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Anne-Christine and Mayumi
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collection of vintage materials on offer – partly because of their past and partly because we keep buying new vintage stock. “The reason that we still have an
interesting collection of vintage felts for sale is that during WWII, stock from the old Fléchet factory in Chazelles-sur-Lyon was moved to the north of France to save it from being destroyed by bombing on the factory. In the 1960s, when felt hats had fallen out of fashion, the felt hoods were still stored away in the north, which made the owner of Ultramod at the time decide to buy the whole lot to make sure they would be preserved for the future.” As mentioned, vintage felts are hard to find. “When I get an order for pleated hats from shops in Tokyo, they need
large quantities,” says Mayumi. “As vintage felts are not available in large quantities, I will use modern fur felt instead. But it doesn’t have the same end result because modern felt is actually too heavy and too thick for this type of technique. I don’t know how to replace this material when it is not around anymore. On the other hand, I experiment with other materials as well, like leather, and for summer hats I use straw materials such as sinamay and parasisal, so it won’t stop me from creating new designs with this technique!”
More information
www.instagram.com/mayumi_takeguchi
Maison du Pli
To create her intricately pleated headpieces, Mayumi collaborates with Karen Grigorian from Maison du Pli in Paris. Born in Armenia, Karen entered the textile and fashion industry when he moved to Paris in 1990 and started working for the atelier of pleating master Gérard Lognon. In its heyday Atelier Lognon employed some 70 people, but by the 2010s this had been reduced to only four or five employees. When Lognon sold his business to Chanel in 2014, Karen decided not to stay but instead to start his own pleating atelier, Maison du Pli. At present, there are fewer than ten pleating workshops left in France, of which Maison du Pli is the only independent pleating atelier remaining in Paris. Maison du Pli’s main customers are well-known fashion
couture houses, theatres and design studios. Unlike his former employer, Karen is keen to experiment with all sorts
18 | the hat magazine #97
of materials that are generally not used for pleating. This is also how Mayumi became his customer. For her first series of pleated designs, Mayumi visited
Atelier Lognon to ask whether they could shape some felts for her but was
told that this was not possible, because the material would be too
thick for pleating. On her way out she was
stopped by Karen, who said that he was happy to give it a go as he was sure that he could make it work. This was the start of a long-term collaboration between both textile specialists.
Moulds Creating the moulds needed for pleating is a very labour-intensive process. The only
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