Who would have thought that this intriguing and rare CAP featherwork, discovered in the tiny note of an orientation catalog, would lead him to the catwalks of the greatest fashion designers and behind the scenes of the Moulin Rouge? Almost 34 years old, Maxime Leroy has made a thousand-year-old profession, and to be honest obsolete, a arts and crafts downright trendy. It must be said that the creator has “the easy pen”. He cuts it, colors it, glues it, twists it to make ostrich thread, brooches made of peacock ornaments, shoes with a look so velvety they look like fur. When a carton of milk passes under his nose, he already imagines it all feathered. He even reproduced a bouquet of mimosa to be mistaken there. Which never fades, inevitably, emu and ostrich feathers do not wither. His “highly technical work” is quite simply “magical and sumptuous”, says Francis Saint-Genez, the director and curator of the Museum of Precious Arts Paul Dupuy de Toulouse, which is dedicating to the artist – he prefers to call himself “craftsman” – his very first, and downright astonishing retrospective*.
Plumped shoes, Jean-Paul Gautier sweater, trompe-l’oeil slice of lemon, “Moulin Rouge” colored ostrich boas, which he makes by the kilometer for the Parisian cabaret, giant headdress inspired by Native American chiefs… Thanks or to Because of the Covid-19, the feather maker had three years to appropriate this Toulouse “box”, stuffing it with rare and prestigious pieces, or very contemporary devices.
Movie parrot moults
“The feather is bioplastic, you can imagine anything with it,” assures Maxime Leroy, twirling between his creations. “Do you realize that a peacock is 147 different varieties of feathers”, launches as if he were still surprised by it himself the one who has the collar of his shirt tattooed on the skin.
And that the friends of the animals are reassured, all the feathers come from breedings. The feather worker buys back his raw material in recovery mode. He even has a few parrot owners in his address book – “movie parrots you see in rappers’ clips” – who send him the moulting feathers of their birds when the season comes. And if the craftsman takes “four hours” to assemble a fake lemon with the “caps” (their very hard end) of feathers, he waited “nine years” for one of the large feathers of his Native American headdress. Being a feather worker also means having a bit of patience.
* Haute Voltige exhibition, visible until November 12, 2023 at the Museum of Precious Arts Paul Dupuy in Toulouse.