The artist behind the collection

Jon Bislimi

Creating Maison Stofë is a somewhat mad wager: refusing the expected choice between folklore and sanitised minimalism, to bring Albanian aesthetics where no one expects them, into the exacting world of French and European luxury.

Too often we have reduced our ancient motifs to heritage symbols, displayed behind glass or brought out only for grand occasions, as if their beauty could not bear the light of everyday life. I dare to believe the opposite. A thousand-year-old sign reveals a striking modernity in its own time, and again as soon as it meets contemporary design, because it was conceived long before us with the economy of means that the greatest designers are still searching for.

Designing this work in Lyon, on the slopes of the Croix-Rousse, is therefore no mere nod to the silk capital. It means measuring oneself against a city that made fabric an art, and holding to its standards: an impeccable twill and a drape precise enough for the object to carry the story.

“Tradition must be risked in the present and held to the rigour of beauty, until it stops being a mere reminder of identity and becomes a material in its own right, able to converse as an equal with the very best, and so become everyone’s identity.”

It is also a way of questioning what we do with our heritage. For a tradition to stay alive, we must accept to risk it in the present and hold it to the rigour of beauty, until it stops being a mere reminder of identity and becomes a material in its own right, able to converse as an equal with the very best, and so become everyone’s identity.

Stofë will be built with those who share this standard. Whether Lyon workshops heir to Jacquard or Balkan artisans who keep the old gestures alive, I hope this first square opens the way to collaborations with hands for whom quality is second nature.

Jon Bislimi

Lyon, 2026