The birth of a common project

Located on Fifth Avenue in New York, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy were completely modernized by Ateliers de Ricou at the request of the French government. Their teams transformed the reception rooms of the Cultural Services, and completely reinvented them. We had the honor of joining the painters of the Atelier de Ricou who called on our seamstresses to make several pairs of curtains. Together, our two houses have brought life to custom-made decorations which reflect our respective savoir-faire.

Atelier de Ricou

In order to transform the reception rooms of the Cultural Services, the craftsmen have intervened in the ballroom where they have designed the entire decor by recreating a more rhythmic and structured architecture. For this purpose, Atelier de Ricou created false doors with gilded frames or pilasters made of gilded glass. In this room, the restoration workroom also created canvases applied on the walls by marouflage, lanterns as well as a mosaic of gilded glass. Each different work was developed in their workroom in France, due to the public health situation, before being installed in the room once the trip was possible. Through this architecture, we find all the skills of the workroom including decorative painting, gilding and carpentry.

Our New York workroom

We were pleased to be involved in this project thanks to our expertise in drapery for the various windows in the living room. Our seamstresses manufactured all the curtains in beautiful gray linen fabrics which were hand painted by the artisans of Atelier de Ricou with a gold gradient on the lower part of the curtains. All the window treatments are the result of a common work reflecting the expertise of our two houses: sewing and painting.

“It was very difficult to work with this fabric, because the Gold paint on the bottom of the curtains, made the fabric stiff and thick. We had to treat it very delicately in order not to make creases that were impossible to remove. Ironing was not a choice. It melted the paint, so instead we used soft steam on the back side of the fabric. Besides that difficulty, it's always a pleasure to do this kind of work. The result was very pretty, and after installation, they looked gorgeous. Hard work equals beautiful results!” testifies Véronica Preza, Drapery Workshop Manager.

We warmly thank Atelier de Ricou for having trusted us to realize this beautiful project in an exceptional place.