All in place

From flannel trousers to linen shirts, De Bonne Facture has built a following for menswear made from natural materials and looks that are slow to date. The brand was selling through various key retailers but now it has a space of its own at 63 Rue Sedaine in Paris’s 11th arrondissement. The concept space comprises shop, showroom and office, all united by a neutral colour palette inspired by the French capital’s stone façades. Waxed concrete floors and a changing room behind a heavy linen curtain add to the design’s sophistication. “The idea was to find a space large enough to have everything in one place, from the shop itself to design and e-commerce,” says founder Déborah Neuberg, who worked with French architecture studio UR to create the set up.

De Bonne Facture’s arrival is part of a neighbourhood retail revival. The company is a member of Le Village Popaincourt, an association of artisans and independent shops on Rue Sedaine and nearby streets. Other brands in Le Village Popaincourt include deli Les Pieds sur Terre, a one-stop shop for French produce and wine, and bookshop L’impromptu. With the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions in France, Neuberg wants to use De Bonne Facture’s new space for hosting events, from pop-up shops to partnerships with ceramicists and talks with writers. “It will be less a boutique where one goes just to shop than a place that is part of the neighbourhood and its fabric,” she says.

Of course, shopping for clothes is still an option and visitors can choose from a range of pieces in what Neuberg describes as “noble materials”, such as cotton, wool and linen, most of them made in France. Some of them are even made in Paris, at an atelier in the 18th arrondissement. Every item carries two labels: one with the brand’s name and another with the name and location of the workshop where it was made. “I have increasingly brought in this extremely local dimension, not just in terms of the ateliers but also in terms of the materials,” says Neuberg.

Recent examples of clothing of this type include a large plaid of undyed wool from French sheep that has been produced in collaboration with Atelier Passe Trame in Payrin-Augmontel in southwest France. Other highlights for the cooler months include a quilted work jacket made in British cotton moleskin by atelier Hervier Productions in Châtillon-sur-Indre, in central France, and a pair of soft brown boots with the upper part made from sheepskin created with a shoemaker from the south of France. 
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