Margaux Derhy founded her embroidery studio in 2022 in the Souss Massa region of Morocco, where her family originates.

 

With the help of Khadija Ahuilat, a young artist from the village, she began working with ten single, divorced, or widowed women ("leyalat means women in darija") on the creation of her embroidered works. Most of these women had no prior experience in embroidery and had never held a job. Margaux provides continuous training, helping them develop both technical expertise and artistic sensitivity.

 

The studio's mission is to foster the economic empowerment of these women through the creation of contemporary artworks, while also preserving and reinventing the traditional embroidery techniques found in both Morocco and France. For Margaux, who had been embroidering alone since 2017 alongside painting and drawing, this work represents a reconnection with her Berber heritage. Collaborating with the embroiderers also enables the production of large-scale works, each requiring several months to complete.

 

The embroideries are based on the artist's drawings, themselves inspired by photographs of her family taken in Morocco in the 1960s. United by Amazigh culture, the embroiderers contribute to the creation of these images, which often resonate with their own stories. Although most of the work is done by hand, they occasionally use sewing machines. The selection of thread types, colors, and even composition is always a collaborative process. From the initial sketch to the final exhibition, including framing, the women of the studio are involved in every step of the creation process.

 

Margaux Derhy's works, which she now signs alongside her studio "Margaux Derhy & Leyalat", have become the product of collective labor—a value central to all her projects, including Le Cercle de l’Art (a program for female artists), the Massa Stories artist residency, and her guidance book Le Backpack de l’Artiste. Conceived as a space of solidarity, the studio serves as a place for dialogue between the women, as well as a meeting point for various art professionals and guest artists who regularly come to share their practices. The embroiderers also receive complementary teachings, such as languages or sports classes.