Selvedge Magazine- Issue 119- France

All eyes will turn to Paris this summer with the 2024 Summer Olympics.At Selvedge, we too have been swept along by the excitement that has brought our attention to savoir-faire, the French concept of expertise in textiles. This issue we look at the 50th anniversary of the Battle at Versailles – the evening a sociocultural shift took place that resonates today. The editorial examines the past iterations of Savoir-faire found in irresistible flea market finds. We rubbed shoulders with the dealers on Sunday morning at Porte de Clignancourt, picking up some soft but sturdy vintage linen so appealing to contemporary designers, French slow fashion brand École de Curiosités, Camiceria Eri bespoke shirt-makers and Sasaki-Yohinten from Japan, and New York-based something in the air, as well as the Selvedge team. We venture north to Méru and discover the Musée de la Nacre (Mother of Pearl) housed in an impressive nineteenth-century former button factory. Here we learn that by 1900 shells were of