Julien Vermeulen

Trained at the Lycée Octave Feuillet, the very last French institution for feather craft, Julien Vermeulen graduated from college with two degrees, one in Fashion Design and another in Fine Arts and Art Sciences. Since 2015, he has been creating unique handmade pieces for prestigious fashion houses such as Yves Saint-Laurent, Dior, Givenchy, Cartier, Lanvin, Schiapparelli and Dolce&Gabbana.

Represented since 2020 by maison parisienne, Julien Vermeulen was exhibited for the first time for his artistic work in the “La Promenade du Collectionneur” exhibition at Hôtel Solvay in Brussels (january 2020). Julien Vermeulen’s aim is to innovate, renew and push the technical limits of his material.

In keeping with the age-old traditions of feather craft, he explores his favourite medium, diversifying the applications of feathers as an artistic material. Researching and inventing technical processes that alter their feel, look, color, texture, shape (including crimping, scorching, mounting, braiding, weaving, sewing…), Julien Vermeulen transforms ostrich, peacock, goose, pheasant, and turkey feathers into panels, murals, decorative patterns, ornaments or sculptures.

In 2017, for the Palais de Tokyo’s Espace Toguna in Paris, Julien Vermeulen created the monumental artwork Black Ocean, a 20-square meter wall covered with more than 12,000 turkey feathers, each one hand-cut and hand painted with Indian ink. The duration of this spectacular artwork’s creation was only fifteen days – a thousand hours of hard work and a technical prowess that was rewarded with the “Handcrafts — Exceptional Talents” Prize from the Bettencourt-Schueller Foundation in 2018.

In 2021, Julien Vermeulen’s artwork Black Gem joined the permanent collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. In 2022, within the framework of the exhibition “Les Aliénés” at the Mobilier National, he reinterpreted a console from the collections that he adorned with feathers and entitled Eden.