Janaïna Milheiro

Experimenting with a Parisian tradition

• Janaïna creates textiles and sculptures from feathers
• She has developed a very personal, innovative approach
• She mainly creates work for luxury goods, fashion and interior design

Janaïna Milheiro stumbled upon featherwork quite by chance. At textile design school she was encouraged to collect materials. When the moment came to start her end of year diploma work, she delved into her collection and picked out feathers, using them to create a series of small fabrics. Her journey with feathers then unfolded very organically, through experimentation. “I started to work the feathers by weaving and embroidering them,” she says. “Weaving helped me discover this material.” Following her studies, she presented these pieces at a Paris exhibition dedicated to exceptional textiles, kick-starting her career.

Interview

©Romain Ricard

©Janaina Milheiro

How is featherwork related to where you live?

Paris was really the capital of featherwork. There used to be hundreds of feather workshops dedicated to making many different things, particularly hats. Few workshops remain in the city today, but this history is always present.

What specific techniques do you use?

The strength of my workshop is in technical innovation. I develop many techniques that are only used by us, leading to really innovative work. For example, we work feathers by weaving them, and we do something that we call ‘perlage’, where we transform feathers into pearls.

Is your work primarily created for the fashion industry?

Each year is different to the next. But overall, I’d say that 50 percent of my work is really destined for fashion and the rest is created for interiors, shop window decorations, boutiques. Whatever sector it is made for, my work is always completely imbued with my vision and my techniques.

Where do you get inspiration from?

I am very inspired by textiles, particularly by lace. I really like the idea of a translucent perforated surface. It’s a very broad inspiration that allows me to develop both my technical and formal research. I’m also inspired by the questions posed by the project itself.

Janaïna Milheiro is a master artisan: she began her career in 2010 and she started teaching in 2012

Works

©Hermance Triay

©Marion Jhoaner

©Janaina Milheiro

©Marion Jhoaner

Where