In the Workshop with Ghyslaine Vieux

Seamstress at Ligne Roset

Ghyslaine Vieux is one of the factory’s veteran seamstresses. Practising her craft for almost sixteen years, she has workedon a number of models, working with leather, Alcantara, piping,and the widest possible range of fabrics, sometimes quite astonishing ones. Always with the surest of hands, a desire to learn, and infectious good humour : each piece is a new adventure in the school of meticulousness. Here she shares the secrets of what is now an iconic model in the collection: the Kashima sofa.

After her CAP seamstress qualification – “a disappearing craft”, she emphasises – which was more clothing-related, she worked in a number of roles before starting with Roset in 2007. “The school of meticulousness, she smiles. Everything is made to order, and with very high expectations. By the way I don’t work on all of the models. Each one of them requires a very specific set of hand movements.” And these requirements are considerable…It all depends on their complexity, most notably in terms of shape. “They are all very specific, the seamstress explains. And not one of them is easy. Sometimes everything works at the first attempt, sometimes it all needs to be undone, this can often take several hours. There are some days in which not a single stitch wants to fall into place.”

And then there are the fabrics : their weight, texture, flexibility, etc. Even if experience lends more fluidity to her hand movements. And then, one must know one’s tools well, know how to change threads and needles quickly and easily, going from seam to overstitching in a flash. Knowing models by heart, even though all the assembly plans are kept in a big cupboard in the workshop. “It’s physical work”, she says.

And Kashima certainly wouldn’t disagree. “It’s one of the most difficult designs I’ve ever produced,” she says. No fewer than three sewing cycles are required to manufacture it, from shaping the gussets to interfacing, including quilting and all the intermediate topstitching. “The shapes are complex, even quirky,” she continues. “Even though it’s very beautiful. It’s a very voluminous design, requiring large quantities of fabric, so it’s heavy to work with. For the one-armed settees, left or right, an additional sewing stage is required. And all the seams must align perfectly. Then, everything also depends a lot on the fabric. Alcantara, for example, is very beautiful, but also very stiff to work with. I sometimes have to redo a piece two or three times. And don’t even get me started on leather!” Despite all this, it’s not always easy to predict the final result.

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