Passionate about canvas, Gauvain Manhattan launched his own brand with which he markets more modern models.
In particular, he called on illustrators to bring this "embroidery very easy to learn" up to date.
“As soon as a grandmother sees me doing it, I always have the right to a little reflection!
At 28, Gauvain Manhattan rarely takes public transport without his needle and spools of thread.
And this artist from Nantes fully assumes his original passion, which he masters at his fingertips.
It must be said that the canvas, this creative hobby which consists of embroidering on an already printed canvas, has become a professional adventure.
Four years ago, the young man, helped by his companion illustrator Marie Boiseau, launched his brand Canevas Fatal to bring this obsolete manual activity up to date.
Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent
By clicking on "
I ACCEPT
", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners
I ACCEPT
And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.
More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.
At the beach this summer, you may also want to get started.
Unless like Gauvain Manhattan before he set up his business, you are put off by the often very kitsch colors and patterns available on the market.
“The world of hunting, small cats… All that did not correspond to the aesthetics of my generation, or even that of my mother, smiles the young man, who fell into it during his studies at the Beaux-Arts in 'Angouleme.
However, it is a very easy embroidery to take in hand with which it is possible to do many things.
As we repeat the same gesture, without really having to think, it provokes a real mental escape.
»
His paintings drawn by illustrators
The young entrepreneur then had the idea of having the canvases he would have liked to find printed, and in particular smaller formats for beginners.
For the models, he decides to call on more or less known illustrators selected on social networks, whose style, colorful and figurative, can be declined in embroidery paintings.
And to create rarity, Gauvain Manhattan chooses to produce its kits, which contain all the material (printed canvas, colored cotton threads, needle, etc.) in a limited edition of 100 copies each.
“For the first, we had a stock shortage in one day, he recalls.
The record was a year and a half ago: the model designed by Pénélope Bagieu left in three minutes!
»
After 10,000 orders already honored and a community of 15,000 subscribers (mostly women between 20 and 40 years old) on Instagram, Gauvain Manhattan hopes to convince even more young people of his age that the canvas, like patchwork or crochet, deserves to come back to the front of the stage.
If his sales only happen online via his website (between 30 and 45 euros), he intends this year to convince haberdasheries or decoration shops to market his products, in order to continue to weave his web.
Style
Fashionable and increasingly “easy to sew”, patchwork is back
Style
“Trendy” and “sustainable”, dried flowers are making a flourishing comeback
Nantes
Pays de la Loire
DIY
Art