Feather Prints by Janaina Milheiro

This winter, our Creative Director Lee Holman dreamt up new ways to blend the traditional craft of ateliers and runways with the functional world of technical design here at lululemon. After attending Première Vision’s Maison d’Exceptions in Paris, he was astounded by the breathtaking work of feather artist Janaïna Milheiro and knew this was one of many ripe opportunities for collaboration.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, raised in Paris, Janaïna Milheiro’s fascination with costume design and textiles led her to study Art and Embroidery at Paris’ l’école Duperré and obtain a Masters in Design Textiles at the ENSI. Since 2010, Janaïna’s been ruffling feathers in the fashion industry, creating meticulous aviary-inspired work with distinguished brands like Dior and Hermès.

With a relentless pursuit of creative expression, Janaïna’s process reflects that of a skillful technician, creating new ways of building texture, pattern, and shape out of feathers while drawing inspiration from embroidery, lace-making, weaving, and braiding. For our limited-edition collection, she handcrafted small patterns of ethically sourced feathers to be photographed, manipulated, and refined digitally into a mixed media print. From there, in collaboration with our design team, each print was tested through draping across the body. After prototyping about 20 different patterns of feathers, our limited edition Plume Ice, Dazzle, and Iridescent prints were born.

For Plume Ice, Janaïna elegantly placed each black feather by hand to emulate a more intricate version of the classic tortoiseshell, and then digitally reversed it to look like icicles. 

With only 30 rare and expensive feathers, Janaïna made this Dazzle ombre from top to bottom while holding her breath around the studio to avoid causing any damage.

Seeking a beautiful, three-dimensional effect for Iridescent, Janaïna photographed black feathers with a slight sheen poked vertically into foam core. 

With both artistic vision and skillful technique, our limited-edition feathery collaboration marries artisanal efforts with new technology, putting craftsmanship back at the center of premium technical design—where (we believe) it belongs.