La Maison The Atelier The Commission
Ten weeks,one garment.
This is the whole process, honestly told — including the week where the toile looks terrible and we ask you to trust us. Everyone has that week.
The audience
Ninety minutes in the salon. We talk about the occasion, look at cloth, and mostly we watch how you sit, stand and reach for your coffee — the garment is being designed already. No sketches yet; sketches this early are lies.
Week 1 · free, no obligationSketch & cloth
Three directions, drawn by hand, with swatches pinned to each. You choose one; we burn the other two into the archive. The cloth is reserved the same afternoon — good silk does not wait for anyone.
Week 2–3 · deposit taken hereThe toile
Your piece, in muslin, draped on a stand padded to your measurements. First fitting happens on this ghost of the garment. It will look like a hospital gown with ambition. This is the week of trust.
Week 4–6 · first fittingCut & construction
The real cloth is cut — the only irreversible hour in the whole process, and the cutter works alone with the door shut. Then canvas, hand-padding, seams finished on the inside as beautifully as the outside.
Week 6–10 · second fitting at week 9The table
Embroidery, if the piece calls for it. Glass bead, silk floss, burnt sequin — sewn by six people who do not hurry for kings. A single bodice can hold two hundred hours at this table.
Runs parallel · adds 2–6 weeksDelivery day
Final fitting, then the piece leaves in a linen-lined box with its own muslin, a card of spare beads and thread, and written care instructions. The pattern is retired the same day. Nobody else will ever have it.
Week 10–16 · champagne is traditional
Plain answers
Questions everyone asks
What does it really cost?
Most commissions land between €18,000 and €40,000. The deposit is a third. We will tell you the number before you fall in love with anything — that order matters to us.
I'm not in Paris.
London fittings happen twice a season; elsewhere we travel for the toile and final fitting. Two commissions have been completed entirely by courier and video. Both fit.
What if my body changes?
Couture expects it. Seam allowances are engineered for two sizes in either direction, and alterations on our pieces are free for ten years.