I’ve identified the model De Bonne Facture for a very long time, seeing them at stockists like Trunk and No Man Walks Alone through the years, and chatting to the founder Déborah Neuberg over dinner or at Pitti.
I’ve additionally admired their philosophy with regards to supplies and manufacturing. Most issues are intentionally made in France, they usually use pure, usually fantastically textured supplies. Each very Everlasting Model attributes.
The rationale I haven’t lined them previously is that the type appeared much less becoming – larger silhouettes, high-rise trousers, looser knitwear. However as PS has broadened its protection, taking in additional informal garments in addition to widening the type spectrum, De Bonne has appeared more and more related.
The model itself has additionally advanced. When it occurred to me we should always cowl them, and I checked out current collections on-line, they appeared to be extra expressive and strange, with extra distinctive and splendid supplies. Weirdly, that characterisation appeared to come back up time and again once I interviewed Deborah at Pitti after which spoke to associates and stockists at Pitti.
“One of many greatest adjustments has been the rise in e-commerce since Covid, taking up from wholesale,” Deborah mentioned after we met. “It’s been going very well, and it’s given me extra confidence in our designs.
“Wholesale could be fairly conservative generally, solely taking the issues they’ve offered earlier than or issues they know will do nicely. You may design numerous fascinating items, but when consumers don’t decide it up then it by no means will get on the market.”
One instance Deborah gave of an uncommon piece was the brown checked coat I’m sporting under, which is in a super-soft child llama material. As with all De Bonne items, it’s massive and unstructured, so moderately totally different to most coats we cowl, however I do know it can attraction to many readers.
(Bear in mind, items proven at Pitti in January are for the subsequent Autumn/Winter, so this coat wouldn’t be on sale till later this 12 months.)
“We’ve achieved extra luxurious materials too. We’ve all the time achieved the grandad coat for instance, however final 12 months we did it in camelhair [below]. The value was €2500 and I used to be terrified of ordering too many,” Deborah says.
“On the finish I really obtained a name from the manufacturing unit saying there was sufficient materials to make another, and I agonised over whether or not to do it. However ultimately all of them offered very well. It made me really feel like we’re stepping into the proper path on-line.
“Everybody suffers from a bit imposter syndrome and I’ve positively felt that – a girl designing menswear, doing issues that have been much less of the second – so how issues are acquired by our prospects all the time makes a distinction.
Deborah is conscious of how mainstream her designs have change into. “Again after we began 12 years in the past, our silhouettes have been far more uncommon – the balloon trousers, the massive raglan coats, all the pieces snug and relaxed. Now a variety of these shapes are extra normal; we have been sort of forward of the curve.”
Through the years De Bonne has attracted a really loyal following, maybe due to that consistency of favor but additionally due to its method to manufacturing. The truth is, Deborah mentioned a buyer just lately forwarded her our article on being a patron, saying that was how they felt about her garments.
“We’ve an fascinating vary of shoppers. There’s the inventive sort, somebody like Bent [Van Looy] maybe. Then there are the lecturers, who need to be that bit smarter but additionally relaxed – the geography instructor jacket is kind of named after them. However then there are tech guys now, who like garments however don’t actually need to put on a swimsuit to work.”
Given how I gown, many of the De Bonne trousers aren’t actually my type. However I might put on the coats, and the fleece I’m making an attempt above was very nice – in pure wool moderately than artificial, which may be very typical and in some methods makes them just like Drake’s, although extra centered of their manufacturing and extra natural of their color palette.
De Bonne knitwear can be stunning, all the time textured. The shapes are typically a bit longer and wider, however that relaxed look positively fits some folks, as Bent demonstrated in his current reader profile (under).
“The model appeals to me lots,” he informed me on the time. “It’s very romantic, very literary, very referential. It’s additionally come into its personal lately I feel.
“To start with it appeared much less clear what it was going to be, it was very pure, quite simple. However now they’ve this vary of fashions that may reoccur in several supplies; they’ve constructed up their universe fantastically. They’ve change into extra like themselves maybe.”
A number of others, together with a few stockists, mentioned one thing comparable.
Of all of the De Bonne garments I’d put on the shirts and overshirts most, which have a equally relaxed type to a model like Casatlantic – although typically higher made (instance under).
The truth is high quality is an fascinating level as a result of it’s simple to overlook. The De Bonne garments are very nicely, cleanly made, and the costs can appear a bit excessive till you recognize this and the supplies. “A lot of it’s a matter of context,” says Deborah. I used to be all the time afraid we have been too costly, however then a buyer informed me they thought we have been very low cost – as a result of she purchased The Row.”
Deborah has additionally been by way of a couple of adjustments personally, having had twins and brought a step again from the enterprise for some time. She opened the model’s first shop-cum-office simply earlier than Covid as nicely, in Paris’s eleventh arrondissement.
I’m glad to say all the pieces appears to be going nicely now – not simply from my and Deborah’s perspective, however within the eyes of stockists. I spoke to a number of at Pitti they usually all – nearly freakishly – repeated the identical factors about current collections.
