Overview:
Michel Chataigne, Haitian vogue icon and present HXNY artist-in-residence, hosted an intimate workshop in Brooklyn the place members crafted flower brooches whereas exploring the intersections of Haitian tradition, couture, and storytelling.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Haitian designer Michel Chataigne received hands-on throughout a current Trend & Cultural Id Workshop on the Haiti Cultural Trade (HCX) gallery in Crown Heights. On the March 29 workshop, Chataigne guided practically 20 members in deciding on materials, colours, glitters, and shapes to create customized flower brooches.
He supplied one-on-one instruction, instructing members varied strategies utilized in high-end vogue manufacturing whereas weaving in tales of Haitian historical past and its intersection with vogue.
Emphasizing the connection between storytelling, craftsmanship, and diaspora identification, Chataigne demonstrated methods to layer and pinch material to attain textured, dimensional designs.
“Behind every piece, regardless of if it’s historic, associated to faith or spirituality, there’s that means. It’s an vital alternative to study extra,” stated Phelisha Midy, deputy workforce lead on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth, who was amongst these rigorously reducing material into floral types.
Midy stated she joined the workshop to achieve a deeper understanding of Haitian vogue.
“I realized about what freed girls wore in Haiti,” she stated. “I didn’t learn about that a part of historical past. It gave me a brand new perspective on how vogue and freedom intersect.”
A career-shaping Haitian vogue
All through his 40-year profession, Chataigne has helped form Haiti’s vogue and wonder industries, staging worldwide exhibits and championing conventional Haitian craftsmanship. His designs typically function strategies equivalent to Richelieu embroidery and straw weaving, emblematic of the artistry present in Haiti’s mountain communities.
As a part of his residency with HCX, Chataigne offered his life’s work in “La Mode et Haïti,” an exhibition in Brooklyn that showcased his contributions throughout hair styling, equipment, and males’s and girls’s vogue. The exhibit ran by way of April 13.
“In your entire Caribbean, solely Haiti has a tradition of stitching,” Chataigne stated in an interview with The Haitian Occasions final month.
“Even in childhood, college students needed to move an examination on stitching by the point they completed junior highschool,” he stated. “[It’s] ingrained in our tradition.”
The residency represents each a milestone and a brand new starting for Chataigne. After 40 years, his focus is shifting towards manufacturing, wealth creation, and sustaining the ateliers and artisans who proceed to embody Haiti’s artistic spirit.
For Naika Colas, a Haitian American sustainable design strategist and assistant professor at Parsons Faculty of Design, the workshop supplied inspiration to additional combine Haitian tradition into her instructing.
“Michel shared a lot significant context about his work and the worth of conventional strategies,” Colas stated. “It left me feeling impressed. I’d love to include a workshop like this for my very own college students—one thing that blends craft, tradition, and storytelling in a hands-on and impactful manner.”