The lowdown on the workwear-inspired collections by Arpenteur – available on MR PORTER today.

In this exhausting era of hyper-globalised everything – and especially within the world of style – its unusual to find a business that you might describe as having “local character”. Yet French casualwear brand Arpenteur is just that. Launched in 2011 by cousins Messrs Laurent Bourven and Marc Asseilly, Arpenteur operates on an intimate scale, with just three employees working from a former boulangerie and printing facility in a post-industrial neighbourhood in Lyon. (“It looks like a garage converted into an office,” the duo write, via email.) From there, they tend not to travel too far, sourcing 80 per cent of their fabrics from local suppliers from different regions across France, and doing most of their manufacturing at facilities within driving distance.

The resulting clothing, naturally, has a unique flavour of the country and the region, particularly because Messrs Bourven and Asseilly occasionally take inspiration from vintage French workwear garments and pieces from their suppliers’ archives. Add to that the duo’s more contemporary, outward looking inspirations – from comics and record sleeves to movies from the 1970s and 1980s, and 1990s British guitar bands – and you have a brand that carries many charming idiosyncrasies (not least the labelling, which features illustrations by the French ligne claire illustrator Régric).

The SS17 Arpenteur collection, launching today on MR PORTER, is a prime example of the duo’s working methods. Garments like a slub-linen blazer and a chambray shirt nod to classic French workwear without being enslaved to it. Three-quarter-sleeved T-shirts offer an update on the classic Breton style, but are rendered in a loomed, densely woven but stretchy material – Arpenteur calls it “Raschel” – that’s closely based on the fabric used in vintage French navy shirts. This season Messrs Bourven and Asseilly are particularly proud of the dark navy colour of their Moleskin chinos – another update of a tried-and-tested style. “It is almost black,” they say, “referencing classic workwear but with a hint of blue, which makes them more wearable.” Throughout the collection, it’s easy to trace the loving details that could only come from the duo’s hands-on approach – a process of “constant trial and error” that’s only possible because their suppliers are so close. But it’s also easy to appreciate and understand one of Arpenteur’s core mantras: “the observation of good, honest clothing, made for a purpose”.

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