Making merino wool scarves so delicate that they are as soft as cashmere, such is the achievement of Amédée Paris.
Amédée Paris is an institution with a lot of history. It all started in 1851, when the French industrial Amédée Prouvost created the Amédée combing, a technique known across the world for its use of merino fibers from around the globe.
In 1872, Jules Vignal created his own maritime transport company the “Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis”. He transported Amédée Prouvost’s merino wool on his ocean liners. Over a century later, in 1987, the Chargeurs group acquired the Prouvost group’s wool industry, thus developing its knowledge of wool combing.
In 2018, the Amédée Paris brand was created by the Chargeurs group by its founder, Déborah Berger, and Michaël Fribourg, the CEO of the Chargeurs group, which had in the meantime become the world leader in textile technique and luxury fibers.
The story is already beautiful, but there’s more.
What are Amédée Paris scarves nowadays? They are luxury scarves, woven in a wool so fine and so soft that the confusion with cashmere is nearly inevitable. I always find it amusing when I wear this scarf and people admire it or ask about where it came from. I systematically ask them what they think the material is: “cashmere” is the response I get. Every single time. The mystery dissolves when one knows that the merino wool used by Amédée Paris comes from Patagonia and Tasmania, making them some of the best quality and finest in the world.
Beyond this incredible quality, Amédée Paris is also an eco-responsible brand, which respects animals, workers and the environment. It uses the “Organica Precious Fiber” label, which ensures that every animal is well treated, that every producer, every subcontractor is paid enough and that the environment is preserved through the production process and the wool’s transformation. As for the spinning, weaving and dyeing processes all take place in Italy or in France.
Beyond its eco-responsible credentials, the brand is one of truly incomparable quality and softness. Furthermore, the patterns are simply superb, navigating between Art Déco and a Cruise spirit that is part of the Compagnie de Chargeurs’ DNA.
At the origin of all the above is one woman, Déborah Berger, who invests all of her heart and more into making ethical and respectful quality. Déborah decided – with Michaël’s unshakeable support – to shoot for extremely high standards, which are not respected by the majority of the textile and fashion industries. She believes, and rightly so in my opinion, that her clients will have similarly rigorous standards.
At any rate, those are my standards. Even if I try to buy only vintage or second-hand pieces, I am ready to support an economic fabric made of extreme quality and responsible designers.
The woman in search of meaning that I am agrees with the ethic that underpins Amédée Paris’s process.
The very-sensitive-to-cold person that I am has infinite appreciation for the softness and warmth of Amédée Paris’s beautiful scarves.
And the lover of style that I am marvels at the delicate patterns and shimmering colors that convoke the pure roundedness of Art Déco, ancestral Egyptian papyrus or the Californian sun. So Parisian and so cosmopolitan at once, I cannot resist.
October 25, 2019
