How the world's most beautiful tassels are made
For 91 years, this family-run company has been creating intricate tie-backs and tassels, with the fourth generation now presiding over a business that strikes a fine balance between tradition and modernity.
The rhythmic clickety-clack of 40 weaving machines swells as the doors open at Les Passementeries de l'île de France. They clatter and clash until the clock strikes 12 when, as if by magic, silence falls as the workers break for lunch. Throughout the day, 2,000 metres of braid and fringe pour from the looms in reams of kaleidoscopic colour, while tassels are twisted, pom-poms are fluffed and flowers are knotted by hand.
The tradition of passementerie in the village of Belloy-en-France, north of Paris, dates back to the nineteenth century, but since the Fifties, in France alone, more than 200 passementiers have closed their doors permanently or relocated to Tunisia and China, where both labour and rental prices are tantalisingly cheap. Les Passementeries de l'île de France is one of the last workshops still operating in the country today.
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