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Aïsso & Co, affordable high fashion is not a utopia

20 Dec 2011

Concept stores are a tricky matter: the charm high fashion and coveted designer objects presented in a clean and tastefully furnished space vanishes as soon as one glances at their hefty price tags. What is all that beauty for, if hardly anyone can afford it? This is what Enda and Riadh, founders of the ready-to-wear label Aïsso, asked themselves and promptly set forth to solve the problem at hand by opening their shop Aïsso & Co in the heart of Paris. Their concept: high fashion? Yes. Astronomical prices? No!

At 32, rue Saint-Roch, not far from Tuileries Gardens, the designer couple Riadh and Enda have opened the doors to fashion that is just as beautiful as it is affordable. Their ready-to-wear brand Aïsso stands for classically tailored cuts, for both women and men, with a penchant for androgyny and natural materials all the while maintaining reasonable prices. “Affordable design is the Holy Grail to many customers. Most of the time, they spend their money on cheap fashion or commercial brands with no designer behind, and the quality is just deplorable.” explains Riadh. “We consciously decided to create hand-made collections, with a limited number of pieces. Of course, it is hard to make money, when you keep your prices low, but we prefer to propose a small, affordable collection and gain loyal customers with time, than to go for the constantly changing, impersonal mass-market strategy. So far, we're selling well, we're surprised to see that people have adopted our artisanal view on fashion so easily.”

But their shop Aïsso & Co is not destined to be your usual flagship store: the designers' goal is to introduce their hybrid fashion world, mixing their own collections to a selection of vintage ready-to-wear, all in an intimate and relaxed atmosphere. “We didn't want to create another Parisian concept store”, adds Riadh. “We wanted our shop to be different, to be far away from the cold pureness and changing trends that usual concept stores have. We wanted Aïsso & Co to look more like a studio, a personal space where we can showcase the things we love, our inspirations and work”.

In other words, Aïsso & Co is decorated with old furniture, piles of 80s and 90s fashion magazines, including a wide selection of The Face, Polaroid cameras, jewelry and accessories, which are scattered throughout the two floors of the space. The first floor stays true to a traditional boutique feel, while the basement is set-up in a cozier manner, with a small living-room-ish space, always embellished personal touches from times past, and more charming worn out furniture.

Aïsso's heart obviously beats for vintage! “Before opening Aïsso & Co last October, we used to have a small vintage shop just around the corner. We wanted to keep our love for vintage fashion and therefor decided to mix a fine selection of Alaïa, Comme des Garçons and Yves Saint Laurent amongst others, to our own designs”, explains Enda. “I can't really say why vintage is still so fascinating for us as you can find it everywhere nowadays. Maybe it's because it reflects a former time, when fashion used to be declined in unique, hand-made, quality pieces, rather than being thought of as another simple consumer product. This is the attitude that we strive to recreate within Aïsso.”

So what does it take to go back to the good old values that shaped fashion as couture pieces and not as fast food? “We know our manufacturers well, we work on each piece ourselves. We don't just send some patterns over and wait for the final result to come back to us. We really put our heart into creating timeless and sophisticated ready-to-wear pieces and we hope to be able to contribute to a more personal and artisanal view on fashion”, declares Riadh.

An original view on fashion obviously goes along with a defined view on the city where the fashion lives. In this context, Enda and Riadh decided to pay homage to Paris' individuality, by creating a line of scented candles wherein each district is attributed its own scent. Time to light the fire of the City of Light.

Info: 32, rue Saint-Roch, 75001 Paris

open Monday through Saturday from 11 am to 8 pm

T. + 33 (0) 1 49 27 93 11

contact@aissostudio.com

Article by Elisabeta Tudor

Photo Credit: Valerio Mezzanotti/NowFashion