Lettre 04
iii. MMXXVI · Tangier
— On slowness
Fourteen days of cloth.
On the patience of long-staple cotton, the mistakes that cannot be unmade, and the small dignity of a seam walked twice.
Read the letter →
Yassanci— Maison MMXIX
Livre IV · Printemps–Été MMXXVI
Tangier · Paris · Kyoto
◈The first Livre — seven garments only
Of cotton,
and quiet.
A small maison of slow clothing, built from long-staple Giza organic cotton, hand-loomed in the medina of Tangier, and finished at our Paris atelier. One livre each season. Nothing more.
A note from the maison
“We work to the pace of hands and thread — never the season’s clock.”
— Yassine Ancari, fondateur
Pièce n° 011
ƒ/2 · Tangier, 07:12
Robe du Matin — organic poplin, undyed.
€ 1,280
01 / 07
◈Scroll, slowly◈
Ateliers limited to forty visitors / season
Giza long-staple organic cottonGOTS certified · since MMXXIHand-loomed in TangierBotanical indigo & madder dyesStitched in the Paris atelierForty pieces per livre, never moreSeventeen hours, each garmentUndyed · unbleached · traceableGiza long-staple organic cottonGOTS certified · since MMXXIHand-loomed in TangierBotanical indigo & madder dyesStitched in the Paris atelierForty pieces per livre, never moreSeventeen hours, each garmentUndyed · unbleached · traceableGiza long-staple organic cottonGOTS certified · since MMXXIHand-loomed in TangierBotanical indigo & madder dyesStitched in the Paris atelierForty pieces per livre, never moreSeventeen hours, each garmentUndyed · unbleached · traceable
Livre IV · Pages 012 — 047
The seven pieces.
Each garment is catalogued, numbered, and traceable to the loom it left. What you hold is not a product — it is a page from a ledger of hands and hours.
The complete ledger →
N° 011
Robe du Matin
Giza organic poplin, undyed
Tangier handloom · Paris finish
Prix
€1,280
N° 013
Chemise Écrue
Double-needle poplin, 112 g/m²
17 hours of hand-work
Prix
€640
N° 017
Le Drap
Organic slub cotton, madder-rooted
Hand-washed in the medina
Prix
€1,940
Four further pieces — visible by appointment only.
§ II · The Letter
Dated Tangier, iii. MMXXVI
On slowness, and the cost of it
Seven years ago, on a return from the souk of Mrabet, I watched a woman named Fatima pass a thread of cotton between her fingers as though it were a letter to read. She did not weigh it. She did not measure. She held it, and after a silence she said — this one is patient. From that cotton, five metres of cloth took her fourteen days.
Yassanci is not a brand in the modern sense. It is a ledger of these fourteen-day cloths. We publish one livre each season — seven garments, numbered, documented, and signed. We do not market them. We do not discount them. When the season ends, the livre closes.
Our cotton is grown along the Nile delta at Kafr el-Sheikh, certified organic since our second year, and long-stapled enough that the yarn holds light. It is spun in a small mill at Alexandria, loomed in Tangier, and hand-finished in a shop-floor above the Rue de Turenne, Paris. Every seam is walked twice, first in the morning and once again at dusk.
This is not luxury in the manner of spectacle. It is luxury in the sense that, once you hold it, the garment declines to go anywhere in a hurry. It is, we hope, a kind of quietness you can wear.
Yassine Ancari
Fondateur · Paris · Tangier
No. 011
— Printemps
§ III · Provenance
From field, to fingertip.
A single garment passes through five pairs of hands and five thousand kilometres. We print the ledger so you may read it, and so it may be questioned.
- 01Kafr el-Sheikh · Nile DeltaWorkField — organic long-staple cottonDetail
A co-operative of eleven farms, GOTS certified, hand-picked in the cool hours.
HoursTwo years, seed to boll - 02Alexandria · EgyptWorkSpinning — ring-spun, 40 leaDetail
A thirty-year-old mill. No chemical softening, no optical dye.
HoursThree days, per five kilograms - 03Tangier · MoroccoWorkLoom — wooden handloom, two-shaftDetail
Woven by Fatima and the women of the Medina workshop. One metre an hour.
HoursFourteen days, per bolt - 04Provence · FranceWorkDye — botanical vats, madder and indigoDetail
Rooted in plants grown by our own hands. We refuse synthetic dyes entirely.
HoursSeven baths, ninety hours - 05Paris · Rue de TurenneWorkAtelier — cut, seamed, finishedDetail
Each seam walked twice. Every buttonhole hand-punched. Signed inside.
HoursSeventeen hours, each garment
CertificationsGOTS · OEKO-TEX Standard 100 · Fair Wear Foundation · Union pour la Biodynamie, Provence.
§ IV · The Atelier
A private
viewing.
The livre is held in a single room above Rue de Turenne, where it is hung in sequence. Forty visitors per season — no more. Each visit is an hour, with tea, in the morning or at dusk.
The Paris floor — Rue de Turenne, 3e
L’atelier
17, Rue de Turenne
75003 Paris
75003 Paris
Hours of visitation
- Mardi — Jeudi
- By appointment, 10h — 18h
- Vendredi
- Atelier visit days, 11h — 20h
- Samedi
- Private viewings only
- Dim — Lundi
- Closed to visitors
Appointments
atelier@yassanci.maison
Paris
16 : 42
Tangier
15 : 42
Kyoto
00 : 42
§ V · The Journal
Letters from the maison.
Published four times a year, on cream paper, and mailed to readers of the house.
The archive →
Lettre 03
ii. MMXXVI · Alexandria
— On colour
Why we refuse synthetic dye.
Madder, indigo, oak gall. A field diary from the botanical vats in Provence, and what we have learned to lose.
Read the letter →
Lettre 02
xii. MMXXV · Kafr el-Sheikh
— On origin
The cotton that refuses to hurry.
Two years from seed to boll. A visit to the co-operative that grows every thread we spin.
Read the letter →
§ VI · Invitation
Wear the quiet.
The first livre opens on the fourteenth of May. It will close when the forty pieces have found their keepers. Neither before, nor after.
The quiet correspondent
One letter per season. No marketing — only the livre, the dates, and a note from the atelier. Deliverable to any address, by paper or email.
Yassanci — Maison
End of Livre IV · 07 / 07
◈Printemps — Été MMXXVI◈