Les Mains de l'Atelier

Before dawn, when the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré is still empty, light already glows from our third-floor windows. Marguerite, our head seamstress, arrives first. She has been with the maison since 1987, when she was nineteen. 'I don't think about years,' she says, threading a needle with silk so fine it seems to disappear. 'I think about stitches. And there are always more stitches to make.'

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— Marguerite, Première d'Atelier

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Apprenticeship at Maison Aurèle takes seven years. 'We don't train tailors,' says our atelier director, Jean-Pierre. 'We grow them. Like a vine, they need time in the soil before they can bear fruit.' Each apprentice sits beside a master for five years before they touch a client garment. 'Speed is not the goal,' Jean-Pierre continues. 'Excellence takes the time it takes.'

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