French Lessons
Solstiss/Bucol brings a little French savoir-faire to Los Angeles
When a representative from Solstiss first showed the high-end textile line in Los Angeles, customers were often shocked by the high prices per yard.
A potential customer would ask for the price, and when told it was “one seventy-five per yard,” he or she would respond “$1.75? That’s not bad.”
But with fabrics that can run as high as $1,000 per yard, Solstiss targets an exclusive clientele, rather than the masses. Although the company offers hand-worked, couture-quality fabrics, Solstiss and its sister company, Bucol, also offer goods priced for the contemporary and young-designer market, as well.
Solstiss/Bucol is the New York–based subsidiary of two French textile mills—Solstiss SA, maker of couture laces based in Caudry, and Bucol, maker of fine silks, based in Lyon, a division of Holding Textile Hermegrave;s. Solstiss/Bucol also represents Bouton-Renaud, a maker of jacquard velvets based in Vaulx-en-Velin, in the suburbs of Lyon.
Solstiss/Bucol is approaching its 20-year anniversary in the United States, but it was not until six years ago that the company opened a West Coast office in Los Angeles. Until then, the company had been showing its couture-quality laces and silks out of a temporary booth at the Los Angeles International Textile Show or in private appointments with designers.
Sales Manager John Marshall joined the company in 2001 and ran Solstiss/Bucol’s West Coast operation solo until late last year, when Jane Burge was hired as an account executive.
“It’s a new step for Solstiss/Bucol on the West Coast,” said Sandrine Bernard, the company’s New York–based executive vice president. “The West Coast is a very important market.”
Indeed, Bernard has been acting as the third member of the West Coast team, traveling to the Los Angeles office every few weeks. The Paris-born Bernard joined Solstiss/Bucol last July. Her background includes work in the cosmetics, lingerie and footwear sides of the fashion business.
“I grew up in the shoe industry—always around design,” she said. More recently, she worked as a media consultant for luxury brands such as Chanel, Christian Dior and Yves St. Laurent and for cosmetics giant L’Oreal as the manager of the U.S. subsidiary of French media marketing company Press Plus (which was acquired by TNS-Secodip in 2005).
“She’s a great liaison between L.A., New York and France,” said Marshall, whose background in production in Los Angeles includes stints as a piece goods buyer for Carole Little and Parallel when it was still a division of Francine Browner. He shifted to the textile-sales side of the business when he went to work for the Los Angeles office of German textile maker DMC.
Solstiss has long been a valuable resource for Los Angeles’ high-end designers, such as Richard Tyler, Juicy Couture, Development, Claire Pettibone, Kirstie Kelly, Peter Cohen, Linda Loudermilk and Monique Lhuillier. When the West Coast office opened, Marshall helped bring in new customers among Los Angeles’ newest crop of designers, including Juan Carlos Obando, Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy, and Michon Schur designer Stephanie Schur.
Burge comes from a textile family. Her parents own a high-end fabric store in St. Louis called Eunice Farmer Fabrics, named for her grandmother, who founded the business selling couture-quality fabrics to custom-design makers in the area. After graduating from college, Burge went to work for Mt. Vernon, Ill.–based bridal-veil and head-piece manufacturer Toni Federici, which is also a Solstiss customer.
In addition to new companies, including Jovovich-Hawk and Katy Rodriguez, Burge has been helping Solstiss/Bucol branch out beyond the fashion industry to sell to interior design companies and costume designers. A recent client is the Los Angeles Opera.
Solstiss/Bucol fabrics have also been used for the costumes for “Kill Bill” and “Monster-in-Law,” as well as the upcoming films “Get Smart” and “National Treasure 2,” according to Marshall.
Long-standing heritage
Bucol was founded in 1924 when two 19th-century French mills—Buchet and Colcombet—merged. Solstiss was founded in 1974 when four French mills—Ledieu Beauvillain, Victor Machu, Robert Belott and Edouard Beauvillain—merged. However, the company’s lace expertise dates back to the 19th century as well, said Bernard, noting that Solstiss’ lace division was founded in 1880.
“I love the product,” Bernard said. “There are years and years of history.”
Part of Marshall’s job has been to educate the Los Angeles market about the history of Solstiss and Bucol and the craftsmanship and technical knowledge that go into the fabrics produced.
“To the French, it’s an art form,” Marshall said.
For example, Solstiss’ Embellis collection features exclusive Solstiss laces that are embellished with everything from block printing to feather appliqueacute;s. Embellis fabrics are pleated, embroidered or beaded with sequins, beads, semiprecious stones or jewelry to create a lush luxury look.
“Our challenge is to constantly find new materials that will enhance the beauty of our fabrics and keep up with the market’s trends and demand,” Bernard said. “We are revisiting every season our vision of lace, changing our perception of it in order for this delicate and fragile fabric to find its place in the fashion scene and be part of the trends.”
Bucol’s specialty is prints and novelties, including warp-printed silks. Bouton-Renaud features hand-cut and hand-painted jacquard velvets.
All this detail and handwork comes at a price.
While Solstiss’ lace trims run as low as $3 per yard and hand-beaded fabrics run up to $1,000 per yard, most of the company’s allover lace fabrics are priced between $30 and $70 per yard for production orders. Bucol’s fabrics run as low as $20 per yard for mousseline soie chiffon, but most of the fabrics are more than $100 per yard for production orders. And the Bouton-Renaud velvets are priced, on average, between $100 and $200 per yard for production goods. Minimums run from 40 to 500 yards.
While Solstiss/Bucol prices once elicited shock from textile-show attendees, that is rarely the case anymore.
“Solstiss/Bucol has a luxury image because we work with all the well-known haute couture companies,” said Marshall. “There is seldom a season when Solstiss/Bucol creations do not appear in the most prestigious American collections [including] Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren, Badgley Mischka, Marc Jacobs, Bill Blass, Michael Kors, Vera Wang, Derek Lam, Proenza Shouler, Zac Posen, Monique Lhuillier and many others.” The line also appears in the collections of international designers and design houses, including Chanel, Hermegrave;s, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada, Ellie Saab, Jean Paul Gaultier, Valentino and Alexander Mc Queen, he added. “Nevertheless, our laces and fabrics are affordable for a lot of designers,” said Marshall, who said Solstiss/Bucol clients tap into the company’s longstanding quality, service and history.
Los Angeles couture on display
Attendees of the recent Los Angeles International Textile Show got a sampling of Solstiss/Bucol fabrics and some of the company’s California clientele when the work of nearly a dozen designers was prominently displayed in the lobby of the California Market Center. Dresses ranged from a flirty mini by Rory Beca to a Monique Lhuillier gown with an elaborately draped skirt made with Bucol’s floral-printed impression chaine. The skirt is part of Lhuillier’s Resort 2007 ready-to-wear collection.
“What is special and unique about Solstiss is not only their laces and fabric but their dedication to their customers,” Lhuillier said. “John Marshall and the L.A. office are great facilitators for both mills. John is the reason my gown was on display at the L.A. Textile Show.”
Bernard, Marshall and Burge worked together to select the designers on display. “It represented the market on the West Coast,” Bernard said.
Other designers and labels represented included Ali Rahimi for Mon Atelier, Baracci Haute Couture, Claire Pettibone, Colleen Quen, Kirstie Kelly, Lourdes Chavez, Magid Bernard, Christian Mendoza and Simin Couture.
Solstiss/Bucol held a similar exhibition featuring French designs several years ago at the Carousel de Louvre during the Haute Couture fashion shows in Paris, Bernard said.
Next up for the company is a 20th-anniversary party, scheduled for the end of the year in New York, Bernard said.
Solstiss/Bucol recently moved its West Coast offices to suite B703 in the California Market Center.
For more information about Solstiss/Bucol, call (213) 688-9797.
