ARCHITECTURAL EMBROIDERY

The MTX Studio was established in 2013 and is part of the Montex Haute Couture Embroidery Workshop, founded in 1939, which joined the Chanel Art Houses in 2011. The Montex Workshop primarily caters to haute couture and luxury ready-to-wear. The MTX Studio, on the other hand, exclusively works on decoration and interior architecture projects.

The founding idea was to shift embroidery from garments to space, freeing it from its traditional support and rethinking the techniques that construct it to adapt it to the scale of interior architecture. The MTX Studio offers an interpretation of embroidery that pushes its boundaries and constantly redefines it. A new expertise then emerged, drawing on the vocabulary of traditional embroidery to develop its own language. Thread becomes cable, riveting accompanies sewing, and sequins transform into aluminum modules.

How do you define your profession and style?

We are both a creative studio and a production workshop, conceptualizing and crafting unique materials for interior decorators and architects. These materials arise from the distinctive combination of techniques drawn from various fields of applied arts, including embroidery, weaving, tapestry, and leatherwork. This results in ribbon-clad walls embracing pieces of brushed brass, a screen that tensions metal and silk, and a series of screens seemingly composed solely of shards of light. Studio MTX’s style asserts itself through modular and geometric constructions, sometimes slightly dizzying. We seek an unexpected harmony between materials to emphasize the strength of the compositions. Project after project, we strive to carve a unique path in the arts and crafts, leveraging tools of digital and serial design and production in conjunction with almost entirely handmade creations.

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What type of projects do you work on?

Studio MTX makes to measure on request from interior designers, decorator and designers, innovative surfaces and textures, using its patrimonial savoir-faire to create contemporary projects. The creation can have different scale ranging from being part of the furniture to being part of the whole space. It can be a screen that combines gold and silk, a micro-architecture made of felt and glass, or even a screen wall that look like it is made of sparkles of light. We are often asked to work on project for high end hotels and restaurants, private residence or even stores. We sometimes also work with artists for a common creation, like it was the case with Vikram Divecha for a piece that was exhibited at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

How do you collaborate with architects?

There are two main ways to initiate a project. The first is to draw from existing materials within the Studio, which we have compiled in our Carnet de Surfaces. This material library allows clients to quickly visualize the final result while having technical and pricing information associated with each proposal right from the beginning of the project.

But Studio MTX is not just a production workshop; it is also a creative studio. Depending on the level of definition of the project in the interior architect’s mind, we can embark on a completely original creation from a blank slate and a few exchanged words. To fuel this exchange with the architect, we produce samples showcasing different techniques, textures, and functions in the project: filtering light, blocking the view, adding shine, warming through material or color, allowing for space modulation, etc. A good way to progress is to organize a meeting in our showroom-workshop with the architect. We are surrounded by completed pieces, samples, and materials. This helps to save time and quickly immerse ourselves in the reality of the project.

Tell us about one of your flagship creations: The Leaves.

We wanted to offer an alternative to curtains and blinds while integrating the studio’s unique identity. It is a hybrid creation that combines fabric and metal with the attention to detail and composition that is our hallmark. They provide a creative solution to maintain natural light and ensure privacy. They can be used in front of windows (mounted on a rail) or as interior partition walls.

Within a range allowing for varied compositions, we offer simple versions, others embroidered, and still others that play with color.

The MTX Studio is not just a production workshop; above all, it is a creative studio.

ARTWORKS

Louvre Abu Dhabi Inauguration – Vikram Divecha – June 2017
Louvre Abu Dhabi Inauguration – Vikram Divecha – June 2017
Louvre Abu Dhabi Inauguration – Vikram Divecha – June 2017

What projects are you currently working on?

Currently, we are immersed in large-scale projects for international hotels and cruise ships. Embroidery unfolds over several hundred square meters in these projects. The components comprise modules of a few tens of centimeters and pieces of a few millimeters. It is also this scale that stretches from the immense to the minuscule, which is a characteristic of our approach. In these projects, we work with rope, cable, metal tubes, leather modules, and textiles – a diverse array of materials. For private clients, we are asked to integrate our embroideries into “inevitable” elements of interior architecture, giving them a new identity: railings, sliding wardrobe panels, screens, interior door frames, and more. The subjects are always evolving.