Joachim Hérissé's The Flesh Dress: textile puppets and a real-time 3D animatic for a stop-motion tale of an ageing dressmaker

The Flesh Dress (La Robe peau) is a French stop-motion short of about 15 minutes, directed by Joachim Hérissé, who co-wrote it with Emma Degoutte. Komawé produced it, with Stéphanie Launay as producer, and Miyu distributes it. Stop Motion Magazine profiled the film on 4 November 2026. It was selected for Annecy 2026 and for the StopTrik 2026 international stop-motion competition.

The story follows Jean, an elderly dressmaker who cannot accept the loss of his youth, and his wife Jeanne, who works beside him. A dark turn in their marriage gives Jean the idea for a new garment. It promises renewal at a terrible price. The magazine reads the film as being about how artistic ambition, affection and possession become hard to tell apart. Hérissé links the fear of ageing to the power a creator can hold over other people. He says physical animation lets him show a bodily anxiety he finds hard to put into words.

The craft details are the durable part. The puppets are textile figures from original designs by textile artist Aline Bordereau. Before shooting, Hérissé plans framing, camera movement and editing in a real-time 3D animatic. The film was shot at Motion Lab in Nantes, with post-production at L'Incroyable Studio. The named animators are Billitis Levillan, Marjolaine Parot, Héloïse Petel and Goulwen Merret, and Antoine Duchene wrote the music. The magazine's making-of footage shows miniature interiors, support rigs and close camera work on the puppets.