"Weave, embroider, embellish": a Paris exhibition on fashion crafts, until 18 October
On 18 October 2026 an exhibition closes in Paris: "Tisser, broder, sublimer. Les savoir-faire de la mode" — "Weave, embroider, embellish: the crafts of fashion". The Palais Galliera, the City of Paris fashion museum, has shown it since 13 December 2025. It's the first of three exhibitions the museum is devoting to craft in fashion (museum press release, PDF, materials on the museum's site).
What's on show
According to the museum, the exhibition holds more than 350 items from its collections: garments, accessories, photographs, graphic art, fabric samples and tools. The subject is the crafts that decorate clothing: weaving, printing, embroidery, lace and artificial flowers, from the 18th century to today. The common thread is the flower, one of the main motifs in textiles. Work by haute couture houses sits next to pieces by young makers, some of them made for the exhibition.
Next to the fabric samples there are tables with magnifying glasses, so visitors can look at the stitches up close and see how much handwork goes into each piece.
What a cross stitcher can take from it
We haven't been to the exhibition and are retelling what the museum says. But the idea itself — looking at embroidery up close — is useful at home too.
- Flowers as practice. Floral motifs have been stitched for centuries. A small floral chart is a good way to practise shade changes and a neat backstitch outline.
- Look up close. Professional embroidery is studied under a magnifier, and it helps to look closely at your own work now and then: do the top stitches lie evenly, do all crosses face the same way?
- Samples before the project. The exhibition has many fabric samples. A small test piece before a big project helps you choose the fabric, count and number of strands — see "Fabric and count".
If you can't get to Paris by 18 October, the museum's site has materials about the exhibition, and we have an article on museum paintings you can stitch for free.