I trained as a stylist, I was at the Chardon Savard workshops . I worked two, three years before launching Lorafolk 4 years ago, in luxury houses like Chanel and Balmain , which cultivated for me this taste for beautiful materials, finishes, craftsmanship and this knowledge. -make. Afterwards, I like to touch on everything: being able to choose the fabrics, being in the workshop to guide in the making, but also the communication, the digital strategy and having days that are not alike with thousands of unforeseen events to manage. . So , I created my own brand of clothes, and not of wedding dresses .
We started by buying stocks of fabrics used in luxury houses: silks, jacquards, embroidered fabrics, at attractive prices. We buy small quantities, we make limited editions, which is quite nice in terms of communication: the customers know that they may only be 4 to have this dress in this silk. We continue to do so, by the way, to make very reasonable quantities to keep this confidential side of the brand.
How did you come to design wedding dresses?
A year and a half later, a friend of ours asked us to make her wedding dress. We had never thought of getting into the marriage business before, with my partner and associate, we ourselves are not married. In the end, the exercise appealed to us, the dress was successful and we found it quite complementary with our work on fashion: we were already working on Calais lace, silks, bead or thread embroidery, we were already making all by hand in our workshop. We found, suddenly, coherent to have its two lines which answered each other.
So we launched a small capsule collection with 4 dresses, in the middle of the season and it took off right away. There was a great enthusiasm, we were lucky to have the press who immediately relayed to us. And at that time, there were very few wedding dress designers on the market, so we were also arriving at a good time when there was a real need, a real trend, without knowing it. As a result, we had a lot of customers and orders and the following year we made a real first collection. Today, we are on our third and it has almost taken over fashion.
How do you make these wedding dresses?
We have our workshop on site, at the back of the courtyard, which is great in terms of organization. So it’s sure, if you come to buy a wedding dress, you won’t leave with it, but that’s also part of its charm: it’s designed for you, it’s made for you, by hand, by the same designer. , from A to Z . We have an artisanal method and a know-how that is unfortunately being lost.
Overall, our customers want to consume less, but better. Even if they can’t necessarily afford to buy one of our dresses, they save money, they don’t shop for 3 months and buy a real pretty, handmade dress that they can wear and keep long time.
When you design your dresses, do you have a guiding thread?
I like fairly clean lines, fluid and structured at the same time. I like when there are a lot of finishing details, I like fuzzy dresses with hold, I like dresses with a high waist, because that’s what flatters feminine silhouettes the most in my opinion. We like embroidered fabrics, laces, fine tulles, silk crepes. It’s really the period that influences me the most.
How would you describe the universe of your shop?
We wanted to make a real cocoon in this already very beautiful shop with its high ceilings, its old stones. It’s true that we like the decoration, that we like to hunt around, mix family heirlooms and those that we bring back from travels. Customers generally feel good here, I’m happy.
So how are wedding dress fittings going?
So for the long wedding dress, there are 5 fittings: taking measurements with our designer, fitting a first fabric to check the pattern, then comes the “first fabric”: it ‘s her dress without the finishes to make some readjustments. And finally the last fitting on delivery.
For the civil bride, we systematically take the client’s measurements to check that she is such and such a size with us. Then we see it again for delivery. We can also do semi-tailored, with only three appointments.
Not so much, the customers are quite reasonable (laughs) . We once had a client who asked to have the belt of her dress in blue. Obviously, we refuse, because it’s important for us to respect our brand DNA and personally, I can’t imagine a wedding dress with a blue belt . Or distort a dress and take it in a direction that doesn’t look like us, we don’t do it. Afterwards, we remain very open: changing a sleeve, a neckline, we do it without any problem. It can even give us ideas and create truly unique dresses.
What is the ideal wedding dress for you?
I love the world of weddings, I love meeting future brides and I am very moved to see them in their finished dress, their photos, to talk about their preparations and for all that, I don’t think I want to get married and imagine my wedding dress. It’s not something that suits me at the moment (laughs) .
