Visiting the Brochier Soieries Workshop in Lyon: Silk Scarves & Screen Printing

You know my love for Hermès silk twill scarves. However, Hermès is not the only one mastering the art of screen printing. In Lyon, you can visit the workshop of a company that still makes silk scarves using flat-bed screen printing, known as “à la lyonnaise”.

Passing through Lyon, we barely had time to visit the workshop, even though Brochier Soieries also has a museum and several shops. The workshop overlooks an inner courtyard, and without an appointment, you can push open the doors and watch the artisans at work. There are no tickets; visitors give what they want. We got a private tour because we came early enough.

We start with the “kitchen” where an artisan explains how he makes his ink so it’s viscous enough, but not too much. Using precise formulas (since it’s chemistry here), he measures and mixes colors to get the desired shade. This work requires a lot of precision, but also trial and error, because the final color can change from one fabric to another. And after fixing the colors, the final color can differ from what you get during the first print.

Then, before printing, the silk must be stretched on a huge table. First, a layer of cotton is laid down, then a layer of wool (?!) and finally the silk twill layer, stretched with pins. For a successful print, you want the ink to penetrate the silk, so the layers underneath serve to absorb excess ink. These protective layers are washable, and the ink comes off easily because the colors haven’t been fixed yet.

(I’m not sure, but I have the impression that the ink penetrates the scarf better here than at Hermès, perhaps because the silk twill is also a bit finer. It took me a while to tell the front from the back).

When we arrived, they were printing a beautiful scarf with 8 layers of paint.

When designing a pattern, the colors are isolated, and normally you have one screen per color. It’s also possible to layer colors in a watercolor style, but that would require even more screens. These screens are handmade and look like giant stencils, created using the screen-printing technique (search YouTube for it because it’s too long to explain).

Then, they place the screen on a scarf, apply the paint, and move on to the next scarf.

After printing, there may be small imperfections (missing ink), and the artisan can correct them by hand, delicately adding a bit of ink to the missing parts.

Drying time varies between 5 and 20 minutes, depending on the amount of paint applied. Normally, you start with fine lines and finish with the background color. Because if the fabric is soaked due to a huge amount of ink, it might stretch, and the next layers will be applied haphazardly.

The scarf looks like this after 2 screens.

But the final version will look like this:

After printing, these scarves are sent to Hermès, which has an ultra high-tech machine to fix the colors. Indeed, it’s nice to apply the ink, but without the fixative, everything will wash out on the first use. I understood this principle during my wool dyeing lesson in Mexico but we used a chemical product plus lemon.

Here, for silk, the machine sprays very fine water vapor, then the scarves go through a cold water bath. Finally, the scarves are separated and cut by hand. They keep a centimeter all around for rolling the edges. This is precious know-how because it hides the thread, making it more elegant. However, a 90×90 cm square will take an experienced artisan 45 minutes!! Brochier Soieries still does it in France in their workshop, while Hermès has outsourced to some poor Malagasy people.

That said, Hermès squares also deserve their price because industrializing an ancestral know-how requires a lot of expertise, and their designs are very, very complex, and their silk twill is thicker (made by Perrin, 18 momme instead of 14 momme).

The next room contains collections of wooden stamps. I’ve already told you about this printing technique in this article and in this one. The patterns require up to 15 different blocks. They are numbered and you stamp in any order you want, except the first one which has small nails to indicate to the printer how to use the blocks.

The patterns here are much finer because the technique allows it. They can be made from wood carving, metal, or metal rods embedded in wood.

Unlike the Lyon technique, stamps are used to produce meters of fabric thanks to their continuous patterns. The blocks are struck with the handle of an ultra-heavy mallet (whereas Indians strike with their hand). We saw at the Mulhouse museum that this was the least sophisticated technique because the ink is not applied evenly (it’s just impossible).

Upstairs is the shop. Among the screen-printed models, there are also digitally printed ones, and you can spot them pretty quickly because the lines are less precise than those printed with screens. There are also unique models.

The must-have for me is a printed square scarf with a frame, with as many shades as possible (this means the artisans spent a lot of time on it). I really like the Lyon de nuit model, but also the one they’re currently printing. I left with a color that I didn’t like at first when I saw it, but the colors suit my complexion wonderfully, it’s crazy. So you absolutely have to try it on in front of a mirror, you can’t judge the beauty of scarves just by looking at them like that.

Even though I already have a small collection of Hermès square scarves, nothing beats handmade work, so I’m happy to complete my collection of square scarves printed in Lyon with one from Brochier Soieries.

Well, I hope everyone understood. The ink is water-based, so it’s forbidden to walk in the rain with your beautiful scarves, or to wash them in cold water as someone suggested in my other article (!!!). Dry cleaning is mandatory.

I’ll let you admire the details of my scarf. It cost me 229€, half the price of Hermès. It’s intentional that the colors don’t follow the outline of the leaves; it’s done on purpose because they can match them to a tenth of a millimeter, but it’s just the style.

To conclude, I was pleasantly surprised by the visit. I thought we’d be done in 5 minutes, but on the contrary, I learned a lot thanks to the artisan who accompanied us. You can tell he’s passionate about his craft and proud of the quality of his work. I highly recommend you come and visit. Don’t forget to leave a contribution in the box near the door on your way out, or visit the shop upstairs.

Brochier Soieries Workshop

inside the courtyard, on your right
33 rue romarin
69100 Lyon