Paris, France What: Clothing, Acc. | Women | Style: arty, feminine, sustainable | Category: Ethical Emerging Brand
BalzacBazaar is a Paris based fashion label, designing womenswear and lifestyle accessories.
The label takes inspiration from the Founder’s passion for travelling, Charlotte Woivré is a French fashion designer, aged 26.
She has launched her brand in 2016, after 3 years’ experience as ‘Head of product’ for the fashion designer Tara Jarmon.
She designs high quality fashion accessories and womenswear made with ethical and natural fabrics for today’s women (linen, silk, cotton). The brand is colourful, stylish and easy to wear.
She wants her brand to be ethical & sustainable, due to being conscious of today’s consumers changing tastes and desires to buy better quality (and sometimes less).
She believes in designing clothing that is at the ‘right price’ to enable consumers to buy a high-quality clothing and accessories but also allows the small and talented manufacturer to earn a living.
Having a spirit of adventure, she has found the answer to the European consumers’ dilemma, off the beaten track, in South India, a place where her two first collections were made.
First of all, I draw my inspiration from all around me, looking at women‘s fashion style on the street, paying attention to the colour matching, and the mix of “bought/home-made/hunted”.
I design clothing that I would love to wear myself but that I am unable to find in stores. I seek out a lot of ideas from my trips worldwide especially for prints and patterns.
The prints and patterns that can be found in on the floors and walls of temples and palaces look absolutely beautiful on garments.
In Europe, I find similar inspiration from the decorative floors of churches, and even in on the back of knitted pub chairs, you can draw inspiration from anything.
Colourful, joyful, feminine and easy to wear. Whilst matching women’s needs and tastes of today.
For the first collection, I created a collection with strong and bright colours, to draw in my first customers.
My favourite product for this season is the dress ‘Bettina’, with the green birds; this print took me ages to design -the inspiration is from an old Japanese kimono from the 50’s-.
When I wear it, it’s like I have been a women for my whole life!
I’m the person I really want to be: a determined woman, with a touch of feminism. The dress is very flattering and is my favourite piece.
It can be very different. I can fall in love with a fabric, a craftsman or manufacturing technique that I have observed during one of my trips abroad.
I bring a sample back to my studio in Paris, I draw a new product or a new dress using this technique but fitting with the preferences and tastes of the European fashion market.
When I take my inspiration from fashion and street style, I can design a collection in two days whilst including the prints inspired from my trips. I then try to find the best place to manufacture the garments.
I pay particular attention to the care given to each garment, for example the stitching as well as the quality of the fabric.
India produces high quality dying silk and its embroidery techniques are incredible. You can find a lot of these techniques in my first two collections. India is truly inspirational place for me and the Chai TEA over there is terrific too!
A Cat, for sure! Spending long hours to observe the world, people, trying to curl up in the hottest place.
Drinking milk, eating and sleeping in the sun all day long in my cosy basket.
My favourite moment of the day is the early morning, when nobody is awake yet and I still have my whole day in front of me.
I drink a cappuccino, I flick through a magazine and I let my mind wander freely on the lookout for ideas of a new collection.
My favourite quote is from Anna Lappé: « each time you spend money, you are voting for the kind of world you want to have ».
This quote is said in the context of the increased consumption of organic and sustainable food/agriculture.
I think the same sentiment applies to fashion as people are becoming more consumer aware and want to buy ethical products.