Patchwork atelier, Paris
One person in the world will wear this piece.
Patchwork garments in Bogolan, Kenté, Samakaka and Wax. Every piece is cut once, numbered, and published with the poem written for it.
The Atelier is open: three numbered pieces are online, with their prices. The shop pages are in French; write to us in English and we answer in English.
The label
014
- Name and number
- Aïda — No. 014
- Fabrics
- Bogolan, Kenté, Wax
- Composition
- Cotton, 100%
- Measurements
- Shoulders 44 cm · length 96 cm
- Price
- €165
- Delivery
- Shipped in 2 to 4 working days
Example label. Every published piece carries these six lines, in this order, and the poem in full.
A finished piece
It already exists. It will only exist once.
Short pleated skirt, printed with geometric bands in ochre and cream on black. Spirals, ears of grain and zigzags, a different register in every band. The waist is high and the pleats fall from the waistband.
Hand-sewn in Paris. The fabric is cut once, so this cut will not come back.
It is online as Sable, No. 003, at €150. The first completed payment takes it: there is no hold and no second copy.
The plate
Six tools, two hands, no factory.
The founder finds the fabrics, composes, cuts, sews, folds and posts every order. Capacity is therefore five to six garments a month.
What existed before
Two bad choices, and nothing in between.
€30
The factory kimono
Cut on a production line, sold in unlimited quantities across dozens of shops. You will end up seeing it on someone else.
€65 to €165
The seller with no name
A grid of photos, a private message, a negotiated price. You do not know who cut the fabric, or how many times.
A third choice was missing: a piece with a maker, a date and a number you can name.
The method
One piece, one number, one poem.
1
Compose
Three or four traditional fabrics chosen one by one, then cut to hold together in a single garment.
2
Number
No. 014. Three digits assigned in order of publication, never reused after a sale.
3
Write
A short text, written for this piece and for nothing else. Its first publication is this site.
The proof
The Archive starts at No. 001.
A piece that sells does not leave the site. It stays online, marked Taken, with its name, its number, its poem and its date.
In a year this page will hold a hundred one-of-one pieces, dated and named. That is the one scarcity nobody can manufacture.
Register
State
- No. 001 — BalanOnline
- No. 002 — AlizéOnline
- No. 003 — SableOnline
- No. 004To be sewn
- No. 005To be sewn
- No. 006To be sewn
Three pieces are online today. A number is assigned once and never comes back.
The inheritance
Cynéfro is a family name, not an aesthetic.
Cynéfro is my mother’s maiden name. It goes back to Benin and Congo, where most Martinicans and West Indians come from.
I have carried this name in art for thirty-five years, in music and in writing. I watched my mother sew before I sewed.
I compose a patchwork the way I compose a poem: several voices that have to end up agreeing.
— Cynéfro
The fabrics, and where they come from
- BogolanMali
- Hand-woven cotton, dyed with fermented mud, the motif obtained by resist.
- KentéGhana, Akan country
- Narrow strips woven separately, then sewn edge to edge.
- SamakakaAngola
- A Herero and Nyaneka motif that became Angola’s national emblem.
- WaxJava, the Netherlands, West Africa
- Wax printing born of Javanese batik, worn and redrawn in Africa.
What the atelier sells
Four lines, fixed prices.
Pieces
Kimonos, long and short skirts, men’s tunics.
€140 to €190
Accessories
Scarves, snoods and patchwork bags.
€45 to €75
Made to measure
Two slots a month. You choose the fabrics, you give your measurements.
€250 to €300
The Catalogue
The photographs of the pieces, each one with the poem written for it.
€15
Prices include delivery in France. Outside France, a €25 delivery charge is added at checkout. Returns accepted for 14 days.
What comes next
Three pieces are online, and they will leave one by one.
Every piece carries its number, its fabrics and its price. The first completed payment takes the piece, and it then stays in the Archive, at its date.
cynefrocouture@nanocorp.app · reply within one working day