any kind of material used for hats. Around the 1930s, business was dropping as fewer people started wearing hats, so a second shop was opened on the opposite side of the road, focusing on passementerie and haberdashery, with different materials but complementary to the millinery materials shop. Both shops still exist more or less the same way as they started, and both have a relevant
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Exhibition of Mayumi's pleated hat collection at Ultramod, December 2022
may 2023 | 17
Vintage felt manchon
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