Why it belongs in ORBIS
Brochier Soieries has made silk in Lyon since 1890, when Jean Brochier founded the house. Joseph Brochier supplied couturiers such as Jeanne Lanvin and Gabrielle Chanel, and from 1953 artists including Miró and Chagall made silk squares in its workshops. Today Cédric Brochier runs four Lyon boutiques and an archive of more than 100,000 designs.
Brochier Soieries is a Lyon silk house that dates its founding to 1890, when Jean Brochier launched the firm J. Brochier. He designed the fabric collections, financed the silk purchases and had the yarns thrown and dyed before degumming. His son Joseph took over in 1930 and steered the house toward fabrics of haute nouveauté for couturiers including Jean Patou, Jeanne Lanvin and Gabrielle Chanel. Offices followed in London, New York, Sydney and Melbourne. Joseph collected art and befriended the gallerist Aimé Maeght. From 1953 Miró, Braque, Giacometti and Chagall came to the workshops to make limited silk squares printed by hand in the Lyon manner. Jacques Brochier received the house in 1968, later joined by his brother Robert. He developed fabrics for Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Geoffrey Beene and Dior. From 1986 Cédric Brochier built new silk square collections with Daniel Buren, Yan Pei Ming, Yayoi Kusama, Combas and Jeff Koons, sold through museum shops worldwide. The archive holds more than 100,000 textile designs, of which over a thousand remain in use. The workshops in Lyon weave and print scarves and squares as well as stoles and ties from exclusive motifs. Four boutiques trade in Lyon, at the Grand Hôtel-Dieu, at the atelier on rue Romarin and in Vieux Lyon on rue du Bœuf.