{"id":59803,"date":"2026-07-31T10:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T10:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/59803\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T10:08:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T10:08:24","slug":"de-bonne-facture-how-deborah-neuberg-built-paris-fashion-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/59803\/","title":{"rendered":"De Bonne Facture: How D\u00e9borah Neuberg built Paris fashion success"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cut above<\/p>\n

In a studio overlooking a flower-filled courtyard in the 11th arrondissement, a charming Parisian neighbourhood once known for its artisan workshops, D\u00e9borah Neuberg is showing Monocle photos of old men. \u201cLook at this guy,\u201d says the 33-year-old founder of menswear brand De Bonne Facture (DBF). She points at her iPhone screen, where an octogenarian on the M\u00e9tro is wearing a navy shirt buttoned up halfway over a T-shirt, as if it were a chore jacket, and a chain necklace whose silvery shine matches his mop of hair. \u201cI always take photos of grandparents on the street,\u201d says Neuberg. \u201cI love their style; they don\u2019t follow trends and they wear good-quality clothes for years. For them it is about cosy, comfortable clothes they love, not about fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dressed in a worn white T-shirt borrowed from her brother, relaxed trousers and simple leather sandals, her bespectacled face framed by a tangle of curls, Neuberg embodies this \u201cold-person style\u201d herself. Indeed, she is something of an old soul: she reads every morning before coming to work (mostly non-fiction books about feminism and history), thinks deeply before answering and speaks concisely. And over the past six years she has grown dbf \u2013 which focuses on elegant made-to-last pieces sewn by top French producers \u2013 with a combination of headstrong determination and a sort of intellectual business acumen that belies her age.<\/p>\n

So what initially seems unlikely \u2013 that a young designer running a clothing label in Paris is more interested in the ensembles of pensioners than the latest looks to come off the runway \u2013 soon makes sense. \u201cI\u2019m Parisian but I\u2019m not part of Paris\u2019s \u2018fashion\u2019 scene,\u201d she says. It is this individual stance (and the peerless quality and old-school style of dbf\u2019s products) that has seen Neuberg claw her way into top shops from Japan to the US. This is how you make it on your own in the French capital, in the belly of the world\u2019s fashion cauldron.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting a fashion brand in Paris is like training for the Navy Seals,\u201d says Neuberg, as we sit on a bench in the courtyard. Her candidness is refreshing. \u201cYou know how the Seals make you crawl through mud, then climb over a wall and up a mountain, and the officers watch to see if you make it? That\u2019s what the fashion world is like here.\u201d But then, she adds, \u201conce you\u2019ve made it and have proven yourself, they\u2019re like, \u2018OK, now we\u2019ll help\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

It goes without saying that her journey from bookish high-school student to founder of a profitable label has been a test of mettle. She has always loved fashion but her conservative father (the grandson of Polish-Jewish immigrants) insisted that she attend business school. After studying at Paris\u2019s prestigious institution hec and doing stints at Herm\u00e8s (in product development) and in China for a lingerie brand, she could wait no longer. Neuberg started work on dbf in 2011, aged just 27, and launched the brand a year later. \u201cI had a moment where I realised that you only have one life and I needed to get on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meet the customers<\/p>\n

1.
Florent Linker
Linker and Guillaume Garnier are co-founders of Studio Saint Antoine, an interior architecture firm. A few years ago, when they were starting out, they shared an office with Neuberg. \u201cWe became interested in fashion thanks to D\u00e9borah so buying her items was a meaningful act,\u201d says Linker.<\/p>\n

2.
Julien Tanrattana
Tanrattana is Paris\u2019s coolest dentist; he is also a music blogger.<\/p>\n

3.
Guillaume Garnier
Garnier and Florent Linker, his colleague, designed the dbf showroom, including its furniture.<\/p>\n

4.
Francis Tea
An engineer, Tea is a fashion fanatic who came across dbf while looking for a modern take on the classic navy sailor sweater. \u201cI like dbf because D\u00e9borah pays attention to the small details,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

5.
Lamya Salami
Salami runs a sports-management company and was put onto dbf by her husband, Francis Tea. Neuberg tailors some of her men\u2019s pieces, including trousers and cardigans, especially for Salami.<\/p>\n

\"D\u00e9borahD\u00e9borah Neuberg<\/p>\n

\"NarrowCourtyard outside DBF studio<\/p>\n

\"HandSwatches and style inspiration<\/p>\n

\"CreamNew-season knits<\/p>\n

\"Men'sThe autumn\/winter 2017 collection is a sea of greens and blues<\/p>\n

\"DBFDBF lookbook<\/p>\n

\"FourDBF team, with Neuberg second from left<\/p>\n

\"TurquoiseDBF haunt Boot Caf\u00e9<\/p>\n

\"WomanNeuberg with one of her designs<\/p>\n

\"WomanSuper grocery store<\/p>\n

\"StorefrontMerci entrance<\/p>\n

\"StreetAux Deux Amis, Neuberg\u2019s favourite bistro<\/p>\n

\"ATreats at Boot Caf\u00e9<\/p>\n

Paris\u2019s fashion establishment was unconvinced by her proposition: a brand comprising understated men\u2019s pieces made by French manufacturers. \u201cI went to various young designers\u2019 incubators in Paris but they said, \u2018Your designs are old-fashioned and there is nothing innovative about your ideas,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI said: \u2018It is different, there is nothing like this in the industry at the moment.\u2019 But they wouldn\u2019t listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

With little backing from public bodies and no investors, she launched dbf using her own savings and money from her parents (\u201can early inheritance\u201d). \u201cIf I could do it again, I would have more funding from the beginning,\u201d she says over lunch at a nearby bistro. \u201cThe amount of money I started with was tiny compared to what it realistically takes to start a brand. I was constantly refused bank loans. I got so mad that I tracked down one bank director and said, \u2018Please, please.\u2019 You get so many rejections along the way and sometimes you need to crawl in front of people.\u201d Needless to say, the loan was promptly granted.<\/p>\n

Neuberg\u2019s acute awareness of finances would become her most precious asset. One of the criticisms levelled at fashion schools is that they open students\u2019 minds to the boundless possibilities of design but do not prepare them for the commercial rigours of running a brand. Neuberg\u2019s business background, by contrast, equipped her well. \u201cI approached the brand in a very different way from someone who had studied fashion at Central Saint Martins, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n

For one she realised the importance of getting into the right shops from the outset \u2013 and was terrier-like in her persistence. Top of the list was Paris concept store Merci because Neuberg knew its wealthy international clientele would be dbf\u2019s bread and butter. \u201cI called Marcel Lassance [the men\u2019s buyer] about 50 times but couldn\u2019t get through. So I made a package \u2013 a book about De Bonne Facture, a leather business card and a handwritten note \u2013 and went to his office and begged his assistant to deliver it.\u201d One week later Lassance turned up at a gallery where Neuberg was showing her debut collection. \u201cHe placed his first order the next season and has been one of my biggest supporters ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her business training also meant factories were willing to work with her from day one. Excellent manufacturing is a cornerstone of her label; de bonne facture is an old-school \u2013 and thus wryly amusing \u2013 phrase meaning \u201cwell made\u201d. Yet French factories are notoriously tricky in their dealings with young brands because these newcomers are unknown entities and can only afford to place tiny orders. \u201cThe fact that I understood pricing, marketing and distribution meant they were more willing to trust me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She scoured the internet for the finest ateliers and turned up on their doorsteps. \u201cIt was tough to find good ones,\u201d she says, noting that in the past two decades, as China became the world\u2019s factory, most of France\u2019s workshops closed. Neuberg shines a spotlight on the factories she does work with: each dbf item bears a yellow tag with the name of its maker, whether an outerwear specialist in Indre or a knitwear guru in Finist\u00e8re. \u201cFor me the important thing is \u2018Made by\u2019 not \u2018Made in\u2019. You get good and bad factories in France, in Italy, in China. I want to highlight the quality of our specific factories, I don\u2019t want to just say, \u2018Made in France\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clothes that these workshops create for Neuberg are eminently wearable and brilliantly French. \u201cThe brand is a small wardrobe of essentials, similar to the clothes my father wore,\u201d she says back at her concrete-floored studio. \u201cHe was always in a corduroy suit or an aviator jacket \u2013 like this one,\u201d she adds, stroking a khaki parka adorned with giant buffalo-horn buttons from her autumn\/winter 2017 collection. Nearby a pair of trousers in sumptuous olive corduroy hangs beside a tan suede bomber with a buttery texture. The walls are coated with images of nonchalant models in dbf straw boaters and Breton-striped sweaters. \u201cIn this industry there are designers who create conceptual \u2018fashion\u2019 but then I always wonder what they wear themselves. I want to make the sorts of clothes you would actually find in people\u2019s wardrobes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today dbf can be found in the wardrobes of men from Seoul to LA. It is far more popular overseas than in France, where Merci remains its key stockist. Neuberg attributes this lack of home traction to her hefty price tags. \u201cHere there\u2019s not so much of a market for expensive, good-quality casual clothes. People would rather spend less on something that is made in Portugal or eastern Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Japan, South Korea or the US, however, customers will pay for immaculate craftsmanship and luxurious fabrics. Neuberg counts Tokyo\u2019s Ships and San Francisco\u2019s Unionmade among her biggest retailers, and is careful to nurture these long-distance relationships. She travels often to her biggest markets; each trip marks an opportunity for improvement. \u201cI went to Japan recently and it was so humid. I realised I didn\u2019t have anything in my summer collection for this so I added some lightweight short-sleeved pieces,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s important to visit the places where your clothes are being sold; if you\u2019re not visiting them, where else are you going to go?\u201d<\/p>\n

With that we say our goodbyes and Neuberg is off. She waves and disappears down the M\u00e9tro steps \u2013 heading home but also, no doubt, keeping an eye on some dapper granddads to inspire her next collection.<\/p>\n

D\u00e9borah Neuberg\u2019s Paris:
L\u2019Autobus
A low-key neighborhood caf\u00e9 a minute away from dbf\u2019s studio.
1 Rue Oberkampf<\/p>\n

Aux Deux Amis
A bistro up the road from the studio. The menu features fresh ingredients from \u00cele-de-France.
45 Rue Oberkampf<\/p>\n

Aux Gourmandises d\u2019Arago
This family-owned boulangerie has \u201cprobably the best viennoiseries (pastries) I\u2019ve ever had in my life\u201d.
5 Boulevard Arago<\/p>\n

L\u2019Avant Comptoir
A bustling Basque standing-only bar that serves pintxos and natural wines.
3 Carrefour de l\u2019Od\u00e9on<\/p>\n

Marcel Lassance
Lassance is the menswear buyer for Merci but also has his own boutique, a \u201creally cool old-fashioned men\u2019s store with a contemporary twist\u201d.
17 Rue du Vieux Colombier<\/p>\n

Odetta
A second-hand womenswear shop filled with one-off designer pieces. \u201cThe owner, Charles, always tells you when something doesn\u2019t fit. He\u2019s honest.\u201d
76 Rue des Tournelles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cut above In a studio overlooking a flower-filled courtyard in the 11th arrondissement, a charming Parisian neighbourhood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[37212,37213,37214,37215,37216,2915,12866,30,2903],"class_list":["post-59803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-artisan-workshops","tag-de-bonne-facture","tag-deborah-neuberg","tag-fashion-entrepreneurship","tag-french-craftsmanship","tag-french-fashion","tag-menswear","tag-paris","tag-paris-fashion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}