The Parisian Workshop
The manufacturing steps
Ines de la Fressange is famous worldwide because she perfectly embodies the style of the Parisian woman, so admired and often simply described as "Parisian Chic".
The brand Ines de la Fressange Paris has inherited this DNA and has chosen to place design and creation at the heart of its roots, because elegance rhymes with excellence and demand, an obvious choice but one that is becoming rare…
Ines de la Fressange is famous worldwide because she perfectly embodies the style of the Parisian woman, so admired and often simply described as "Parisian Chic".
The brand Ines de la Fressange Paris has inherited this DNA and has chosen to place design and creation at the heart of its roots, because elegance rhymes with excellence and demand, an obvious choice but one that is becoming rare…
The creative studio
As the artistic director of the brand that bears her name, Ines de la Fressange inspires and supervises the internal Studio. This Studio is an entity that has existed since day one at Ines de la Fressange Paris, it is located at the heart of the Brand's offices and hundreds of pieces and patterns are imagined and drawn in a space where not a cm2 is wasted, including walls on which entire boards of drawings and fabric samples are displayed.
The inspirations of Ines de la Fressange
Ines draws her inspiration and intuitions from her travels and her incomparable experience in Parisian Fashion. Few people have such a background and can say to this extent that they understand the style of the Parisian woman. And it is in the Studio, nourished by the directions desired by Ines, that the team gets to work and that the designs of each piece that will make up the seasonal lines are born, currently exactly three per year not counting the Capsule Collections.
Sketches and drawings
Everything starts from the collection plans that structure the offer and design the themes of each collection, constantly renewed but always faithful to that inimitable "effortless chic" style that Ines embodied and theorized in her books. Large boards mixing sketches, finished drawings, and pinned fabric samples shape what initially is only a dream or the spirit of the times.
For several seasons, Ines has asked Eric Bergère, a famous clothing designer trained at Hermès and who has notably worked at Lanvin and Smalto, to support the Studio and help her design collections in harmony with her values and aspirations. Ines and Eric have known and appreciated each other for a long time; they have already had the pleasure of working together during the creation of the Ines de la Fressange Paris brand in the 1990s, and reuniting seemed obvious to them.
Choice of fabrics and materials
Eric, who lives year-round in Arles and also works on his own collections and for partners in Asia, regularly joins the Ines de la Fressange Paris studio at 10, rue du Mail in Paris, next to Place des Victoires. He brings his taste, experience, and expertise, which perfectly complement Ines de la Fressange's intuitions and strengthen the energy and talent of the internal Studio team. Everything then goes through a very particular alchemy. The creative intentions indeed mix drawings and also, from the start, fabric selections or exclusive orders to publishers. The many back-and-forths with these fabric publishers, selected among the best, make them partners in creation. Throughout the process, special attention must be paid to the coherence of style intentions and materials; these two parameters together will give birth to the Brand's lines.
The Made in Paris Workshop
Talented artisans
Ines de la Fressange Paris has chosen to complement its Studio with an internal Workshop; it is a true luxury, especially since it is also located right in the heart of Paris. Few brands have such a high-performance tool integrated within them. This choice is strategic: it is by far the best solution to ensure that the creative intentions are exactly reflected in the prototypes of each piece. There is indeed a total continuity between the original inspirations, the spirit of the Brand, the wishes of the creation, the designs, the choice of materials, the cutting of fabrics, and the assembly of prototypes. Everything is done internally at Ines de la Fressange Paris, by integrated teams and contributors who come together and work as one, around Ines de la Fressange herself. Behind every Ines de la Fressange Paris creation lies the talent of passionate and expert artisans.
The Assembly of the clothes
Within the Atelier, we imagine how the designs will be translated into garments: each element is broken down, the assembly is designed, sometimes very technical, and brought to life, first through "toiles" made in volume from neutral fabrics, then moving on to prototyping in the actual fabrics so that the drape is perfect, exactly as the creation intends. After hours of meticulous and almost loving design, long fitting sessions then allow the Atelier team to confront their proposals with the expectations of the Studio and naturally, Ines de la Fressange herself. Through the experience and knowledge of its team, the Atelier concentrates rare expertise in design and pattern making that will be found in the pieces that will later compose the collections. Some will meet such success that they will become "timeless". After everyone's agreement, following fittings and sometimes passionate exchanges (but always in good spirits...), the next step is Pattern Making. Essential so that the garments can then be produced, always in reasonable quantities, on small production lines with a still very artisanal spirit, mainly in France and Europe. This is another extraordinary expertise: breaking down a garment, often very complex, into unit elements for which the tracing is manually done on special paper and translated into precise measurements that will become a Pattern. At a time when most of these steps are digitized, often with an "industrial" mindset and marked by large series, the Ines de la Fressange Paris Atelier has chosen, on the contrary, to entrust these steps to perfectly "human" and expert eyes and hands.
The Grenelle shop
An authentic place
24 rue de Grenelle in Paris
It is thus that at Ines de la Fressange Paris one can guarantee a true Fashion and artisanal spirit to the pieces that the Brand will sign.
An essential part of the charm and authenticity of the Brand takes its roots in these phases, which many customers ignore but which they unconsciously perceive when they discover the creations, clothing as well as leather goods and accessories.
A very Parisian house
The height of refinement, the Atelier is not only located in the heart of Paris, on the left bank, but it is even situated in the middle of the Brand's Flagship store. Ines de la Fressange wanted it and requested that everyone be able to see it for themselves: a probably unique case in the world, the Atelier works behind glass windows, in full view of everyone within the brand's largest store. Every customer of the Ines de la Fressange Paris boutique can thus see the Atelier and its "little hands" at work; there are no secrets at Ines de la Fressange Paris and, on the contrary, it is living proof that the House's pieces are indeed created... in Paris.