Portrait of a resident - Cécile Gray

Cécile Gayraud, alias GRAY, will take up residency at Les Ateliers de Paris in September 2021. She first worked as an architect for several years, before returning to her studies to focus on what has always driven her: textile and clothing design. It was at theAtelier Chardon Savard in Paris that she trained in fashion design and began to develop her own expertise in metal mesh.

From this atypical path, she kept the rigour and constructive intelligence of architecture, while opening up to more creative and sensitive fields, through her experiences in fashion.

Through her work, Cécile questions scales and uses, while breaking down the barriers between disciplines.

AND IF THE JEWEL TOOK SHAPE?

Have you ever wondered what jewellery is? Is it necessarily a small piece that adorns the earlobe, neck, wrist or hand? What if it were to come to the forefront and dress the whole body like a luminous garment?

Hundreds of hand-set golden cables are set in volume to give shape to "jewellery-clothes". The metallic mesh thus created envelops the body and appears to levitate around it, while being sufficiently flexible to allow movement. With numerous variations of grids and patterns, these hybrid creations ennoble the garment, while being completely independent.

The first collection of " jewellery-clothes" won an award in 2018 at the Hyères International Fashion, Accessories and Photography Festival, in the accessories category.

In her studio, Cécile Gray continues to explore this technique and develops new pieces ranging from fashion accessories to small objects: vases, bottle dressings, scenography elements...

BETWEEN CRAFT & DESIGN

At the intersection of weaving, embroidery and jewellery, Cécile GRAY is both a member of the art professions and a researcher of innovation. The return to the gesture and the material is an essential element in the work of the designer, who assembles the elements with each other, rather than shaping the material according to a predefined design. In this way she reconnects design (thinking) and craft (doing).

This cross-disciplinary approach has enabled him to work with prestigious brands such as Hermès, Lemarié (Métiers d'Art Chanel) and Ruinart. Each collaboration is the subject of a tailor-made service, built around the unique know-how of crimped metal meshing, or specific research using materials such as horsehair, straw marquetry, metal wire...