Japanese Artist Creates Beaded Accessories With French Haute Couture Embroidery

By Hiromi Kanekita / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

16:30 JST, September 14, 2025

Lightning falling from the clouds, sake poured into an “ochoko” sake cup, pearls with a pig — these are just some of the beaded accessories made with traditional French haute couture embroidery. They are adorned with skillful techniques and delicate beauty, tickling the playful spirit of adults.

Haute couture embroidery is the general term for the luxurious embroidery applied to high-end custom-made clothes by famous fashion brands.

One of the techniques is “crochet de luneville,” in which the embroidery, beads and sequins are sewn onto the fabric from the reverse side using a special crochet hook. All the accessories by Moko Kobayashi, an embroidery artist who works at her atelier, maison des perles, in Hatagaya, Tokyo, are created using this technique.

Kobayashi was born in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1977. She graduated from Bunka Fashion College in 1999 and worked as a pattern maker at a clothing manufacturer.

When Kobayashi was a student at the college, she came across haute couture embroidery at an exhibition in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward and became absorbed in finding out how it was made. After finding out that there was a school in Paris teaching the technique, she decided to move to France to learn about it.

She went to France in 2004 and studied haute couture embroidery at Ecole Lesage in Paris. She started producing works in 2005.

Kobayashi’s accessories are characterized by fine beads tightly packed together filling inside the edging of black lines. She sticks beads one by one from the back side of the fabric, following the pattern drawn on the thin, transparent organdy fabric. To make them appear three-dimensional, she uses different beads for the embroidery depending on their color, shape and size.

The motifs are also unique. Kobayashi has created about 800 varieties of motifs so far, including creatures, ghosts, UFOs and hearts. “I try to create accessories to prompt people to start conversations with others, such as ‘You are wearing something interesting,’” she said.

In addition to holding embroidery classes, Kobayashi also produces her own brand of beads in cooperation with the bead maker Toho Co. in Hiroshima. “I want to broaden the base of beads users and convey the joy of making things by hand,” she said enthusiastically.

Charm of dull colors

The vintage beads that Kobayashi uses to make her accessories include rare ones produced in France in the 1930s. She regularly travels to Paris to purchase them.

She first encountered vintage beads while studying in Paris. She found them at a flea market and was immediately fascinated by their dull colors and fineness, which are not found in modern beads.

The inventory of vintage beads is extremely small, so she often must look for them through her acquaintances and other connections. She currently keeps about 800 varieties of beads in her atelier and uses them in different ways depending on her work.