“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 bear in mind first strolling down these streets with my father after 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 needed to work on this business.”

We’re interviewing Yves within the firm’s fairly nameless, trendy 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, and so they’ve made two items for me previously. However that is our first go to to Paris, to the HQ. 

“My son wasn’t so eager at first both,” Yves continues. “However once you’ve labored round this craft lengthy sufficient, you change into keen about the fantastic thing about it and preserving it. That’s what occurred to me, and Thomas feels the identical method now as nicely.”

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

Within the Nineteen 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 organising his personal model. 

In a while within the day we meet Thomas, who’s deep into shows for Style Week. He’s helped steer the model into full collections, with plenty of 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 includes re-using previous items, with clients bringing of their grandmothers’ coats and having them re-cut into one thing extra trendy. Fur lasts very nicely, and the historic worth of those coats means they’ve usually been saved for generations. From that perspective they’re among the many most sustainable clothes. 

The final piece I had made was a liner for a raincoat, completely made from the offcuts from such work within the London atelier. It’s wonderful what an opulent piece may be made out of literal scraps – on the identical high quality as one thing new, not like 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 very best there may be, he blends the skins collectively in an great 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 had been blended so successfully that they seemed like lengthy strips of a single materials. Every one runs easily into the following, thanks to shut matching of the colors and cautious chopping of the seams. 

On the again you’ll be able to see how difficult these seams are, with either side minimize into lengthy spikes that match into one another, and generally cuts in these as nicely (under).

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

Extra not too long ago, the corporate has developed strategies for chopping lengthy strains in these intently shaved items, so that they seem like corduroy. One piece we noticed (pictured greater up) seems 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, selecting 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 like fur, but could be very light-weight. 

“Many of those improvements had 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 had been completely not capable of. do Like stretch fur for instance – he needed to do his traditional mariniere [sweater] however fully fitted to the physique.

“I’d say I didn’t understand how to try 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 change into 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 had been for girls, and the sleeves on the coats had been too lengthy. So we thought we’d need to make them ourselves. However then we discovered most of them had been being purchased by males and that had the alternative drawback – the sleeves had been too brief!

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

Quickly after that the stress on fur typically grew to become higher, with a variety 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 previous items. 

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

“That is simply me, my private tradition (and my workers undergo rather a lot for it) however I don’t like ever to remain on the identical factor. I wish to hold transferring,” says Yves.

I’ve to say, it was this angle in the direction of innovation that impressed us most at Yves Salomon. Great because the merchandise and the methods are, it was the angle that actually set it other than the producers we usually cowl for Everlasting Model. 

Most of these are extremely conservative, and resist comparatively small modifications like making unlined sneakers, or new varieties of rubber soles. Typically they are often restricted by abilities or equipment, however usually you are feeling there’s an instinctive worry too – irrespective of what number of occasions they’ve needed to change previously, they don’t wish to accomplish that once more till they’re pressured to take action. 

Will probably be fascinating 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 doable 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. 

After we then went to see Thomas later on the showroom, in the midst 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 look ahead to seeing what Yves Salomon (the person and the corporate) does with leather-based as nicely. 

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