PRODUCED LOCALLY FOR THE LOVERS OF BEAUTIFUL ECLECTIBLES
Luxembourg is a tiny country mostly known for its financial sector, but it has a track record industrial and of artisanal activity in its recent history. Luxembourg is the place of Bretzelsonndeg, traditional sweet handmade pretzels exchanged between lovers at Easter and of Péckvillercher, cute colourful bird-shaped whistles made from clay. Luxembourg is also the place of Atelier by vol(t)age, a hand-made fashion concept that offers small collections of unique luxurious accessories and clothes produced locally for the lovers of beautiful eclectibles.
HAND MADE IN LUXEMBOURG
Our hand-made collection offers first and foremost our iconic v-neck, an intricately created silk scarf that gives an electrifying luxury touch to any outfit. The v-neck is the first product we developed and one we have been playing with since the very beginning, creating a never-ending line of products that renew every season. From the original idea, the baby v-neck made its presence. The baby v-neck is a more discreet version of our iconic scarf and is also a conscious effort to optimise the use of materials and abolish textile waste. We manage to use all the cutoffs from our precious silk textiles so that nothing goes to waste. Zero waste design and circularity in are aspects of our production that we keep improving season after season.
Adding to the scarves, our Atelier collection offers silk and cotton masks, silk kimonos to spice up your lounge wear selection, a small range of blouses, skirts, coats and jackets. All the products are available in limited pieces to keep their uniqueness untouched– mass production does not appeal to us, as we understand that our customers are unique.
SILKY TO THE TOUCH, PRECIOUS TO THE EYE, CONSCIOUS TO THE MIND
Our mission to make versatile, stylish pieces to galvanize and change our clients’ wardrobe and mood would only be made possible with high quality and lavish materials. Materials that shake things up, materials that electrify, just like the name of our brand, vol(t)age, which is a jeu de mots of the words volage, which means change in French and voltage, which connects us with the electric current.
Materials used for our Atelier collections are carefully sourced. We mainly work with reputable suppliers with values aligned to ours, where we source our silk, velvet and bouclé tweed. These fabrics have a long history of craftsmanship and were used and tested by kings and queens before they land in your wardrobe. Our suppliers are based in Italy and the UK and are renowned for their quality and focus on conscious trade. Let’s look at our beautiful materials one by one; it’s always worth knowing more about our chosen skin!
Silk first came to Europe from China when the Silk Road opened around 114 BCE and is still one of the most coveted natural textiles. Loved for its durability, breathability and lightweight, luxurious feel, our silk is coming directly from Italy. Our silk is carefully produced in Italy following strict quality and health and safety requirements, and the Seri.co certification is there to prove it. Seri.co is a certificate owned by the Centro Tessile Serico and integrates some of the most important requirements of the quality system management (ISO 9001), of environment management (ISO 14001), of safety (OHSAS 18001) and social responsibility (SA 8000 Standard) to make the certified textiles compliant with strict ethical and environmental standards.
Velvet is our soft, warm and sensual pleasure – a textile connected to nobility due to its complex and costly production method in the early days. After the industrial revolution, velvet became more accessible, exactly because machines took over, but this does not make velvet any less opulent. Velvet comes in many different mixes and we are always trying to strike the right balance of the most sustainable material composition, best price and the best fitting qualities. Admittedly, this is a huge challenge for us, and we do not always succeed in using monomaterials; we have been using a viscose-silk mix which our clients love, but we are ready to keep searching for materials that are recyclable easily and fully biodegradable. Our journey towards sustainability is ongoing and we want you to get on board!
Boucle/Tweed has the texture that gives the most character to its wearer. Intricately woven following old traditions in various mills in the UK, the looms producing only 100% woolen fabrics have now the capability to offer mixes with different characteristics. We are using both 100% woolen boucle, as well as mixes and being conscious in our effort to phase out mixed fabrics as soon as great monomaterial alternatives are on offer.
FEEL FREE TO GET IN TOUCH!
We are always eager to get feedback from our conscious clients who know that the planet is our home and we have to preserve it. What would you like to see us implementing in the name of sustainability? Do you a suggestion? Feel free to get in touch
I MADE YOUR SCARVES
Passion for creation and beautiful fabrics is the main ingredient of our collections. Sticking to our values of love for what we do and of treating work as pleasure, we create a friendly ambience in our family atelier. Why family atelier? We are two sisters that had the idea to start Atelier by vol(t)age, and we still stick to sister power to make it work! But we are not enough to create a world of wonders! So, whom would we take along in our adventures? It would be the people we know and love, people who had a passion for creating beautiful pieces, just like ourselves!
Cristina who is now working as our first seamstress was the first one who got on board with us in our fashion adventure. We know Cristina for well over 20 years as she used to do housekeeping for our family in the past. She was delighted to be back to her primary occupation, sewing clothes, and she is proud to say she saw the vol(t)age concept getting born with her help. She is working from our Atelier rue Michel Welter, and this is where we do the design and patterns for our Atelier collections. Most of the creative work is done in-house and thanks to our motto “never stop learning”. Staring off as self-taught and learning by doing gives us an out-of-the-box perspective that we combine with perfecting our technical skills non-stop. Stephanie, co-founder of vol(t)age is a long-life student and loves following courses at Central St Martins in London as well as in Luxembourg to improve her fashion design skills.
Sandra is the second one who got on board; Sandra used to be Claudie’s nanny–she helped us with the organisation of the vol(t)age business from the beginning! She is now responsible for the stock management and she helps running the administrative and organisational business.
Who Made My Clothes and Who Made My Scarves are questions easy to answer, you see. There are no massive production and supply chains somewhere far away everything is done in-house and in collaboration with other local seamstresses in Luxembourg when the orders get bulky. We love sharing our story, as we find it full of love and inspiration. We believe that when you start with love, success will follow. We are a vivid example of a family business that grew organically only because there was a market that embraced our concept of honest, electrifying fashion done with passion!
Loving what we do does not stop in admiring our own creations. What we love even more is seeing our clients’ happy faces when they find the item they were looking for. That’s when our own fashion dreams come true. From fabric to finished garment the work is hard, but utterly fulfilling. The smiles of the vol(t)age team are here to prove it. Being transparent and honest comes natural for us; we promise to keep looking for ways to improve in every aspect of sustainable production for our planet and for the people who live on it. We can’t wait to welcome you in our stores in Luxembourg or serve you online – now you can be part of our conscious fashion tribe, wherever you are!