Brut is an fascinating French model, and retailer. Because it was based by Paul Ben Chemhoun (beneath) in 2012, it has advanced from a classic store, into a house for rescued and reworked clothes, and now its personal model. 

After I visited earlier this 12 months with Alex Natt and Tony Sylvester, on a heat Thursday afternoon, the place was buzzing. It’s not precisely in a style location – the third arrondissement, however a couple of blocks north of the Marais – but there have been seven or eight prospects within the small store, plus 5 workers. 

“We’ve acquired this repute for being fairly inexpensive and fairly forward-thinking, which appears to deliver individuals in,” mentioned Paul. “This used to a wholesale jewelry retailer, however there’s increasingly retail round us now – a skate store simply opened down the street.”

That repute has largely been pushed by Brut’s ‘Rework’ programme, the place they take previous classic garments that nobody desires, and switch them into one thing new. 

“One of the best instance might be the Nineteen Fifties French chinos,” says Paul. “We had lots of of pairs, however all dimension 36. The fabric was so nice, and so was the {hardware}, so we reduce them down and each gave them a contemporary match and created a variety of sizes.”

Various the Rework items are too streetwear, or maybe simply too uncommon, for me. 

The gilets made out of previous made-in-USA blankets, for instance (beneath), are a random patchwork of pink, yellow and blue stripes. And their most up-to-date launch is a variety of trousers made out of US Mint coin baggage – every that includes descriptions of their unique contents. 

However resizing the French chinos makes full sense (second picture beneath). Materials like that’s actually exhausting to seek out right now, and classic examples are sometimes in unwearable circumstances or sizes. It’s additionally a step deeper into sustainability – not simply reselling garments, however remaking ones that gained’t promote. 

Brut’s hottest venture was transforming undesirable Barbour jackets into shorter variations – extra of a fishing-jacket size (third picture). And a few ranges have been nearer to intensive repairs, like those Ben at Cling-Up Classic (sadly now solely on-line) has performed through the years. These included French workwear trousers made out of slicing down overalls. 

Let’s briefly return to that evolution of the model although. 

Paul grew up round classic, and early on started gathering classic clothes after which promoting it. Ultimately this grew to the purpose the place – as usually appears to occur with classic sellers – his assortment was one thing designers and researchers would need to look at and borrow from. 

This was separated off into Brut Classic Archives, and right now has its personal showroom (high picture beneath). 

Then three years in the past a workforce of three of them opened the store, principally promoting classic. Over time the Rework programme grew, taking on rails within the store till now, while you go to, virtually half of what you see on Rue Réaumur is reworked items. 

Nevertheless it’s about to be modified once more, with the classic clothes transferring downstairs and the bottom ground changing into completely Rework and Brut-branded clothes. They’ve additionally more and more performed collaborations with manufacturers.

That is all mirrored within the web site, which has been redesigned since we have been in Paris. There are actually separate areas for ‘Brut Assortment’ and ‘Rework’, in addition to for Classic and a particular space for Military surplus (although some areas do overlap). 

“It hasn’t been simple for the web site to maintain up, as we’ve expanded and adjusted,” says Paul. “We have been three individuals after we opened the store, and now there’s a workers of seven. However hopefully the brand new website makes every little thing simpler to grasp.”

Personally I feel it’s actually refreshing to see a model evolve on this approach. Classic retailers specifically can get right into a little bit of a rut of coping with the identical ageing prospects and taking place rabbit holes of rarity.

It’s nice that the classic facet stays at Brut (I picked up an orange down gilet once I was there – the classic choice is a bit more trendy and broader than someplace like Le Vif) however the workforce is branching in numerous instructions each few years too. 

Whether or not it’s pushed by monetary necessity or a stressed creativity doesn’t actually matter. Given the state of retail in the intervening time, I feel it simply pays to stay versatile and open-minded. It’d imply promoting some classic clothes in addition to new, or internet hosting a specific set of trunk reveals, nevertheless it’s the angle that issues. 

It’s notably simple for menswear shops to get locked right into a sure method and a mindset, given their pretty slender vary of types and classes of clothes. As a buyer and a commentator, its energising to see one thing apart from new collections change.

Thanks to Paul, Clement and the workforce for his or her hospitality. 

Clement (pictured above, far left) runs his personal model content material enterprise, Crafted Paris, which is accountable for lots of the nice imagery Brut has produced. Some examples I notably like beneath. 

Images elsewhere: Alex Natt @adnatt