Plisson

Plisson was founded in Paris in 1808 by Jacques-Louis and Marie-Hélène Plisson, a couple who both came from established families in the brush-making and fan-making trades — crafts built on the same underlying skills of fitting fine bristles or materials into a shaped handle. Their manufacture combined two distinct artisan disciplines: tabletterie, the shaping and finishing of noble materials such as horn, ivory and exotic woods into small objects, and brosserie, the selection and precise placement of bristle fibers into a functional brush head. That combination positioned Plisson well when the modern shaving brush began to take off as a household grooming tool in the nineteenth century, and the house built a reputation that reached Napoleon's court — the Plissons made the emperor a beard brush designed for travel, and the brand adopted an eagle as its emblem for years afterward in reference to that association. Plisson has remained under family ownership through its history, continuing to combine both original disciplines rather than specializing narrowly in one: its range spans razors, shaving brushes in both natural badger-hair and synthetic-fiber versions, shaving cosmetics, hairbrushes, and grooming tools for beards and mustaches. The brand sells both through its own outlets and through counters inside larger retailers, including a presence within the Paris department store Printemps, keeping the more than two-century-old maker within reach of a mainstream retail audience rather than confined to a single flagship address.