When I started looking for manufacturers for the first collection, I was advised to look in Portugal. Shorter lead times, lower costs, decent quality. I understand the reasoning. Many brands I admire make this choice, and I'm not lecturing them.
Still, I said no. Not out of patriotic conviction, not for an argument about the label. For much more prosaic reasons, and perhaps that's precisely why this choice holds up.
The first reason is proximity. When a manufacturer is two hours from Paris, I can travel there. I can see the pieces at every stage, correct a drape during production, refuse a seam that doesn't feel right. Distance, in this business, isn't just a matter of mileage: it's a matter of control over what you put your name on. I need that control. Not because I'm a perfectionist in the neurotic sense of the word, but because I'm responsible for every piece that leaves the workshop.
The second reason is technical expertise. The French manufacturers I work with have specific skills, often passed down through two or three generations, sometimes on the verge of disappearing. The cutter who works on my double-breasted coats learned in Roubaix in the 1990s, at a house that no longer exists. He knows things I wouldn't know how to ask someone else, because I wouldn't even know how to formulate them. Working with him is gaining access to knowledge I can't buy elsewhere.
The third reason is financial, paradoxically. Manufacturing in France costs more per unit, that's a reality. But the margins of error are smaller because communication is direct, adjustments are quick, and sample alterations are limited. I've seen brands lose significant amounts on Portuguese or Italian orders due to misunderstandings about finishes or materials. The apparent cost is lower, but the actual cost might not be.
I don't claim that Made in France is the only valid path. I'm saying that for Lebrun Paris, at this stage, with this product vision and this way of working, it's the only coherent decision. The day I have a concrete reason to revise this choice, I will. But that reason will have to be better than a short-term accounting argument.
What I refuse, however, is to make it a slogan. "Made in France" on a label without a reality of manufacturing, a relationship with workshops, regular visits, and rejections when quality isn't there: that's a lie. Not illegal, but a lie nonetheless.
Lebrun Paris pieces are made in France because that's how I can guarantee what I claim. It's as simple, and as unromantic, as that.
The detail that matters. In France, the "Origine France Garantie" label requires at least 50% of the product's unit value to be acquired in national territory. Lebrun Paris does not claim this label: the pieces are simply made in France, with materials sourced in Europe. Transparency on material origin is an ongoing project on the website.
The next time you read "made in France" on a label, ask the question: made where, exactly? By whom? For how long? The answers are worth more than the label.
Discover pieces from the current collection on lebrunparis.com.