Soi Paris is the story of two sisters, Julia the designer and Aurélie the manager. Complementary, they launched their brand in 2016, identifiable by its exclusive prints, natural materials, and responsible manufacturing—everything we love about Imparfaite! The joyful and committed brand designs prints that tell stories and offers a diverse range of clothing and accessories aimed at women who love color and beautiful materials.
Aurelie : I created Soi Paris with my sister Julia in 2016. We wanted to create a colorful, joyful, and committed ready-to-wear brand. Soi Paris's goal has always been to breathe joy into women's wardrobes with creative and unique patterns, hand-drawn by my sister and printed on the finest materials.
Aurelie : At the beginning, Soi Paris was born from Julia's creative desire to design prints that stood out from the crowd. Little by little, she realized that the best medium would be silk to make the shades of color vibrate. She found suppliers all by herself, launched prototypes of scarves and blouses, somewhat on a whim, without really knowing how to sell them. For my part, I had a very strong entrepreneurial desire and we thought it would be a good idea to partner up. When we started, we realized that many ready-to-wear brands had a uniform and monochrome offer, while we love life in technicolor. So we decided to enhance women with original and colorful clothes. A style that stands out from a gray and monotonous wardrobe.
Aurelie : Soi is, above all, a family affair! My sister and I are lucky enough to complement each other extremely well and to have clearly defined tasks between us. Julia is the artist of the duo, the one who creates the prints and manages the brand's entire art direction. I'm the rational one, and I take care of the strategic and commercial development of Soi. It would be unimaginable for us to be alone; unity is strength, and even more so when creating a business. To share the joys, the moments of doubt, to challenge each other, to constantly question ourselves. That's how we move forward. Besides, we very rarely agree the first time! We have radically different visions, and that's what makes us strong.
Aurelie : When I launched Soi in 2016, I was 30 years old. No children, no commitments, total freedom to undertake. Immersed in an entrepreneurial family environment since childhood, I always wanted to create, do something big, take risks, launch myself into the unknown, learn, fall, get back up... After 5 years in consulting and marketing at Guerlain and L'Oréal, I decided to take the plunge. And since then, it's been the best leap of my life!
Aurelie : The printed silk blouse is my favorite piece because it goes with everything, it's a good timeless piece to have in your wardrobe. Among all our prints, my favorite is Mamie Odette, it's a tribute to our great-grandmother and her delicious artichoke salad with orange. If you look closely, you'll see artichokes and oranges painted in watercolor as well as the actual handwritten cooking recipe. I also have a big crush on our ceremony dresses. We often dress women for special occasions like weddings. Silk wrap dresses, asymmetrical linen dresses, dresses with stunning open backs... This season, the collection is crazy! New cuts, crazy prints, I'll let you discover that.
Aurelie : The creation of prints is done through a real artistic approach, it is a fusion between art and fashion. At Soi, we want to tell stories that give meaning to each garment, which we call Print Stories. When Julia creates her prints, she draws her inspiration from the world around her and has fun interpreting everything. A cookbook, a photo of the sky, a drawing of a woman's body, everything inspires her and is transformed into a print. The techniques are multiple: watercolor, colored pencils, markers, collage, photography. She enjoys deceiving the senses to better surprise: from far away or up close, we will not see the same thing. For example, with this shirt, do you think you see blue white red spots? Get closer and you will see the most fashionista of queens, aka Queen Elizabeth 2!
Aurelie : Vintage is a wonderful source of inspiration for print design. There's such freedom in textile design at the time. Many artists were also dabbling in fashion pattern design—check out Raoul Dufy's textile work, for example.
Aurelie : In mix and match printed leggings with a palm tree hair scrunchie. We were born in the 80s!
Aurelie : Our mother obviously.
Aurelie : The “one and only” Levi's 501 jeans of course, which go with everything, the real timeless basic. I also have several vintage floral dresses and tops that I love to wear in the summer. And I really like Austrian cardigans which are completely back in fashion at the moment! Since I have my two little girls, I also buy a lot of vintage for them, like these superb Oshkosh overalls that I found on Imparfaite by the way.
Aurelie : When I buy vintage, I always make sure the piece is in good condition and I only select pieces that are flawless. I like the transparency you can find on platforms like Imparfaite that tell us the story of the piece. Fashion is a constant renewal, so buying vintage is not only about finding very up-to-date pieces but also about doing something for the planet, so what could be better?
Aurelie : Since day one, we have strived to offer impeccable quality through exceptional materials. This is why we have chosen to use fabrics exclusively of natural origin. Each fabric is sourced from the best craftsmanship. Portuguese cottons, Italian viscose, Chinese silks: all our fabrics are Oeko Tex certified. We take particular care in selecting our manufacturing workshops. We are constantly seeking the best specific expertise for each material and we make sure to work with workshops with multiple certifications.
Aurelie : In 2023, we carried out our carbon footprint for the first time. This allowed us to interview all our tier 1, 2, and 3 suppliers to ensure full traceability for each of our pieces. We also display the traceability of the piece on each product sheet for each of our creations: from thread to fabric to printing to production: we display total transparency in our manufacturing choices.
Aurelie : We know that the fashion industry is one of the most polluting in the world. As the head of a fashion brand, it's my duty to ensure that we limit our impact as much as possible. When we launched Soi Paris, we naturally wanted to do things right by sourcing raw materials as closely as possible from certified factories. We didn't communicate much about it because it was inherent to our approach. One day, I filled out the Clear Fashion questionnaire, which assessed the brand's CSR level. We realized we had an excellent score! Since then, we've decided to raise awareness among our customers about these issues, and we communicate transparently about all our initiatives very frequently.
Aurelie : In September 2023, we were certified B Corp. For those who don't know, this is a very renowned American social and environmental label. I really enjoyed working on this project because it advocates continuous improvement. Thanks to this label, we worked on a very clear environmental and social roadmap. Thus, we recently set up a second-hand offer on our site to allow our customers to revalue existing items. We also organized repair workshops offered in store with an alterations machine to extend the life of our clothes. We relocated the production of all our favorites to a Parisian ESAT that welcomes people with disabilities. We educate our customers after each purchase with a product care guide and distribute Guppyfriend washing bags to raise awareness and increase the lifespan of the products. This also involves small measures such as subscribing to green energy contracts and replacing the lighting in our stores with low-energy / LED bulbs. Finally, on our small scale, we are introducing vegetarian days within the team in order to raise awareness of these issues, even if overall they are already very important!
Aurelie : Patagonia for its ultra-visionary founder at a time when CSR was of little interest.
