During this hour long talk, the intriguing history of luxury textiles and fashion will be revealed through the geography of the winding streets and wide boulevards of Paris.

Travelling from Opéra to Le Sentier, we'll meet kings, politicians, spies cloth merchants, milliners, glove-makers, feather-workers, embroiderers and the fiercely independent Midinettes.

About Rebecca Devaney

Rebecca Devaney is a textile artist, researcher and teacher, who's art practice is inspired by poetry. She explores women’s experience of the social constructs of beauty and femininity through embroidered and embellished textile sculptures.

In 2018, following her graduation from the prestigious École Lesage, Paris, Rebecca worked as a professional haute couture embroiderer for Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Dior, Valentino, Givenchy, and Louis Vuitton. Her research into the origins, history, and heritage of haute couture embroidery has been published in Surface Design Journal, Selvedge Magazine, The Stitcher's Journal, The Maker's Atelier and books including Embellishment and RÉBÉ. Rebecca has featured in several episodes of the Haptic & Hue Tales of Textiles as well as the Dressed podcast series.

In 2019 Rebecca established Textile Tours of Paris to share her love of the rich heritage of craft, textiles and fashion woven into the fabric of Paris. She organises guided walking tours of the haberdasheries in Le Sentier, the historic centre of luxury fashion in Paris, and also to the vintage textile specialists in the oldest flea market in Paris. Since 2020, Rebecca has taught online courses in embroidery and the history of luxury French textiles.

Samplers of Seduction was launched in 2022, a collection of beautiful embroidery kits inspired by 18th century patterns and designs hidden in the libraries and museums of Paris.

In 2023, Rebecca and Jo Andrews began publishing Textile Travels, a series of guides for the intrepid textile traveller that include Paris, London, Dublin, Lyon, with more to come. Rebecca will launch her first television series on the Joie de Vivre streaming network in 2025.

Rebecca received a BA in Art and Design Education (2006) and an MFA in Textile Art and Artefact (2015) from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. She received the prestigious Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award (2015), to research hand embroidery in Mexico and the resulting exhibition, Bordados: Embroidered Textiles From Mexico, a collection of photographs, interviews, and textiles, has been presented internationally. Her artwork has been exhibited in Ireland, France and the United States and she has completed artist residencies in India, the United Arab Emirates and France.