Chanel and The King’s Foundation Focus on the Craft of Hatmaking
LONDON — Chanel and The King’s Foundation are deepening their partnership, introducing a new, “highly skilled” millinery fellowship with le19M, the Paris-based multidisciplinary space, creative hub and base for Chanel’s artisanal brands.
The intensive program will offer a 35-week residency based in the U.K. It will take place between the Chanel Métiers d’art training atelier at Highgrove in Gloucestershire, England, and The King’s Foundation, formerly known as The Prince’s Foundation, at Trinity Buoy Wharf, east London.
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Highgrove is a private family estate belonging to King Charles, founder of the foundation. It offers education and training programs to people of all ages in fields such as traditional arts and crafts, horticulture, architecture and design.
The fellowship recipients will also spend time with the team from Maison Michel, the Chanel-owned, Parisian hatmaker at le19M. The brand’s artistic director, Priscilla Royer, will offer mentorship and guidance. Recipients will also take part in a two-week industry placement in the U.K.
Chanel said this program is fully funded to include tuition, accommodation at Highgrove and London, materials, travel to Paris and accommodation, graduation celebration, exhibition and a bursary of 1,500 pounds a month toward the cost of living.
The fellowship was unveiled during Royal Ascot, an arena for bold hats, which runs this year from June 18 to 22. The idea evolved after King Charles III and Queen Camilla paid a visit to le19M during a state visit to France in September.
The monarch and his wife tried their hands at traditional crafts during a tour by Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel and le19M. The king worked with small tools, while the queen set about weaving tweed on a traditional loom.
“We look forward to continuing our educational partnership with The King’s Foundation,” said Pavlovsky. “Our long-standing vision has been to nurture and develop the specialist skills of the Métiers d’art in order to recruit, train, and transmit their savoir-faire to the next generation.”
He added: “Initiatives like this fellowship program are a way to highlight today’s relevance of these traditional métiers, ensuring they have a legitimate place in the creation of tomorrow. It also reaffirms our commitment to artisan skills, innovation and sustainable development.”
Chanel said the fellowship is aimed at postgraduate students, and the skills taught will include blocking, felt-shaping, dyeing, feather-, and flower-making along with key couture skills and finishes. Students will work to a creative brief inspired by the Highgrove estate.
Daniel McAuliffe, education director at The King’s Foundation, said the millinery fellowship will be “a much-needed postgraduate-level program in the U.K. to prepare students to enter the workplace with the right skills, design confidence and industry insight.”
In March 2023, it was revealed that Chanel and The King’s Foundation had launched a Métiers d’art education program in partnership with le19M with a focus on “hand embroidery and beading skills” with six students being selected each year.
The practice-based learning is meant to encourage creativity, build skill-confidence, and prepare recent graduates to become “artisan embroiderers of the future,” according to McAuliffe.
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