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At first glance, the Maison Legeron \u00a0looks quirky, homey, \u00a0topsy turvy. \u00a0\u00a0Hard to imagine that the charming, old-fashioned atelier\u00a0<\/span>houses the \u00a0last independent family firm that makes and supplies the exquisite handmade artificial flowers worn by top models strutting down the runways at haute couture shows (and also sold for astronomical prices in high fashion boutiques).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Bruno Legeron, whose great-grandfather bought the establishment in 1898, tells me that there was a time when<\/span>\u00a0hundreds of firms like his turned out handmade flowers and feathers for ladies’ hats. \u00a0 Then came the automobile, more informal ways of dressing and notably, the demise of\u00a0<\/span>le chapeau<\/span><\/em>. \u00a0The legions of small ateliers were snatched up and became part of \u00a0big fashion houses. Legeron is the last to hold out, fashioning his artificial flowers for designers from Dior to Jean-Paul Gaultier to Jimmy Choo and supplying feathers for the Lido and the Folies Berg\u00e8res.<\/span><\/p>\n Times have changed, though, and Bruno admits that <\/span>\u00a0“we used to make flowers – now we make profit margins”. \u00a0 \u00a0 In spite of his words,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0you can tell that he believes in what he does and that in his atelier there’s more to the process than profit margins. \u00a0There’s heart.<\/span><\/p>\n The process looks deceptively simple – the silk \u00a0(or leather or latex) is stretched on wooden frames to stiffen and dry all night, then the petals are cut with dies and wax heated so that each petal can be individually shaped with a special instrument solely for that purpose. \u00a0Some of the tools date back to from Bruno’s \u00a0great-grandfather’s days. Bruno personally takes care of finding and mixing exactly the right colour for the petals.<\/p>\n “The only thing we don’t do”, Bruno joked, as he showed me around the picturesque \u00a0atelier<\/em>\u00a0 only steps away from the Palais Royal and its gardens – \u00a0which are filled with “real” flowers \u00a0– \u00a0“is\u00a0raise our ostriches down in the basement.” \u00a0 \u00a0There are no birds in the basement, for sure, but there are bird feathers galore, whether from pheasants, black guinea fowls, \u00a0swans or others, \u00a0carefully stored in plain oblong cardboard boxes lining the walls from floor to ceiling. \u00a0Ostrich feathers notably, are classified according to quality and labelled \u00a0“tr\u00e8s tr\u00e8s belle”, \u00a0“tr\u00e8s belle”, and “belle”. \u00a0 \u00a0Those feathers are used on everything from boas to accessories on shoes like the gorgeous bright blue pair in the picture below.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the day I visited the atelier, Bruno was dressed in jeans and a tracksuit top over which he wore a black apron adorned with huge safety pins with various roses and feathers. He certainly looked “modern”, but he’s proud of \u00a0doing things the old-fashioned and collegial way (workers in the atelier all have specialities but pitch in to help each other when there’s a rush, he says). \u00a0Pointing at an antiquated cash register where the amounts are still in French francs, Bruno joked: \u00a0“That’s my computer”. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I cast a glance at the “computer”, then gazed up at the ceiling.\u00a0\u00a0Hanging over our heads were rows and rows of enormous silk white peonies which Legeron had created for a Cartier window display.<\/p>\n I was filled with admiration for the exquisite craftmanship I had witnessed during the visit \u00a0– as well as a fleeting but powerful desire to own a drop dead gorgeous 2 meter black and white boa made of top quality ostrich feathers that \u00a0I gently fingered on my way out the door….But then, who wouldn’t\u00a0<\/em>want to possess a handmade creation with more than a century of French savoir-faire<\/em> behind it?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This article was adapted from a passage in the chapter “Savoir-Vivre: Life as an Art Form” in my latest book, Joie de Vivre<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At first glance, the Maison Legeron \u00a0looks quirky, homey, \u00a0topsy turvy. \u00a0\u00a0Hard to imagine that the charming, old-fashioned atelier\u00a0houses the \u00a0last independent family firm that makes and supplies the exquisite handmade artificial flowers worn by top models strutting down the runways at haute couture shows (and also sold for astronomical prices in high fashion boutiques).\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":783,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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