About me

Some fabrics choose you. Linen chose me one summer, in a field in bloom near the Mont-Saint-Michel: that blue which lasts only a morning, those stems left to ret on the bare earth for weeks, that obligatory slowness. That was the day I understood I wanted to work with a fibre that takes its time.

Before that, I spent fifteen years sewing for other people. Alterations, linings, hems redone one after another. I learned the trade through my hands, and eventually I wanted whole garments — my own, with cuts that let the body breathe.

CALICOT grew out of that. A shop on rue La Fayette, a cutting table, a machine, and rolls of flax grown in France then woven in Europe. I draw, I cut, I assemble. Every piece passes entirely through my hands. It takes longer, it costs more to make, and that is precisely the point.

The linen does the rest. It creases, it softens, it pales a little at the folds. After ten years it is better than on the first day. I do not know many things you can say that about.

Push the door open when you are passing. We will talk cuts, sizes and alterations — and I will show you the piece in progress on the table.