Our Story

In the spring of 2017, in the quiet town of Bressuire in western France, fashion designer Camille Laurent found herself at a crossroads. Fresh out of her studies at Institut Français de la Mode in Paris, Camille returned to her childhood home to care for her ailing grandmother, a seamstress who had once dressed the ladies of the Loire Valley for evening soireés. As she spent long afternoons in her grandmother’s cramped workshop—surrounded by spools of silk ribbons, boxes of mother-of-pearl buttons, and swatches of fine wool—Camille began sketching designs that paid homage to the traditions she’d grown up with, yet spoke clearly to the cosmopolitan women she’d met in Paris.

Working by the glow of a single desk lamp, she and her grandmother experimented with merging classic techniques—hand-rolled hems, French seams, silk-lined interiors—with contemporary silhouettes: relaxed blazers, fluid slip dresses, and wide-leg trousers that draped like water. The first prototype was a simple black wrap top, its billowing sleeves and precisely placed darts an homage to the Loire Valley ball gowns of Camille’s youth. When she took that top to a small pop-up in Poitiers, it sold out in two days—and more importantly, her pieces caught the eye of a boutique owner in Bordeaux, who invited her to show a small capsule collection.

Fueled by that early success, Camille reinvested every franc she had into forging relationships with local mills and dye houses—many of which had been struggling under the pressure of fast fashion. She convinced one family-run mill to weave a custom cashmere blend exclusively for her first seasonal launch, and another to develop an eco-friendly wash for her denim. By late 2018, she had assembled a small atelier team back in Bressuire—each member chosen not just for skill, but for their shared belief in sustainable craftsmanship. Their first collection, titled “Retour aux Sources,” debuted at a private salon in Paris to nods of approval from editors and buyers alike, cementing the early foundations of the brand that would come to bear the town’s name—and setting the stage for Bressuire to become synonymous with modern French elegance built on tradition.