Q&a / How Stouls redefined leather with machine-washable pieces

When we think of leather, the description “machine washable” isn’t the first to come to mind, nor the word “T-shirt”. But French designer Aurélia Stouls, who launched her namesake label in 2004, has honed in on those exact criteria with a line of leather separates beyond trousers and jackets that, yes, you can chuck in the wash without damage.

How did you get interested in fashion?

I was born and raised in Paris in a family where getting dressed, having fine clothes, and enjoying life were part of our spirit. My eye was educated from a very young age with an aesthetic always mixed with joy. My family and I would go to museums, and we were always dressing up. My mother wore Sonia Rykiel, Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne, so my eye was trained. It was clear to me, even before becoming a teenager, that I wanted to be a fashion designer.

And why leather?

I won the Charles Jourdan award [named for the shoe brand], which pushed me into the shoe business. I then designed for brands like Charles Jourdan, Stéphane Kellian and Thierry Mugler for 15 years. I eventually decided to stop designing shoes, but I had a love affair with leather and this idea to create a product with the same kind of universality as a pair of Converse sneakers. I wanted to make a universal product out of leather, so I chose to do a T-shirt. This idea really set up the philosophy of a leather wardrobe: that it had to be machine washable, that you had to wear these leather pieces like a pair of jeans or a cotton T-shirt, and that you had to be able to jump into them like a cashmere sweater. It’s also what we call décomplexé [uninhibited] in French – it [releases a] taboo.

How did you find machine-washable leather?

I contacted a supplier whose father had invented stretch leather, who I’d worked with for 20 years. I developed a cream to restore the lustre after washing, and pushed him to create a treatment to fix the colour of my leathers.