Julien Faure: Excellence in the Ribbon Industry

Although ribbon has been a part of fashion design for centuries, its production requires highly specialized technical skills. From Jacquard design to loom setup, including weaving and quality control, Julien Faure maintains a level of expertise that makes it one of the few remaining companies in France to do so today.

Heir to the tradition of ribbon-making

Julien Faure’s story is inextricably linked to that of the Saint-Étienne region, which was long shaped by the rise of the ribbon industry. Yet nothing predestined the family for this profession: “we weren’t in that profession—his father was a gardener”, says Julien Faure about his great-great-grandfather, who learned the trade from a colleague before setting up his own workshop in 1864. At the time, the company produced what were known as “haberdashery” ribbons before gradually shifting, under the impetus of subsequent generations, toward “high-end novelty” ribbons. More elaborate and creative, these ribbons were used to adorn clothing, hats, and even shoes, already demonstrating the diversity of ribbon’s applications.

The following decades were marked by a constant ability to adapt. The company weathered both world wars, faced the gradual decline of French silk production—forcing it to source materials internationally—and survived a profound transformation of the French textile industry. After the war, the family also expanded into other textile-related businesses. One of Julien Faure’s uncles, in particular, expanded his savoir-faire to include scarves, silk square scarves, and then fabric sold by the meter, thereby helping to forge closer ties with the world of Lyon silk. This history also explains the strategic choices made thereafter.

The gamble on an accessory that became a product of excellence

When Julien Faure joined the family business in 1995, the business environment was particularly challenging; he “had to restructure because our revenue had been cut in half in a short period of time during the 1990s”, recalls the CEO. Faced with this situation, he made the important decision to gradually phase out the fabric-by-the-meter business, which had become unprofitable, and return to what makes the company unique: jacquard ribbon. This refocusing marked a true turning point and allowed the company to strengthen its position among luxury houses.

Behind the ribbon lies a wide variety of products. Grosgrain ribbons, used in particular for hats and shoes; silk satin with a smooth, refined appearance; twill ribbons; jacquard ribbons with intricate patterns; and even braided trims… each has its own unique textile construction! The teams work with a wide variety of materials, such as natural silk, cotton, polyester, and viscose, as well as different widths, weaves, designs, logos, and textures (the raised patterns and textures that give the ribbon its unique character). This design capacity is one of the company’s greatest strengths. The eight-person dedicated team supports brands from the very earliest stages of their creative process. The teams propose ideas, create simulations, and then produce samples to help designers visualize the product’s potential uses, “the client must understand everything they can do with a ribbon”, explains the CEO.

This ongoing pursuit of innovation also allows the ribbon to find new applications, such as watch straps with tunnels woven directly into the material, or technical ribbons containing electromagnetic metal threads designed to integrate microchips, as well as other developments in the medical sector.

Silk also retains an important place in the workshops. The threads, processed by French or Italian millers and then dyed at France’s last remaining silk thread dyer—located about thirty kilometers from the company—are subsequently crafted to create, among other things, unique labels made of natural jacquard silk. These are true hallmarks for the Homes, combining authenticity, traceability, and savoir-faire!

A heritage of craftsmanship and industry at the service of innovation

Today, Julien Faure employs nearly fifty people and emphasizes its unique strength “in mastering design and manufacturing, from A to Z”. This expertise is rooted in an exceptional industrial heritage, as the company maintains nearly 20 traditional professions, some of which date back to 1850. To preserve and continue developing these professions, five people are entirely dedicated to textile mechanics. Repair, maintenance, and equipment adaptation—this in-house savoir-faire allows the company to maintain a rare degree of autonomy!

At the same time, the company “has designed and manufactured 30 looms”, the CEO explains. This equipment builds on the principle of shuttle Jacquard weaving while improving the performance of the historic machines. Using an image that perfectly captures this idea, Julien Faure explains that his “professions are like 4x4s that can go anywhere, whereas modern professions are like Formula 1 cars that panic when they leave the track.”  This technical expertise is evident in every detail of the manufacturing process; in fact, “the main difference between fabric and ribbon is the selvedge— it has to be perfect from the very start,”he explains.

The company has also been a pioneer in modernizing Jacquard weaving. In the past, a pattern was drawn in gouache, transferred to a card on graph paper, and then converted into perforated Jacquard cards before it could be used to guide the loom. Today, the software developed by the company makes it possible to combine these steps, directly program certain mechanical functions, and perform textile simulations even before sampling. However, behind these technologies lie, above all, rare human skills! Weavers, professionals setting looms, bobbin winders, and twisters—all capable of manually assembling extremely fine threads without creating knots—play a daily role in the manufacturing process. Each spool is thoroughly inspected with a clearly stated goal: “We aim for zero defects—that’s our standard”, the CEO notes.

Passing on this expertise is now a major challenge. “The last weaver trained at a weaving school was in 2000”, the CEO points out. Faced with the disappearance of specialized training programs, the company now recruits entry-level candidates and trains them in-house, sometimes for several years, to master the full range of necessary skills. This commitment to preservation is also reflected in the company’s archives, of which 25,000 pages and nearly 200,000 textile patterns have been digitized.

As the sixth generation prepares to take the reins, Julien Faure remains mindful of his responsibility to pass on this legacy. “My daughter has decided to take over, but she’s quite brave!”he says with a smile. This message serves as a call to support these companies, whose survival depends as much on their ability to innovate as on the trust that brands place in them.

To learn more, visit Julien Faure’s company profile.