Text by Alison Culliford*, illustration & photos by Fabrice Fortin

In a world of crashing bottle-banks and traffic noise, where we cocoon ourselves in our i-Pod bubbles, the revelation of superior sound can be a doors-of-perception experience.

When a stereo-buff friend took me to La Maison du Haut Parleur promising an extra-sensory treat, a visit to an opium den would not have had a more profound effect. We sat in the sweet spot on two directors’ chairs, and Monsieur Gest delicately placed the needle on a record. An oboe began its plaintive song; a cello answered and as the orchestra swelled the music resonated in our very bones.

Closing your eyes, you are not just in the best concert hall in the world, but in the instrument itself.

Bruno Gest is a self-deprecating man, so much so that he would not be photographed for our feature. He has run La Maison du Haut Parleur for 34 years and is soon to retire, handing the business over to his associate Christian Robert and young employee Romain Aubry.

Inside the inconspicuous shop, a mass of boxes and electrical gubbins fills the front. At the back are examples of their speaker kits. Essentially they provide the boomers and tweeters, which they have sourced from the best manufacturers, and will put you in touch with a cabinet-maker who will construct the box around them. “Or if you’re into DIY you can construct it yourself,” says Gest. “Both options enable you to have a far better speaker for your budget that if you bought it from a major manufacturer.”

They also sell speakers from French specialist companies such as Focal and Atohm, and have a repair workshop recently patronized by a “very famous French actor,” though discretion prevents these gentlemen from divulging his name.

But it is the sound theater downstairs that makes this place unique and is where the Blakean moment can be had. With Monsieur Gest’s large desk on one side, it has a Doctor No’s lair feel about it. The secret weapon kept down here is the Aeria Système, two huge speakers with a monumental 1930s look, whose 85cm high bass block is topped by a hand-turned acacia wood horn reminiscent of a vintage gramophone.

“The form sweeps the sound outwards and the wood eliminates all resonance. It’s completely neutral,” explains Gest, who spent 18 years developing the system. This is true up to 120 dB, and led the tech-head critics of the review Prestige Audio Visuel to declare its rendition of a concert piano “belle à pleurer.” Its beauty is considerable, but it’s the sound that counts.

“Like everyone, we are just looking for the thing that pleases us. The MP3 generation has a different outlook, but there will always be people that appreciate this quality of sound.”

The problem is that once you’ve been transported by the Aeria System nothing else is good enough. It takes you to another world, conjuring dreams of a loft apartment with a single Le Corbusier chair from which angels will serenade you. If you have one, you can join the 1000 or so people in the world who have crossed the threshold into perfect sound.

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Prices: Kits (from 78€), Aeria Système (6,000€)
Delivery time: 1 month.
Contact: La Maison du Haut Parleur, 138 Avenue Parmentier, Paris 75011

*Alison Culliford is a freelance journalist based in Paris: alison.culliford@gmail.com

I write about some pretty unusual talents on this blog, but couture umbrella maker just might be my rarest find yet. That’s why I’m letting Michel Heurtault, owner of the fabulous umbrella shop, Parasolerie Heurtault, tell the story behind his flabbergasting art.
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“I’ve been obsessed with umbrellas from the time I was three. I have no idea why, but I could spend hours breaking them apart and studying how they opened and closed. I collected all of the umbrellas I could find, and by the time I was eight I was repairing them for people in my neighborhood. Needless to say, my parents thought I was nuts.

I moved from Toulon to Paris when I was eighteen and began working as a costume designer. I eventually opened my own company, Art ‘Scene, where I made costumes and corsets for film shoots, theatre productions as well as fashion houses such as Dior. I poured the most luxurious elements into my costumes.

Throughout the same period, I devoted all of my free time to making umbrellas and parasols. I didn’t want to make them in polyester and plastic like everyone else, so I started researching ways to waterproof and UV-protect noble materials, like lace, cotton, silk and linen. Anyone can put fabric on an umbrella, but my signature is to use only the finest materials, experiment with the cut, and handcraft the finishes so that it become a striking object with a soul.

I use an 18th century machine to cut my fabric into eight panels and then bend and shape them to create the curves and silhouette of the umbrella. The fabric needs to be as taught as possible. The sound of the umbrella when it opens, the stretching and tightening until it springs into place is a sign of quality. The more the fabric flutters the more it catches the wind like a sail, causing the umbrella to shake and break.

I do all of the detail and finishing by hand. I pad the ribs and smock the runners with fabric for aesthetic and practical reasons. It unifies the color of the design, prevents rusting, and helps the umbrella open and close more easily

I consider the umbrella to be a fashion accessory. Not only is it a beautiful item to carry in your hand, it gives you instant attitude and allure. I’m always shocked by the number of people who spend a ton of time and energy on their ensemble, but then ruin it with a revolting umbrella.

Instead of a cigarette, you have an umbrella to play with. It’s the final touch to a chic silhouette.

So many women come to me and say that they’d love to carry a parasol, but that it’s not really fashionable. And I tell them, ‘it’s not just about fashion, it’s about personal comfort.’ When you’re under an parasol you don’t sweat as much, you’re makeup doesn’t drip off, you’re not oppressed by the sun, and of course it’s great for protecting your skin.

Umbrellas have been vulgarized as disposable objects. We throw away 10 million per year in France and 33 million in the USA. During your grandmother’s era an umbrella was a luxury object, you bought one every year and when it broke, you had it repaired. I’m not obsessed with the past, I’m just thinking about a future that’s ecologically chic.”

Shop and Atelier Address: 91 Avenue Daumesnil, 75012, Paris
Price: Starting at €300

Photos by Fabrice Fortin for Paris By Appointment Only™

You’d think that gorgeous paper goods would be extinct by now. But one of the amazing side effects of our plugged-in lifestyle is a renewed craving for objects that are pleasantly tactile and reassuringly permanent.

No better sign o’ the times is the rising success of Intaglio, an independent printing press based in Paris.

A couture paper company with the friendly appeal of a neighborhood candy store, Intaglio (which means ‘engraving’ in Italian) is owned by Stephan Le Sauter and his wife, Anne. Together the affable duo has turned the rare art of foil stamping (an inkless printing process that permanently presses pigment into paper using weight and heat) into stationery so sophisticated and stylish you wonder how you’ve ever lived without it!

“Our designs are really influenced by the technique,” says Stephan, who learned the tricks of the trade while working at a printing press in San Francisco after college. “My roommate got me a job taking care of the paper stock. After a couple of months I was doing my job in three hours. The rest of my time I spent learning how to engrave,” explains Stephan, who returned to Paris after three years in California to round out his education with three French master craftsmen.

Unlike his tutors, Meilleurs Ouvriers de France committed to perpetuating classic French graphics, Stephan decided to combine age-old techniques with modern typography for a twist on tradition.

“An attractive letter, printed on 100% cotton paper by foil stamping is really one of the most beautiful things. It’s small, but its impact is huge.”

Instead of classical curlicues and frou frou detailing, he proposed chic, understated fonts and designs on luxurious, impeccably printed paper. From the second he placed his inaugural card (his son’s birth announcement) in his shop window in 1996, he realized he had tapped into something. “One mother came in, then another,” remembers Stephan. “And I realized that I could do it the old-fashioned way and become a printer for everybody’s needs.”

His flagship, offices and printing press now take up an entire street in the quiet corner of Paris’ 17th arrondissment where he and his family live. While a second shop, located near the Luxembourg gardens in the space that APC used to occupy, opened last fall.

From wedding invites and birth announcements to business cards and thank you notes, every Intaglio design is made-to-measure. After you choose your typeface, layout, paper stock, and letter pigment, a magnesium foil stamp die (carved metal plate) is made with your design. The plate is then hand finished and placed in an original Heidleberger machine where it seizes, heats and depresses pigment, producing a permanent de-bossed lettering without the use of any ink. If you’d like an embossed detail added, Intaglio has a battalion of hand-engraved stamps to choose from, too.

In addition to their custom products, Intaglio also sells ready-to-wear collections of artisanal cards, notebooks and paper towers at both of their Paris locations. But be warned: one visit to their shop and every other paper thereafter will pail in comparison.

That’s why my order’s on its way.

Intaglio: 3 rue de Fleurus, 75006 and 91 rue Lemercier, 75017
Prices: Greeting Cards (€3/piece), Business Cards (€150 for 100), Birth Announcements (€300 for 100 w/envelops) Wedding Invites (starting at €5/piece)

Photos by Fabrice Fortin for Paris By Appointment Only™

Just like her distinct, handmade jewels, Valerie Sloan’s shoebox of a boutique is striking despite its diminutive size. Maybe it’s because there’s usually no one in it.

When she’s not upstairs with her slowly growing clientele, the former sculptor can be found downstairs in her atelier handcrafting new pieces for her couture bijoux collection.

Looking for a way to transform her love of volumes and textures to a smaller, more manageable format, Sloan switched from sculpture to jewelry in 2000.

“Sculptors are often burdened by the weight and size of the objects. I quickly realized that I could continue making sculpted objects that were precious to me through jewelry,” says Sloan who opened her shop, Valslo, in early 2009.

Using an ancient technique called “lost-wax casting,” she first sculpts her design out of a block of wax, studying and smoothing its every facet with a battalion of tools. Then she carries her delicate wax carving to a nearby foundry, where it’s transformed into a one-of-a-kind jewel in silver or gold.

Since her brand is still budding, she produces one piece at a time, which means that the design on display is the only one in stock. If it’s not your size, Sloan has to go through the whole process again. This slow, non-commercial method would drive any ambitious entrepreneur nuts, but Sloan wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like to tailor-make things, the idea is for people to order something personalized and timeless,” says Sloan, who treats each piece like a future heirloom.The fit and comfort of the jewel is as important to Sloan as the overall aesthetic, which means that she’ll spend hours polishing the inside of a ring just to give it a silken feel. The shiny interiors also offset her predominantly matte surfaces.

“Unlike shiny metals, with matte surfaces you can see how volumes have been sculpted through the relationship between light and shadow. ”

Inspired by everything from a crack in the wall and a fleeting shadow to the rocks in her garden, her designs have a palpable personality to them. Physical symbols of passing thoughts and observations, the collection runs the gamut of emotions, from tender and romantic to raw and blunt. Even though there’s a coherent current running throughout, the range has three distinct styles.

The first is feminine and precious (both literally and figuratively) with light, delicate forms adored with Tahitian pearls green sapphires or specked quartz. The intermediary range consists of asymmetrical shapes with continual curves. The final unisex group in massive silver is the most weighty and  industrial.

While there are occasional earrings and necklaces throughout, Sloan (if you haven’t noticed) is a ring lady with an incurable passion for wedding bands. “I like the idea of a symbolic jewel, especially one that represents the union between two people. It’s a beautiful example of idealism.”

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Valslo: 10 rue du Perche, 75003 Paris
Prices: €500-1500, depending on design and material
Atelier visits: On request, contact me for details.

Photos by Fabrice Fortin and Nicholas Calcott for Paris By Appointment Only™

It’s funny how a deep childhood frustration can become a creative manifesto later in life. Case in point: Maïa, the Paris-based porcelain painter. As a kid, she tried every night to decorate the table with her family’s finest, only to be told to return it to the cupboard for the everyday stuff.

Now, not only does Maïa set the table with beautiful, eye-popping designs whenever she likes, she’s made it her business to make sure that others do too!

“It’s a democratic way of bringing art into the home and a touch of fantasy to the table,” says the first-name-only artist who found a way to bridge the dishware divide between fabulous and functional by fusing the two in one.

Maïa started ten years ago with a teacup, and now hand paints everything from jars and dishes to bowls, vases and tea sets on porcelain made by one of the last remaining artisanal factories in Limoges, France.

Each made-to-measure creation is the result of a two-hour coffee klatch between artist and customer. “I need muses to create, and my clients are my muses,” says Maïa who meets her word-of-mouth clientele at her beautiful, porcelain-packed flat to find out about their preferred shapes, colors, pastimes, and even vacation destinations before crafting an original design

She not only creates entire services, but one-off compliments to your heirloom China as well. So if you have a vintage series that needs a modern centerpiece or an antique set that’s missing a few pieces, she can match everything from Puiforcat to Fornasetti.

Once you’ve agreed on your color, shape and motif, Maia then makes a sample free of charge (with no obligation to buy). If you give the okay, she returns to her atelier to seal colors in place in an 1200° C oven, then numbers and signs the designs with a fingerprint.

In addition to painting porcelain, Maïa is also a classical pianist (she’s giving a free, private concert on Nov 15 in Paris, and you’re invited to come, by the way). Unlike her musical performances, which are beautiful, but fleeting, porcelain allows Maïa to express her creativity in a much more tangible way.

It’s not hard to spot a melody in her artwork as well.  Inspired by the paintings of Vuillard, Miró and Chagall, Maia uses colors and shapes to create a timeless visual rhythm. Expressive yet classical, fluid yet structured, it’s all about complementing contrasts for Maïa, be it on piano or porcelain.

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Prices: Vases (60-300€), Tea Sets (75-120€), Plates (18-50€), Candy Dishes (98€)
Contact: maiaworlds@gmail.com or tel: + 33 6 60 70 18 18
Shop: A selection of Maïa’s designs can be found at Galeries Lafayette Maison (Paris) and Nest Interiors (New York)

Over the last ten years hundreds of French fashion artisans have been given the ax at venerable houses by number crunching executives sending production overseas. But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure…especially when centuries-old savoir-faire is heaped high in the bin!

Taking advantage of luxury industry’s shortsighted greed and indifference towards its own heritage, Chavernet, a new Paris-based couture house, is putting Paris’ forgotten couturiers back to work.

While only two-years-old, Chavernet has already carved a visionary niche in the word of high-end fashion. Promising a modern take on old-style craftsmanship at remarkably tame prices, the brand is the clever brainchild of two Parisian entrepreneurs, Maxime Liebens and Armen Der Agopian

“Most luxury brands adhere to the ‘Made in France’ mystique, but the truth is that the majority of their clothing is constructed overseas,” explains Liebens, who named the brand after his great-grandmother, Louise Chavernet, one of the first women to own her own fashion atelier in Paris.

“We wanted to go back to the source of couture and produce dresses in Paris using the best materials and savoir-faire.”

What Chavernet offers its word-of-mouth, international clientele is as crazy as it is chic. In less than a week (aka the average length of their client’s trip to Paris) they will design, produce and deliver an original couture cocktail dress to your Paris abode.

Their signature LSDs (little silk dresses) are all made by hand in Paris by a team of expert dressmakers (a 92-yr-old insider pointed them to the city’s best) using end-of-season couture fabric sourced throughout Paris.

“There are a lot of clients who are fed up with the whole circus of shopping in a giant fashion flagship and who just simply want a beautifully handcrafted original dress.”

Chavernet’s “One Woman = One Dress” motto caters to a very real desire to own something stellar that no one else but you will ever be caught wearing. Less obvious, but nonetheless priceless, is the exhilarating experience of buying the dress, which goes something like this:

Step 1: Come to Paris, but before you do, make an appointment with Chavernet.
Step 2: Think about the dress of your dreams and collect visuals to help you describe it.
Step 3: Meet with the Chavernet commercial director, designer as well as the couturier assigned to make your dress. At the end of your meeting your measurements will have been taken and a rough sketch made of your dress.
Step 4: Receive a definitive sketch with material samples the next morning at your hotel.
Step 5: Once you have approved sketch and materials, a muslin prototype is produced and sent over for fitting.
Step 6: A second prototype is produced in your chosen fabric and sent over with a couturier for the final fitting.
Step 7: Once you give the okay, the dress is made and delivered to your hotel.
Step 8: Traipse around Paris in your fabulous, new, custom-made frock.

Just a word of advice: if you plan on fitting into your dress by the time it’s delivered, you might want to lay off the macarons.

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Price: 1000E-1500E, depending on complexity of design and choice of fabric and finishes.
Further reading: How Luxury Lost Its Luster (by Dana Thomas); Chère Haute Couture (by Janie Samet); Luxury Considered (report by Ledbury Research); Agenda Inc.

When Oprah got snubbed by Hermès a few years ago she should have immediately rung Chanel. Not Chanel, as in Coco Chanel, but Guy Chanel (yes, you heard me right).

Guy Chanel is a lone ranger on the high plains of fashion and home accessories. Working alone out of his atelier on the outskirts of Paris, he handcrafts a variety of one-of-a-kind designs using leather, crocodile, ostrich and other fine skins.

From saddles, handbags and wallets to belts, briefcases and even lamps, every Chanel creation is made-to-measure and constructed by hand using artisanal tools and techniques (ask him to show you the giant wooden tweezer he uses to hold small things in place when he sews).

By keeping production slow and steady, his solo operation turns out discreet, logo-less products of unparalleled quality and detail that are built to last several lifetimes.

Before launching out on his own in 1989, Chanel (whose name has no connection to the fashion brand) worked for fifteen years as a saddle maker for Hermès. At the time, everything in the company was made in the atelier above their flagship shop (now only saddles are made there, the rest is done in Pantin). So, when saddles orders were slow, Chanel would jump to bags and belts or any other small accessory that needed expert attention.

When he struck out on his own, this polyvalence set him apart from his peers and helped attract a diverse crowd of fine leather fans, from collectors, interior designers, and fashion stylists, to equestrians and even Michelin-starred chefs.

Unlike most artisans, Chanel caught the craftsman bug not through his family, but via a childhood passion for horses.

“I started riding when I was seven and rode competitively until I was twenty-five. Professionally, I wanted to do something linked to horses. I couldn’t be a jockey, because I was too tall. Veterinary, no, because I wasn’t good enough in school, so, I wound up making saddles.”

While saddles comprise only a quarter of his output today, they remain the heart and soul of his business and have earned him international recognition amongst the equestrian set. Riders from across the world, as well as aficionados that collect them as sculptures, swear by Chanel saddles for their show-stopping blend of comfort, beauty and performance.

“My clients have pretty classical tastes, so they’re more likely to play with color and materials than the design of the object.”

When you can build a saddle from scratch, a watchband may seem like child’s play, but Chanel pours equal attention into every one of his designs. Chanel admits that it takes the same amount of time for him to make a bag as a saddle (forty hours) while wallets belts and cardholders take a tenth of that.

In addition to made-to-measure designs, Chanel can also personalize, refurbish or repair. So if you’ve got a vintage accessory (Birkin or otherwise) that needs fixing up or some expert TLC, Chanel can give it a new lease on life.

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Prices vary depending on complexity of design and materials: handbags (1500-50,000 €); saddles (2800-25,000 €); wallets, card holders, change purses, belts (200-3000€).
Delivery: Count four-eight weeks.
Appointments: Contact me to be put in touch with Guy Chanel.

Since all of Paris closes shop in August, I’ll be posting “by appointment” discoveries made during my summertime travels back home in the USA this month.  Hope you enjoy this special summer edition with content from New York and Los Angeles.

Custom. Handmade. Shoes. Say those three words aloud and your mind hops a plane to the fashion capitals of Europe where couture cobbling has been celebrated for centuries. But don’t buy your brain’s tickets just so fast… The special new stomping ground for original, handcrafted shoes is neither in Paris, London or Milan, but in a back alley, by appointment shop in none other than Los Angeles!

Over the last fifteen years Southern California native Georges Esquivel—whose men’s and women’s shoe brand Esquivel Shoes was recently announced as one of the 2009 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists—has built a mini shoe empire to rival Europe’s leading luxury labels. The best part of all, it happened entirely by chance (ahh, you gotta love America!).

Years before “artisanal” became a marketing buzzword, Esquivel was reworking vintage clothes for his SoCal musician friends. An unexpected jaunt to a cobbler in Mexico spawned his first pair of custom shoes. His friends went wild and started clamoring for their own pairs. Before long Esquivel found a seasoned shoemaker in L.A. to build his designs. To cut costs, Esquivel offered to help out around the shop. “He said, ‘sure, take out the trash,’” recalls Esquivel with a chuckle. “So I went from taking out the trash to organizing the shop and cutting leather. Two-and-a-half years later I knew how to make a pair of shoes.”

That was somewhere in the mid-90s. Esquivel is kind of hazy with the dates (he wasn’t plotting a business, you see). Soon after he found himself an atelier where he could make shoes for himself, his friends and his wife (yes, I’m jealous.) Inspired by retro-fashion, punk rock music and the irreverent vibe of his city, Esquivel added it all to the mix. The result was an infectious, high-low blend of painstaking execution, classical cuts and kick-ass character. It wasn’t long before orders started coming in from all over the world. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, members of the band The Killers, and Diane Von Furstenberg, who recently went bonkers for the Monica boot, are just handful of his eclectic, well-heeled clients.

“There’s a new consumer and I’m the new brand for that consumer. What does everyone want these days? Individuality. That’s what I create.”

The secret to Esquivel’s success is the individualism and intimacy he offers his clients. “You go to any luxury brand and you don’t know who’s making your shoes, where they’re being made. I’m not about that,” says Esquivel, who still fits many of his full custom clients. After creating the prototype with his head craftsman, his team of artisans—using the finest hides, polishes and parts—makes every one of his shoe designs by hand. Because each shoe is crafted individually, there’s no upset to production or price point if the color of the leather, toe shape, insoles or linings are altered on the original design.

That means clients, including yours truly (my pair of all-nude Juliana hand-punched wing tips, above, are my new statement shoes for fall), can have their shoes custom-made easily and for little extra cost.

Q&A with Georges Esquivel, founder and owner of Esquivel Shoes

When an idea strikes, can you just create a new shoe?
Anytime I want. I conceive shoes everyday. Because I’ve been able to create this unique business with my own in-house shop, I’m spoiled: I can develop a new collection in a week. I can see what it’s going to look like without losing time between sketches, design assistants, production and sample makers. I can just talk to my pattern maker and tell him what I want and then have it in 2 days. The problem for most designers is that they have to go somewhere to get their ideas produced and are bound by all of the logistical restrictions. I don’t have any restrictions, which is really cool. I can literally do whatever I want.

Do you still make the shoes yourself?
My specialty is the burnishing, the leather treatment. I develop the first shoe and make it with our craftsmen and when it’s finished, it becomes our prototype sample. I’m involved in every step of the process.

California doesn’t have the handmade shoe reputation of a Paris, London or Milan. Has that been a handicap to you?
If it’s negative I don’t really engage.  Listen, I have shoemakers that are 2nd and 3rd generation. Who’s to say that someone in London is a better shoemaker? We’re all people with skills; it’s just a matter of wanting to do something better or special. For the longest time I didn’t have access to the same materials, but now that I do, it’s a leveled playing field.

How do you feel your SoCal background has impacted your style?
I think that my upbringing brings a whole different sensibility to the shoes. In my opinion, the shoes from London all look the same. The shoes from Paris all look the same. My shoes, of course they’re mostly men’s shoes so you’re not going to be doing wacky, crazy stuff. It’s still a very recognizable silhouette or toe shape, but it has my rebelliousness in it and the SoCal punk influence, the rock n’roll, the music.  It doesn’t have to be so dark and grey and dreary, it should be fun, it’s fashion.

Tell us about the different custom categories?
We have three tiers. First, is “full custom-made,” where I measure somebody and develop the last, the fit, and make a prototype. We adjust the last to their foot, made adjustments of the prototype. The starting price is $3000 but the skies the limit. If you wanted exotic skins or gold buckles, we can do it. Second is “made-to-order,” where you try a pair of shoes on tell us your size and you can pick your color, sole and upper design. They you have your “limited production” series that goes to retailers. But even the retailers can come in and pick out their leather or color. It’s very custom focus. Individuality is what we want to create with our brand.

Which models are you feeling right now?
One of my favorites is the Gaston boot. It starts off as nude leather from a beautiful tannery in Norway and we just rub in the colors. The boot is all one color with different shades of burgundy. I don’t like shoes to be so perfect and polished. That whole super sleek and clean thing just doesn’t attract me. I like more texture in my leathers. I’ve always wanted my shoes to look broken in and older, it adds character.

Where do your skins come from?
My skins are mainly European hides, from Norway, Italy, France and Spain. There’s a tannery in Norway that we use called Borge Garveri, that’s just beautiful. It’s a colder climate so the cows don’t have as many marks on them. They were just nominated as one of the top ten tanneries in Europe.

When did you venture into women’s shoes?
About two years ago my design assistant had me make a pair of shoes for her. They were basically masculine shoes, which I’ve been doing for my wife for a long time, and they looked really cool. So then I started researching and developing a little more to adapt our process to make women’s shoes. The toe shape, the heel height, and the weight of the leather— the construction is very different for women so we had to fine-tune that. It took two years, so this year, ’09, was our first to have a true women’s collection.

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Number of toe shapes: 13
Model variations: 100+
Phone orders: Absolutely, most orders are conducted by phone.
Delivery time: Depending on complexity and client location, between 1-3 months.
Appointments: info@esquivelshoes.com, or call 714-670-2200
Prices:Full Custom ($3000 and up); Made-to-Measure or Ready-to-Wear ($550-$1000)
2009 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner announcement: November 16, 2009

The last place you’d expect to find a master milliner is on a small Parisian street best known for its delicious udon noodles and bento box lunches. But authentic Japanese cuisine is just as rare as handmade hats in Paris, so their co-habitation on the rue Sainte Anne is not so odd after all.

Up a winding set of stairs behind a cobblestone courtyard is the discreet home of the renowned Maison Michel where for a price not more than some designer jeans, you could own a timeless, one-of-a-kind accessory that is guaranteed to turn heads.

Striking in its small, cozy configuration, the multi-room showroom and atelier hums with the sounds of straw weaving machines, seamstresses chattering, the shuffling of hand-written orders and the hissing of heaters baking fabric atop wooden hat molds.

Occupying the same space since its inception in 1936, Maison Michel was rescued from oblivion by Chanel’s Paraffection division in 1996 on their mission to save the heritage of struggling haute couture ateliers

Maison Michel is one of seven such ateliers d’art that now functions independently under the Chanel umbrella, supplying to their Mother Company as well as competing couture brands and independent clients in effort to keeps their skills impeccable honed. It is also listed as an Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (Living Heritage Company) along with Bijoux Commelin and hundreds of other French companies recognized for perpetuating traditional artisanal crafts.

Maison Michel’s private clients run the gamut from dandy to diva, and include men on a mission for made-to-measure fedoras, women plotting their flamboyant headgear for a day at the races and soon-to-be-brides looking for an original accoutrement to their wedding wardrobe.

After consulting at length with the brand’s art director, Ludovic Kornetsky, a design is crafted to order and then fabricated by hand on the premises. Count three weeks to two months for delivery and approx 300€ to 3,000€ per hat according to the complexity and material of the design.

Maison Michel Timeline

1936: Hatmaker Auguste Michel founds his company on rue Saint Anne in Paris
1975: After taking over the company with his wife, Claudine, Pierre Debard stocks the studio with refurbished Weissmanns, old straw sewing machine that allow for the creation of large, invisibly-stitched hats. These sizable, wide-brimmed hats catch the attention of designers such as Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent.
1980: Maison Michel starts making hats for couture and ready-to-wear fashion houses such as Chanel, Givenchy, Nina Ricci, Guy Laroche, Lanvin and Christian Lacroix.
1996: Chanel takes over Maison Michel
2006: The first Maison Michel Paris ready-to-wear collection designed by Laetitia Crahay, head of accessories and jewelry at Chanel, is launched worldwide.

Maison Michel Glossary

Bob (Sailor’s hat)—Small Breton hat generally made of fabric with an upturned brim.
Canotier (Boater)—Flat-topped straw hat with a narrow brim.
Capeline (Wide-brimmed)—Lady’s hat with a wide, flexible rim usually made of straw or horsehair.
Cloche (Cloche)—Hat with flared brim (e.g. pink hat above left)
Feutre (Felt)—Non-woven, waterproof fabric produced by matting and pressing hairs or wool (Maison Michel sometimes uses rabbit hair).
Forme (Block)—Full limewood mold in which hats are shaped (Maison Michel has more than 3,000).
La Couseuse (Seamstress)—While particularly cherished for thier fine craftsmanship of large, wide-brimmed, sewn straw hats, seamstresses also make “cut and sewn” hats such as sailor’s hats, caps and other cloche hats using patterns.
La Modiste (Milliner)—Working from an illustration, the milliner is in charge of designing the hat prototype using fabrics such as wool, cotton, silk and sometimes even leather. The milliner is also responsible for the hat finishings and trims.
Le Chapelier (Hatmaker)—Craftsman who shapes felt or straw, passes it through a steam box to moisten fabric, then stretches it on a limewood block before baking it in an oven to set exact shape.
Panama (Panama)—Men’s summer hat (though super chic on women) in very fine, soft, light straw plaited from thin strips cut from the leaves of a palm.
Weissmann—Rare, straw sewing machine capable of making large, invisible stitched hats.

……………

Price: 300€ to 3,000€ per hat according to the complexity and material of the design.
Timeframe: Count three weeks to two months for delivery.
Appointment: You may contact me to help schedule an appointment
Inside tip: If you can’t afford made-to-measure, opt for the house’s ready-to-wear collection which is distributed worldwide and fabricated using the brand’s famed artisanal techniques.

All images courtesy of Maison Michel

As a kid, my dad would take me to the mall to pick out new charms for my charm necklace. Despite his best intentions, the process was excruciating. Somehow all of my preteen identity angst turned charm shopping into total trauma. Was I supposed to highlight my roller skating obsession or divulge my nerdy violin skills? Share my BFF status with my cool new friend or faithful childhood pal? Wear my initials in girlie curlicues or badass Brooklyn fonts?

Belying their diminutive size, charms have a way of saying a lot. Scaled-down renderings of our pastimes, dreams and preferences, each tiny charm brings to vivid life an intimate part of our personality. Viewed together as a collection, they can be quite revealing indeed.

So here I am, two decades later, faced with the ultimate charm challenge: navigating the holy grail of French charms without crying out for daddy.

Recognized as an “Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant” (Living Heritage Company), Bijoux Commelin is a 19th century family-run jewelry company that specializes in charms and translucent enamels. One of the oldest manufacturers of charms in France and the only company in Paris to perpetuate the art of handcrafted miniatures, Bijoux Commelin boasts over 2,000 miniatures in its ravishing repertoire.

(A word of advice: peruse their site to get your bearings before your visit.)

Each design is crafted by hand using ancestral techniques that have been handed down and perfected from one Commelin generation to the next since the company’s founding in 1880. The jewels are all made out of fine metals and come in multiple sizes to match the breadth of your budget (count 40E-300E for each charm depending on size, complexity and material).

The company’s true treasure trove is its collection of French monuments. From the Eiffel Tower to the Concord Obelisk by way of Sacre Coeur the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame, they have them all, beautifully and faithfully reproduced.

Imagine strutting around with an entire collection of your favorite Paris haunts strung around your neck? It would be strange, striking and a cool conversation starter. If only I had known about them back in Junior High!

*Ask about their made-to-measure services if your heart’s set on a custom design.