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April Calahan is an art and fashion historian with more than 25 years of professional experience.  Following her BA in the History of Art (1998), she worked as a contemporary art gallerist for nearly a decade.  A gift of a book introduced her to the material culture of fashion resulting in her completing an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice (2010) at one of the world’s top fashion institutions, the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She would go on to serve at FIT as Curator of Special Collections from 2010 to 2022, while also occasionally moonlighting on-demand as an instructor in the History of Art department.

In 2018, April co-created the award-winning podcast Dressed: The History of Fashion, which has been dubbed by Vogue as “the gold standard of fashion podcasting” and “a treasure trove” by The New York Times.  With more than 550 episodes over eight seasons, April is considered a leading voice in field fashion history, and her work has been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times and The Guardian. She frequently lectures at cultural institutions around the world including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Yale University, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and Parsons School of Design. 

She is the author/co-author of five books on the history of fashion, and her deep knowledge of historic dress, paired with her engaging style, which is a unique blend of storytelling and scholarship, ensures that every guest leaves Paris with a deeper understanding of how the fashion arts have served as a connecting thread to our shared humanity throughout history and around the globe. Equally at home in archives, ateliers and museum/gallery spaces, on the weekends you will most likely find April strolling the streets of Paris with her French Bulldog, Clementine, or at one of her favorite haunts:  the Paris flea market.

Rebecca Devaney is a distinguished textile artist, researcher, and educator with over two decades of professional experience. A graduate of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, she holds a BA in Art and Design Education (2006) and an MFA in Textile Art and Artefact (2015). Upon graduation, she received the Education Award for Excellence in Teaching, recognizing her passion for sharing knowledge and nurturing creative skill.

In 2015, Rebecca was awarded the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award to research traditional hand embroidery in Mexico. Her acclaimed exhibition Bordados—a collection of textiles, photographs, and oral histories—has since been presented internationally, celebrating the artistry and cultural heritage of embroidery traditions.

A graduate of the prestigious École Lesage, Paris, Rebecca went on to work as a professional haute couture embroiderer for Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Dior, Valentino, Givenchy, and Louis Vuitton. Her ongoing research into the origins and evolution of haute couture embroidery has been published in leading journals, including Selvedge Magazine, Surface Design Journal, and The Maker’s Atelier.

In 2019, Rebecca founded Textile Tours of Paris, offering curated walking tours that reveal the city’s rich heritage of craft, textiles, and fashion—through its celebrated ateliers, notions stores, and flea markets. She later launched Samplers of Seduction (2022), a collection of embroidery kits inspired by 18th-century patterns found in Parisian libraries and museum archives. In 2023, she and Jo Andrews introduced Textile Travels, a series of guides for textile enthusiasts exploring Paris, London, New York, Venice, and beyond.

Rebecca’s artistic practice draws on her studies in Fashion and Dress History and her enduring fascination with the Théâtre de la Mode—the post-war couture miniatures crafted by Paris’s greatest designers. Exploring themes of femininity and beauty through textile sculpture and couture miniatures, she merges historical craftsmanship with contemporary expression. It was this devotion to precision and artistry that first brought her to Paris—to trade her hot-glue gun for the discipline of haute couture and refine her creative voice within its storied traditions.

With an illustrious career spanning major European cultural institutions, Jane Taylor-Bouvard brings exceptional expertise and artistry to her work in historical costume and textile conservation. She has served as Assistant Costume Designer at both the Festival d’Avignon and the Opéra Grand Avignon, where her refined craftsmanship and deep historical insight have contributed to acclaimed stage productions.

Trained in advanced embroidery and couture techniques at the Royal School of Needlework (Hampton Court) and Maison Lesage (Paris), Jane combines traditional savoir-faire with a rigorous academic foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Textile Conservation from the Textile Conservation Centre (University of Southampton, 2004) and has worked with prestigious museum collections including the Musée des Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs (Lyon), Dublin’s National Collections, and Te Papa Tongarewa – Museum of New Zealand (Wellington).

A graduate in History, Linguistics, and Specialized Translation, Jane also writes and translates exhibition catalogues and publishes research on the conservation of antique textiles and costumes. Her tenure as Textile Conservator for the Bristol City Council Museum Service saw her oversee the management and display of historic and contemporary textile collections of national significance.

As an independent consultant, Jane advises on heritage textile collections for the National Trust and private collectors across France and the United Kingdom.

Dividing her time between Normandy, Paris, and London, Jane now leads specialized training courses in historical dressmaking and couture craftsmanship, inspiring a new generation of makers to preserve and celebrate the artistry of fashion history.