Le Grand Palais
For the reopening of the Grand Palais in Paris in June 2025, following a major restoration project supported by CHANEL, its longstanding and exclusive patron, le19M, CHANEL’s centre dedicated to the Métiers d’art, collaborated with the emblematic monument to unveil a large-scale work of art: an extraordinary ornamental curtain, designed as a symbolic interface between the Nave and the central square of the building. This spectacular piece, measuring 8 metres high and 15 metres wide, unfurls in front of the central Venetian window, punctuating the interior perspective of the monument.
A veritable laboratory of excellence in fashion and decoration, le19M brought together the expertise of all its resident Maisons d’art—Atelier Montex, Lesage, Goossens, Lemarié, Atelier Lognon, Massaro, Maison Michel, Paloma, and Studio MTX—to create this collective piece. For the first time, these exceptional crafts are presented in a monumental architectural setting, opening up a new field of expression. Within this sculptural artefact, interplays of materials and shapes lead to superpositions and recompositions, creating a new dialogue between cutting-edge technology and creativity.
The artistic coordination of the project was entrusted to Studio MTX, under the creative direction of Mathieu Bassée. Traditional textile techniques were reinvented to preserve the impeccable drape and apparent lightness of the curtain, despite its monumental scale. Behind its virtuosity lies sophisticated engineering: at will, the panels retract into two 20 cm recesses, fully opening the view onto the nave of the Grand Palais.
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Verticality is at the core of this monumental work, which fills the space like a shower of suspended light.
Clothed in a multitude of vertical rectangles—a mise en abyme evoking both the spectacular height of the Nave and the diffuse light of its glass roof—it acts as a natural invitation to look up at its glass and steel sky.
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In the lower section of the curtain, at eye level, the Maisons have created ornamental strips—70 in total—sewn onto the fabric, providing their interpretation of this shower of light. Artful embroidery, pleats and smocks, goldsmithing techniques, feather marquetry... these techniques respond to and complement each other in order to create a new artistic vocabulary
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The curtain’s colour palette is directly inspired by the monument’s architecture.
Around the reseda green—the emblematic hue of its metal structure—subtle gradations stretch out, from white to deep blue, evoking a moving horizon.
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View of the Nave from the Grand Staircase © Simon Lerat for the GrandPalaisRmn, Paris 2024
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The result of more than 900 hours of design and 720 hours of meticulous work, this exceptional curtain is a tribute to the virtuosity of the Maisons d’art all contributing to this common score, each revealing their own unique style
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