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Yves Salomon: Interview in Paris

Yves Salomon: Interview in Paris

Monday, July 28th 2025
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Yves Salomon: Interview in Paris

“After I was rising up, this complete space of Paris was leather-based and fur,” says Yves Salomon, head of the eponymous model and producer. “We’re buried on this little avenue, Cité Paradis, however throughout us it was nothing however animal manufacturing – on Rue d’Hauteville and Rue des Petites Écuries. Now we’re the one one left.

“I keep in mind first strolling down these streets with my father once I was younger, and I hated it. These males with skins piled on prime of their shoulders, leather-based all over the place. I by no means wished to work on this trade.”

We’re interviewing Yves within the firm’s fairly nameless, fashionable workplaces, sitting on the primary flooring trying down on Cité Paradis. We’ve lengthy been a fan of the work Yves Salomon does in its London atelier, they usually’ve made two items for me prior to now. However that is our first go to to Paris, to the HQ. 

“My son wasn’t so eager initially both,” Yves continues. “However once you’ve labored round this craft lengthy sufficient, you grow to be obsessed with the fantastic thing about it and preserving it. That’s what occurred to me, and Thomas feels the identical method now as effectively.”

The corporate was based in 1920 as a producer by Gregory Salomon, Yves’s grandfather. His father, Boris, started experimenting with other ways of utilizing fur within the Sixties and drew the eye of the style homes.

Within the Eighties Yves took over and actually pushed that ahead – working for the likes of Azzedine Alaïa, Nina Ricci, Thierry Mugler, Jean Paul Gaultier – earlier than establishing his personal model. 

Afterward within the day we meet Thomas, who’s deep into shows for Style Week. He’s helped steer the model into full collections, with numerous leather-based items (all of which the corporate makes in-house) after which trousers, knits and shirts round them. 

Most of Yves Salomon’s work with fur nowadays entails re-using outdated items, with prospects bringing of their grandmothers’ coats and having them re-cut into one thing extra fashionable. Fur lasts very effectively, and the historic worth of those coats means they’ve usually been saved for generations. From that standpoint they’re among the many most sustainable clothes. 

The final piece I had made was a liner for a raincoat, fully manufactured from the offcuts from such work within the London atelier. It’s wonderful what an opulent piece might be made out of literal scraps – on the similar high quality as one thing new, in contrast to the degrading that occurs with recycled wool for instance. 

In Paris, we noticed the grasp of this work, a senior craftsman who was patiently working in a single nook of the basement workshop. “He’s the perfect there’s, he blends the skins collectively in an fantastic method,” says Yves. 

It was definitely spectacular after we checked out each the again and the entrance of those coats (above). On the entrance the skins have been blended so successfully that they regarded like lengthy strips of a single materials. Every one runs easily into the following, thanks to shut matching of the colors and cautious reducing of the seams. 

On the again you possibly can see how difficult these seams are, with all sides minimize into lengthy spikes that match into one another, and typically cuts in these as effectively (under).

“The important thing to discovering new methods to make use of fur within the early days was to attempt to use it as a material,” says Yves. That included shaving down the fur so it regarded extra like velvet, and even moleskin. They’d additionally use laser cutters to make patterns within the floor.

Extra just lately, the corporate has developed strategies for reducing lengthy traces in these intently shaved items, so that they appear to be corduroy. One piece we noticed (pictured larger up) seems to be like a reasonably common jean jacket in black twine, however the floor is extremely delicate – not what you anticipate. 

“One thing else we got here up with was a really light-weight fur piece utilizing strips of organza,” says Yves, choosing up a coat a employee is ending (under). The fabric is made up of alternating strips of organza and fur, however the strips are so skinny (and the hair so lengthy) that from the surface it simply seems to be like fur, but could be very light-weight. 

“Many of those improvements have been pushed by the calls for of the designers,” says Yves. “Jean-Paul Gaulthier was the worst for this – he would ask us to do issues that we have been completely not capable of. do Like stretch fur for instance – he wished to do his basic mariniere [sweater] however utterly fitted to the physique.

“I’d say I didn’t know the way to do this, it doesn’t exist, and he’d say ‘simply do it’! We discovered methods to do one thing shut, after which we moved into knitted fur too. Quickly after we did our most well-known piece as a model – the classic parka with fur lining.”

Yves Salomon did grow to be well-known for this as a way, and has had variations going by way of its collections ever since. “The issue initially was that the items have been for girls, and the sleeves on the coats have been too lengthy. So we thought we’d must make them ourselves. However then we discovered most of them have been being purchased by males and that had the alternative downside – the sleeves have been too quick!

“That was how we began doing garments for males as effectively. That was in 2013.”

Quickly after that the strain on fur typically grew to become larger, with plenty of designer manufacturers ceasing to make use of it. So Yves began the method of diversifying – into leather-based, shearling, knitwear – in addition to focusing extra on re-using and re-modelling outdated items. 

Our go to looks like the tip of a protracted arc for the corporate, as they did their first presentation of the complete males’s assortment simply the day earlier than. It’s taken over 100 years, however you’re feeling the constant, regular journey nonetheless. 

“That is simply me, my private tradition (and my employees endure quite a bit for it) however I don’t like ever to remain on the identical factor. I need to maintain transferring,” says Yves.

I’ve to say, it was this angle in the direction of innovation that impressed us most at Yves Salomon. Fantastic because the merchandise and the strategies are, it was the angle that basically set it aside from the producers we usually cowl for Everlasting Type. 

Most of these are extremely conservative, and resist comparatively small modifications like making unlined footwear, or new forms of rubber soles. Generally they are often restricted by expertise or equipment, however usually you’re feeling there’s an instinctive worry too – regardless of what number of instances they’ve needed to change prior to now, they don’t need to accomplish that once more till they’re pressured to take action. 

It is going to be attention-grabbing to see how the strategy of Yves Salomon carries throughout into leather-based going ahead. Yves himself defined a current innovation the place they use the thinnest calf potential for outerwear – 2mm – backed with nylon for the entire coat, so it may be reversed and worn both method, whether or not for vogue or climate. 

Once we then went to see Thomas later on the showroom, in the course of a number of bustling appointments, we tried on that coat and it was simply stunning. As fur turns into more and more area of interest, I sit up for seeing what Yves Salomon (the person and the corporate) does with leather-based as effectively. 

For extra on fur, its ethics and sustainability, see PS article right here. The factors on this problem are all made there, whether or not within the article or the feedback, so please add to that debate quite than replicating them right here.

The present Yves Spring/Summer time assortment might be seen on their web site. Beneath are some highlights of the Autumn/Winter.

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