Workshop
Artistic craftsmanship and design, exceptional featherwork
In their studio workshop in the heart of Paris, Janaïna Milheiro and her team create and custom-make unique pieces or small series in bird feathers for art lovers and luxury professionals in the fashion and decoration worlds. Since 2011, Janaïna Milheiro has developed her skills to propose high-quality, unique, extremely innovative featherwork.
The pieces can be used in many areas : fashion, accessories, interior design, design, scenography, decorative arts… Pieces that have been realized include lace capes made from feathers, airy window decorations, bas-relief feather paintings, glass panels with inset feathers… The workshop collaborates with each client to create custom-made solutions.
More
The workshop is at once a creative studio, research laboratory and production workshop : everything is conceived and made in-house in Paris from the development of a project to when it is finally delivered.
In normal times, there are five people on the team. For certain projects and to honor delivery dates, that number can expand up to fifteen people.
Today we have a few hundred samples and feather pieces available so we can develop, with our clients, the best solutions for their needs to obtain results that are at once aesthetic, feasible and in keeping with their budget. To illustrate and enrich our skills, we develop a collection of thirty creations OR new creations each year.
The workshop sometimes collaborates with textile companies, craftsmen or designers to bring to life unexpected collaborative works in dialogues between different skills that result in new approaches to working with feathers. Creativity, experimentation, precision and “made in Paris” are words that bring to life the workshop's success on an everyday basis.
Janaïna Milheiro
Janaïna Milheiro was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1985 and grew up in France where she trained as a designer and textile craftsperson. She graduated from two Paris schools : ENSCI – Les Ateliers in 2010 and ESAA Duperré in 2007 where she studied creative embroidery.
Janaïna Milheiro discovered bird feathers by chance towards the end of her studies. She was attracted by the material's beauty, magical aura, diverse properties and vast creative possibilities that she discovered in her various experiments. While still at school, she worked with feathers in a spontaneous way using a textile point of view to create “feather-textiles”. Feathers progressively became her signature material and a never-ending source of inspiration. Her unique approach comes from ongoing work that combines technical research, graphic design and collaborations with her team and clients. In 10 years, her search for excellence and innovation has brought exceptional projects to life in partnership with top names in the fashion and luxury industries.
Know-how
A unique, experimental approach to feathers
Feathers are the Janaïna Milheiro workshop's preferred material. Far from traditional featherwork, the workshop has developed a unique know-how and variety of technical processes thanks to ongoing research. The feathers are reworked endlessly, often through the viewpoint of other techniques or professions such as weaving, embroidery, lacemaking, jewelry… some of the many inspirations. Feathers combined with materials like crystal, brass, glass or wood create a unique, never-before-seen universe.
The results are astonishing : feather laces, silks with handwoven feathers, “flocked” feathers, three-dimensional grids, “beadings”, chain mail, needlepoint laces, laminated glass inset with feathers and amazing feather sculptures.
The Janaïna Milheiro workshop proposes exceptional, innovative featherwork that blends artistic craftsmanship, design and technical novelties.
The ecological dimension of feathers
Conscious of today's ecological challenges, the workshop scrupulously respects the Washington Convention that oversees the international trade of endangered flora and fauna. Janaïna Milheiro is committed to using only feathers from birds bred for food consumption in conditions that encourage the development of their plumage. Thus these species are not endangered.
The workshop uses mostly turkey and goose feathers as well as feathers from chickens, roosters, ducks, ostriches, peacocks and pheasants.
We supply OR can supply certificates of origin.
A full service
Thanks to our collection of almost 300 creations, we develop exclusive pieces to meet our clients' requests.
Listening to client needs and talking with them regularly are at the core of our working method : project specifications, plannings, meetings and ongoing discussions accompany every project as it advances. Sketches, mock-ups, technical drawings and prototypes are some of the many tools we use to illustrate the creative project step-by-step.
They have confidence in us
The workshop has realized a variety of creations for many luxury brands such as Guerlain, Hermès, Valentino, Dior, Cartier, Proenza Schouler, Victoria's Secret, Chanel, Margiela, Givenchy, Ralph & Russo, Schiaparelli, De Grisogono, Mary Katrantzou…
As an artist herself, Janaïna Milheiro has also worked with private collectors who are interested in acquiring unique pieces.
Support & labels
The workshop obtained the “Fabriqué à Paris” (Made in Paris) label in 2021, has been a member of Ateliers d'Art de France (Artistic workshops of France) since 2015 and French Design by VIA since 2019.
Our activity is supported by the French Cultural Ministry (since 2021), the Ile-de-France region (since 2019), the Fondation d'entreprise EY (EY enterprise foundation) (we were the Paris winner in 2015), the Banque Populaire foundation (Artistic craftsmanship prize, 2014) and Ateliers de Paris (Paris Workshops) (incubator resident, Paris, 2012).
Janaïna Milheiro won the City of Paris' Grand Prize of creation (2014), the Young Creators of Artistic Workshops in France contest (Paris, 2011) and received a vocational grant from the Marcel Bleustein—Blanchet Foundation (Paris, 2007).
