My story with Lesage embroidery began long before I even knew its name.
On a clear November night in 1999, inside the Dusit Thani Manila, I was named grand prize winner of the 2nd Philippine Fashion Design Competition, chosen from among the country’s most promising young designers.
A month later, I found myself in Paris at the Carousel du Louvre, carrying the Philippine flag to the 17th Concours International des Jeunes Créateurs de Mode. My piece—abaca and raffia dyed in orange and magenta, finished with bamboo beads and fragments of handwoven cloth—felt both rooted and new. From nearly eighty entries around the world, it received the Lesage Prize. At the time, I did not yet understand what that moment was opening. I understood only when François Lesage himself placed the certificate in my hands and explained the gift: a scholarship to the École de Broderie Lesage in Paris.
What began as recognition slowly became apprenticeship.
A year later, in a quiet Parisian atelier, my training started at the beginning.
The Lunéville crochet required stillness.
Fabric stretched across a métier frame.
My hands learning patience before beauty, rhythm before confidence. Level by level, the work deepened— leather, straw, soutache, ribbon, beads, and paillettes— each material teaching me to slow down, to listen, to begin again. By the time I reached Level 6, the Maîtrise, I understood that mastery was not an ending. It was permission to carry the craft forward. When I returned to Manila, I brought home more than a certificate signed by Lesage. I brought back a different way of working— slow, attentive, precise— and the quiet responsibility to share it. Teaching became the true continuation of the journey.
Today, I teach tambour embroidery and beadwork at FAB Creatives Manila.
In March 2026, a new group of students will begin again at Level 1, following a single thread, stitch by stitch, until their own hands learn where it leads.
What started as a prize has become a path.
What was given in Paris continues in Manila. From teacher to student, from hand to hand, the thread holds.
Bisou, bisou.
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