Charles Balsan shows the factory his ancestor started in 1864, in Chateauroux

The Dormeuil tweeds are wonderful.

It is an amazing come back for Charles Balsan who has just opened a men’s tailoring shop, at 122 bd Haussmann, next door to the shop his father used to run thirty years ago. Balsan was born and raised in a textile factory, his family owned since 1864, when his great grandfather Pierre Balsan bought the Manufacture royale de Chateauroux. Originally from the Cévennes, a mountainous region of Central France, the family has always developed the manufacturing of woolen drapes since 1675. And he still remembers his grandparents boarding the ship to Argentina to find the best sheep or the smell of wet wool around the factory when he came home from school.

With his two sons getting older, and made to measure becoming easier every day, Balsan decided to start again what he had been good at for so many years. Receive his clients in a cosy grey airy shop near St Augustin and discuss with them the size of their collar or the quality of their cloth.

Choose your collar and your cuffs!

He offers four different lines starting at 580€ for a young man’s suit to 1 350€ for a cashmere and Harris Tweed jacket. Shirts and coats to match as well. His own elegance and long time experience at dressing men are his main asset. The fabrics he uses, Italian or British, are his second key to success. With three weeks delay and only two fittings he delivers beautiful, exclusive, tweed week-end jackets, black tie or office suits. And he can come to your house for fittings. (Charles Balsan, tel : 0967025207)