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Our creative line
La Maison
LA MAISON METAPHORES
An innovator in weaving and fabrics edition for interior design, Métaphores is a celebrated brand, inspiring and contemporary, belonging to Hermès’ textile division.
Métaphores, the finest of French signatures, brings together the centenarian know-how of Verel de Belval for silk furnishings and Le Crin for hand-woven horsehair, as well as the mastery of textile materials with remarkable sensory and visual creativity.
Métaphores fabrics are born of a subtle alchemy between materials, history and gesture, supported by its rigorous choice of partners and careful selection of raw materials. This overarching sustainable development approach lowers the environmental impact of the collections.
Realisation Andrea Mosca - Photos Alessandro Silvestri
Located at 5 rue de Furstemberg, the house’s Parisian address, the gallery-style showroom of Métaphores allows the creations to express their full personality.
Designed around a white screen, the concept naturally respects the proportions and personality of the materials – stone and wood – their grain, their texture, their vein. Alternately matt and glossy, the white colour delicately envelopes the flat surfaces, creating perspective and bathing the space in light.
In the showroom’s first space, emblematic fabrics from the new collection are presented like paintings echoing the art installations that will punctuate the life of the showroom.
Two successive spaces follow, revealing structures in natural oak. On the upper part, thin and streamlined brass shelves present a series of original “flacons” as if in a dispensary. An invitation to discover the ranges, the carefully aligned flacons stir curiosity and promise the visitor a sensorial experience. On the lower part, they display swags draped in a harmony of colours and materials.
SHOWROOM
5 rue de Furstemberg, 75006 Paris
Opening: Monday - Friday / 10 AM - 1 PM and 1.30 PM - 6.30 PM
Saturday / 2 PM - 7 PM
Workshops
Le Crin
Unsurprisingly Le Crin, the workshop in Challes, in France’s Sarthe region, is heir to a patent filed in 1787. Vested with the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label, Le Crin is a veritable conservatory. Combined with linen, wool, sisal or metallic threads, horsehair allows for the creation of motifs, light effects and sometimes audacious nuances. Exceptional decorative elements that harmoniously complement the Métaphores collections, horsehair-based weaves open new horizons.
Only one workshop in the world continues to weave horsehair by hand with rare know how. It takes infinite patience, as well as precise and sure gestures acquired over long months of apprenticeship, to create singular weaves strand by strand. The technique demands such attention to detail that only a few meters are woven each day.
ATELIER DE TISSAGE DU CRIN
2 Route de Château du Loir
72250 Challes
With a fleet of 35 latest-generation, modular Dornier looms and plain and Jacquard weaving machines, ATBC Bussières weaves any natural and synthetic fabric, from silk thread or cashmere to Lurex, for small, medium-sized and large runs.
Verel de Belval is the standard of excellence in the Lyon silk-weaving industry. Rather than simply preserving and passing on its formidable heritage, it evolves and reinvents: an approach that has earned it the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label.
Its mission – create silk expressions in tune with the times – is based on the mastery of exceptional fibres and traditional techniques and is driven by a spirit of innovation.
Home to one of the world’s most extensive archives, Verel de Belval creates collections that skilfully interpret its heritage, giving rise to an array of weaves of consistent quality.
For special projects and bespoke orders, workshops and archives are open to clients, allowing them to explore in an interactive environment and ensure that each individual’s expectations are met.
Dedicated to a tradition that has become rare, Verel de Belval, through the Métaphores collections, breathes new life into the precious Lyon silk-weaving industry.
ATELIER DE BUSSIERES
Monceau
42510 Bussières