I first met Lucile Vilaine at Rendez-vous de la Matière, where she was presenting her work for the very first time. Her stand revealed a highly personal universe: samples of pieces combining two complementary disciplines — featherwork and embroidery — handled with quiet confidence and restraint.

Ethical choices sit at the very core of Lucile’s artistic practice. She works exclusively with natural materials, produces her own plant-based dyes, and recycles feathers from wild birds sourced through regulated hunting in her native Sologne.

I have had the opportunity to meet — and interview for Crafted Dreams — several established feather artists over the years. Moved by the refinement of Lucile Vilaine’s work and the coherence of her eco-conscious approach, I wanted to understand more. What follows is the result of our conversation — a portrait of a young artist whose future already feels distinctly promising.

Lucile Vilaine, French artist, feather art, embroidery — Lucile Vilaine

In Search of a Calling

Lucile’s relationship with embroidery began during an internship at the renowned Maison Lesage. The encounter was immediate. At the time, she was still exploring her place within the applied arts, but this experience tipped the balance decisively towards embroidery.

She went on to complete a two-year programme at the school in Nogent-sur-Marne, where she acquired a rigorous foundation in embroidery techniques and craftsmanship.

In her second year, Lucile undertook an internship at Maison Lemarié, now part of the Chanel group. It was within these historic ateliers that she discovered featherwork — and fell in love with the material to the point of committing her creative future to it.

Feather embroidery, French Artist, Lucile Vilaine — Lucile Vilaine

The Pursuit of Excellence

Lucile continued her studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art in Paris, better known as Olivier de Serres, specializing in textile design. There, she further deepened her work with natural materials, feathers in particular.

Upon graduating, she entered professional life through a freelance position at the prestigious Lebuisson embroidery ateliers.

The COVID pandemic and subsequent lockdowns brought her back to Sologne. With mobility restricted, Lucile returned to feathers with renewed focus and gradually redirected her practice towards interior pieces rather than traditional garment work.

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Wild bird feather, feather embroidery, French Artist, material

The Bucolic Charm of Sologne

Lucile lives in Sologne, where hunting has long been part of her family’s history. Feathers were part of her childhood landscape. While hunters preserve the meat, feathers are usually discarded. Lucile immediately recognised the value of what was being wasted.

As feather collection is seasonal — from September to late January — she personally gathers the finest feathers from legally hunted birds.

The biodiversity of the Sologne region offers her a remarkable range of species: American, English, venerable and obscure pheasants, alongside mallard (male and female) and red partridge.

Through this process, Lucile participates in the revalorisation of a material otherwise destined for destruction, selecting only those feathers suited to her artistic work.

French embroidery artist, Lucile Vilaine, Feather art

In Respect of Nature

Lucile founded her studio in 2019. She works exclusively with natural materials such as wool, linen, cotton and silk. For her paper-based pieces, she selects handmade blotting paper whose neutral pH preserves the integrity of the feather.

She also creates her own dyes using flowers, bark and leaves, achieving subtle, organic tones.

By managing her own feather collection, Lucile contributes — on her scale — to the preservation of a fragile natural heritage. Feathers from hunting are rarely recycled. The process is painstaking and time-consuming, and only a fraction of the collected feathers meet the structural and aesthetic criteria required for her work. The remainder, regrettably, must be discarded.

Lucile refuses to transform the feather by cutting or colouring it. Unlike many feather artists, she does not curl, flatten or reshape it. She allows nature to speak — through colour, structure and the minute variations that make each feather unmistakably unique.

In her featherwork pieces, only the tip of the feather is glued to the paper, preserving both lightness and movement.. The works are then framed under glass.

Embroidery, feather, flower pattern, French Artist, Lucile Vilaine

Techniques and Artistic Signature

Lucile combines embroidery and featherwork, using embroidery to secure feathers in a durable and discreet manner. Without ever compromising the feather’s natural beauty, she seeks to reveal its silhouette, its hidden sections and its subtle tonal variations.

Transparent textiles introduce plays of light that accentuate the feather’s structure. Each work is created using feathers from a single bird species, allowing their natural diversity to emerge.

Her compositions — floral or graphic — are airy and restrained, with space left around each feather so that it may exist on its own terms.

Lucile’s creations explore transparency and light through lightweight supports — sheer fabrics, textiles or papers used for lighting — where feather silhouettes appear almost like shadow plays.

True to her philosophy, she never cuts the feather, preserving its original integrity and quiet strength.

wild bird feather, feather art, embroidery, Lucile Vilaine

What About the Future?

Today, Lucile Vilaine’s works adorn hotel rooms, private interiors and restaurant walls, creating poetic links between décor and the natural world.

Her recent explorations point towards the development of embroidered textile collections incorporating feathers or other decorative elements — conceived as a material palette for artists and interior designers.

Working primarily in small formats for now, Lucile dreams of more ambitious projects. In the meantime, she continues to refine her techniques, assert her visual language and grow her clientele. Her participation in Rendez-vous de la Matière has already drawn strong interest from professionals.

The material she champions, combined with a singular technique and a deeply respectful relationship with nature, opens new possibilities for our interiors — and offers a delicate, thoughtful celebration of the living world.