Trianon — An Embroidery Course Inspired by Marie-Antoinette & the Petit Hameau
A two-session online atelier · May 23 & 30, 2025
There is a dress in the reserves of the Palais Galliera that has never quite left my mind.
A strapless ballgown in pale blush silk, embroidered all over with silver medallions, garlands, and pastoral scenes — the kind of dress that seems to hold its breath. It was made for Christian Dior, and the embroidery was the work of the atelier Rébé, the great Parisian brodeur whose name I have spent years researching. The dress is called Trianon. And when you look closely at those silver medallions — really closely — you see them: a woman standing at a butter churn, two cottages, flowering trees, a fence, a garden. The Petit Hameau de la Reine is waiting for us.
What We Will Make Together
Over two Saturday afternoons, we will embroider an oval composition inspired directly by the Trianon dress — a pastoral scene in the spirit of Marie-Antoinette's beloved hamlet, translated into a palette of soft pinks, sage greens, sky blue and warm brown, worked in thread, beads, and sequins on fine linen.
The composition features the silhouette of the bergère — the shepherdess at her churn — flanked by her two cottages, a flowering tree dotted with beads, an English garden fence and a sky that shimmers when the light catches the metallic inserts threaded among them.
The oval medallion is finished with a border of pearlescent and silver sequins, and crowned at the top and bottom with radiating starbursts of silver metallic blade and pink thread flowers — a direct echo of the Rébé medallions that cascade across the Galliera dress.
It is a little piece of Versailles, made by your own hands.
The Programme
Session 1 — Saturday 23 May · 15h–17h30 Paris time We begin with the history: the Petit Hameau, Marie-Antoinette's pastoral fantasy, and the extraordinary story of how Rébé translated an eighteenth-century park into haute couture embroidery for Dior. Then we pick up our needles. We will work the architectural elements and landscape — the cottages, the fence, the garden, the sky — establishing the composition and learning the foundational stitches that carry the piece.
Session 2 — Saturday 30 May · 15h–17h30 Paris time We bring the scene to life. The bergère takes her place at centre stage; the flowering tree blossoms in pink and green silk with its scattered bead-fruits; the border of sequins is laid; and the starburst ornaments bloom above and below the oval. We finish together, and we talk about what it means to hold a tradition in your hands.
Your Kit
Everything you need arrives at your door before the first session — a complete, curated kit including:
Fine natural linen with the design already printed on i
4 embroidery floss skeins in the exact palette of the course (soft pink, sage, moss green, sky blue, warm brown)
Pink and orange glass seed beads
Iridescent round sequins, silver metallic flower sequins
Silver metallic blade or lame
Techniques placement card sent by email
No hunting for materials. No substitutions. Everything chosen with the care of someone who has spent decades studying what the great Parisian ateliers used — and why.
The Recordings
Both sessions are recorded and made available to you within 24 hours. You will have access to the full recordings for six months — so you can pause, rewind, and finish at exactly your own pace, returning to the details as many times as you need.
This Course Is For You If…
You love embroidery not just as a craft but as a form of historical memory. If the words haute couture, broderie de perles, Palais Galliera and Rébé make your heart beat a little faster — this is your course. Suitable for embroiderers of all levels, no prior beadwork experience necessary and every single technique is explained step by step on the videos.
✦ Two Saturdays · May 23 & 30 · 15h–17h30 (Paris time) ✦ Kit shipped directly to your home · Recordings available for 6 months
Places are limited to preserve the intimacy of the atelier.
Trianon — An Embroidery Course Inspired by Marie-Antoinette & the Petit Hameau
A two-session online atelier · May 23 & 30, 2025
There is a dress in the reserves of the Palais Galliera that has never quite left my mind.
A strapless ballgown in pale blush silk, embroidered all over with silver medallions, garlands, and pastoral scenes — the kind of dress that seems to hold its breath. It was made for Christian Dior, and the embroidery was the work of the atelier Rébé, the great Parisian brodeur whose name I have spent years researching. The dress is called Trianon. And when you look closely at those silver medallions — really closely — you see them: a woman standing at a butter churn, two cottages, flowering trees, a fence, a garden. The Petit Hameau de la Reine is waiting for us.
What We Will Make Together
Over two Saturday afternoons, we will embroider an oval composition inspired directly by the Trianon dress — a pastoral scene in the spirit of Marie-Antoinette's beloved hamlet, translated into a palette of soft pinks, sage greens, sky blue and warm brown, worked in thread, beads, and sequins on fine linen.
The composition features the silhouette of the bergère — the shepherdess at her churn — flanked by her two cottages, a flowering tree dotted with beads, an English garden fence and a sky that shimmers when the light catches the metallic inserts threaded among them.
The oval medallion is finished with a border of pearlescent and silver sequins, and crowned at the top and bottom with radiating starbursts of silver metallic blade and pink thread flowers — a direct echo of the Rébé medallions that cascade across the Galliera dress.
It is a little piece of Versailles, made by your own hands.
The Programme
Session 1 — Saturday 23 May · 15h–17h30 Paris time We begin with the history: the Petit Hameau, Marie-Antoinette's pastoral fantasy, and the extraordinary story of how Rébé translated an eighteenth-century park into haute couture embroidery for Dior. Then we pick up our needles. We will work the architectural elements and landscape — the cottages, the fence, the garden, the sky — establishing the composition and learning the foundational stitches that carry the piece.
Session 2 — Saturday 30 May · 15h–17h30 Paris time We bring the scene to life. The bergère takes her place at centre stage; the flowering tree blossoms in pink and green silk with its scattered bead-fruits; the border of sequins is laid; and the starburst ornaments bloom above and below the oval. We finish together, and we talk about what it means to hold a tradition in your hands.
Your Kit
Everything you need arrives at your door before the first session — a complete, curated kit including:
Fine natural linen with the design already printed on i
4 embroidery floss skeins in the exact palette of the course (soft pink, sage, moss green, sky blue, warm brown)
Pink and orange glass seed beads
Iridescent round sequins, silver metallic flower sequins
Silver metallic blade or lame
Techniques placement card sent by email
No hunting for materials. No substitutions. Everything chosen with the care of someone who has spent decades studying what the great Parisian ateliers used — and why.
The Recordings
Both sessions are recorded and made available to you within 24 hours. You will have access to the full recordings for six months — so you can pause, rewind, and finish at exactly your own pace, returning to the details as many times as you need.
This Course Is For You If…
You love embroidery not just as a craft but as a form of historical memory. If the words haute couture, broderie de perles, Palais Galliera and Rébé make your heart beat a little faster — this is your course. Suitable for embroiderers of all levels, no prior beadwork experience necessary and every single technique is explained step by step on the videos.
✦ Two Saturdays · May 23 & 30 · 15h–17h30 (Paris time) ✦ Kit shipped directly to your home · Recordings available for 6 months
Places are limited to preserve the intimacy of the atelier.
Image 1 of 12
Image 2 of 12
Image 3 of 12
Image 4 of 12
Image 5 of 12
Image 6 of 12
Image 7 of 12
Image 8 of 12
Image 9 of 12
Image 10 of 12
Image 11 of 12
Image 12 of 12