The French Ellen collection
of textiles is very special. The fabric came from Lyon, France
to California in 2001, and consists of the final stock of a Lyon
fabric mill named Soieries Varenne, which closed shop in
the 1990's, after over 100 years in the Varenne family.
The cancelled share certificates show the Varenne family business
going back as far as 1928, however the original enterprise opened
in 1890. It is not often that one has such an opportunity as
we had: to obtain the whole stock of one of the
few remaining traditional European fabric mills.
The trims comprise
an entire 2000 end-of-season collection from the (formerly) Lyon-basedLingerie Ravage, who are now owned by a much larger
company, Barbara. Lingerie Ravage
