A CONVERSATION WITH ESTHER BANCEL

Esther and Morgan are the founding duo and married couple behind the Parisian label esther bancel.

esther bancel is one of the stylish and fashionable hand-made in France. They are committed to elegance and a mixture of traditional culture. esther bancel always not aiming at creating another brand, but focuses on creating a different experience brand from the original attire. Each year every collection of unisex pieces offers an incredible experience. Each piece made is well researched, studied, and created to disrupt the codes of elegance. However, there is esther bancel, tailoring pieces for those who refuse to choose between elegance & irreverence. They prepare unisex suits that are stylishly inspired by part of norms in society.

“when some see darkness, I often see poetry and romance”.

– https://www.estherbancel.com/

more than a brand, it’s a way of doing things that we want to develop. a movement that goes against the grain… 

A CONVERSATION WITH ESTHER BANCEL

Describe yourself as a creative and how your label was born?

esther bancel is my Cabinet of Curiosities

originally from Lyon and now a Parisian by adoption, I have always been an artistic thinker about what is most fragile in us and how we can poetise and highlight it.

all this creates a kind of conflict in my creations. the conflict between the darkness and the sometimes invisible poetry that surrounds it.

but it doesn’t stop there, as I also question the way we should create and consume clothing.

more than a brand, it’s a way of doing things that we want to develop. a movement that goes against the grain…

What is the most challenging issue in for an independent label ?

As I often say, creating a label is not a sprint but a marathon. This means that for me the most difficult thing is to last in time and to move forward continuously.

In the middle of this path there are many obstacles: the lack of money, the time that passes quickly, the fact of having to know and practice several jobs at the same time: designer, pattern maker, seamstress but also accountant, marketing, press…

The most difficult thing is to pass these obstacles daily and still be there, obstacle after obstacle.

What’s the main impact of social media in both ways, buying and brand marketing?

Social media is used as a way to keep in daily contact with the people around the brand.
It is a way for us to develop an important part of our commitments: transparency. We no longer believe in the old model and prefer to say everything, show everything, share everything, even if it means showing our difficulties.

We show the backstage of the creation, of the manufacturing, we explain our approach as well as we can in order to explain and make understand how a garment is made and how proud we are to surround ourselves with people who have this know-how.

We like to put forward our partners with the final objective to make live not only the brand but a whole ecosystem

How do you manage to choose your models in order to spread better the diversity issue through your label?

It’s very simple, we choose our models to be the most like our community and our customers. Sometimes they are our customers.

So in fact they represent the diversity, the people who see themselves in esther bancel.

What do you think is the biggest challenge regarding your work?

To create clothes that people like while remaining oneself in the creation. To respect one’s convictions while meeting the needs of a market.

How do you think your label can play an important role in your daily client’s life?

Since I was young, creating has been a form of exorcism, of refinement of my own cracks, wounds or prohibitions with a very personal aesthetic approach that combines the strength and elegance of a tailoring wardrobe with a sophisticated and soft textile creation, ignoring the traditional divisions between male and female wardrobes.

The garment represents much more than a status sign or a pomp, it has a liberating role, almost cathartic, which softens while ennobling the unspeakable and fragile part that we sometimes prefer to hide.

esther bancel is a liberating act, poetically irreverent, dedicated to audacity & to the affirmation of all that is darkest and most fragile in oneself.

The brand is dedicated to the audacity and affirmation of what is seen or considered as non-conformist. Since I was a teenager, clothing has had this liberating role, which, like a social shell, transmits the messages that I consider essential.

Being with Morgan around this brand, allows me to make this possible for others too.

What do you think about the opportunity of selling your pieces online nowadays?

We started by selling only online. So we don’t see this as an opportunity but rather as a pillar of our development. Today we still make the majority of our sales online even though it is becoming more balanced.

Selling directly online allows us to do one essential thing, especially as a young brand: to be able to discuss and therefore know our customers better. And this is priceless.

Imagine that you must write a letter to your FUTURE SELF. What would you write?

I will say that I hope you stay yourself. I hope your passion for creation is still intact. I hope you’ve learned a lot, that you’re happy, that you have 1,000 more projects to do. That you have not forgotten to develop yourself personally and that today your life is even better than we had imagined it 30 years ago!