Atelier Lognon

Pleating Every crisp sunray or accordion pleat on a couture skirt has to be set by someone, and in Paris that is often Lognon. The craft is pure method: fabric is folded between hand-cut cardboard molds, baked at 85 to 100°C and left a day to cool so the pleat holds. The atelier keeps about 3,000 molds, the oldest dating to around 1900. The house traces itself to Émilie Lognon, a linen maker in Napoleon III's time, and passed to her great-grandson Gérard in 1945. When he retired without a successor, Chanel's Paraffection took it over in 2013. It still pleats for Dior and for the Paris Opera, so the purchase saved a supplier the whole trade uses.