Craftsman painting a red floral pattern on fabric, surrounded by antique textiles

Prelle Manufacture, 275 years of Lyon history

Painted portrait of Pierre-Toussaint Déchazelle in blue attire, with a lamb and dog — Pierre-Toussaint Dechazelle (1752-1833) Self-portrait circa 1780

The partnership between manufacturer and designer

The art of design in service of weaving

In the 18th century, Lyon's silk houses relied on a close collaboration between manufacturers and designers, creating dual company names that still reflect this heritage today. The manufacturer owned the looms and organized production, while the designer created the patterns and defined the house's style. This strategic alliance ensured both commercial success and artistic identity. Prelle's genealogy perfectly illustrates these successive partnerships. It was within this tradition that Balthazar Eugène Prelle, born in Lyon in 1838, trained and became head of the design studio for over twenty years, eventually giving his name to the manufacture.

Sepia photographic portrait of Balthazar Eugène Prelle, mustachioed man in suit — Balthazar Eugène Prelle (1838-1909) Head of the design studio at Lamy & Giraud

Aimé Prelle drawing at his work table, black and white photograph — Aimé Prelle (1873-1959) Designer and company director, at his drawing table circa 1950

The Lyon fabrique system

The organization of collective expertise

Before 1880, Lyon's silk industry did not follow the industrial factory model but operated as a fabrique, a unique economic and social system that made Lyon prosperous. Merchant-manufacturers, true entrepreneurs, did not own factories but coordinated a vast network of canuts, master weavers who worked from home on their own looms. The manufacturer supplied the silk thread and Jacquard cards bearing the design, then collected the woven fabrics to sell them. This decentralized system allowed great production flexibility and transformed the slopes of Croix-Rousse into a working-class district, where each building housed domestic workshops with high ceilings required for Jacquard looms. The canuts formed a highly skilled working class, keepers of exceptional technical expertise passed down through generations. This organization lasted until the late 19th century, when successive crises, industrial competition, and the electrification of looms pushed some manufacturers to consolidate production into modern factories. Only a centralized company could now bear the cost of increasingly rapid technical innovations, marking the transition from the fabrique system to the integrated mill.

The creation of the manufacture

Birth of a modern manufacture

In 1880, Antoine Lamy, who had acquired the fabrique in 1865 with Auguste Giraud, made a decisive choice: to abandon production for clothing, then called "la Robe," and focus exclusively on furnishing fabrics. The following year, in 1881, he took a crucial step by bringing the entire production process together in a modern factory at 7 rue Barodet, on the Croix-Rousse plateau, where the manufacture still stands today. This industrial concentration marked the end of the dispersed fabrique system. It was in this new setting that Balthazar Eugène Prelle's talent flourished. Trained at Lyon's flower painting school and appointed head of the design studio at Lamy & Giraud, his exceptional talent was recognized with medals at the Universal Exhibitions of 1873, 1878, and 1889. In 1894, emboldened by this recognition, Eugène Prelle founded his own independent design studio on rue Griffon, in the name of his two sons, Aimé and Alexandre, both trained in textile design and the arts. The Prelle brothers maintained excellent relations with Lamy & Giraud, supplying most of their designs. Upon Édouard Lamy's death in 1917, Aimé Prelle naturally took over the company's leadership, which then became Prelle et Cie, permanently establishing the name that endures today.

Continuity

Nine generations dedicated to silk

Prelle's history was enriched by a decisive alliance in 1926, when Thérèse Prelle, Aimé's daughter and a talented designer trained at the Beaux-Arts in Lyon and later in Paris, married Charles Verzier. This union brought together two Lyon silk dynasties: the Verziers already counted six generations of manufacturers since François Verzier, who became a master craftsman in 1760. Charles Verzier partnered with his father-in-law and took charge of managing the company. Upon his death in 1948, his sons Philippe and François took over the business at 18 and 20 years old, ensuring continuity through decades of transformation in the textile industry. Since 1993, Guillaume Verzier, François's son, has led the manufacture with his wife Hélène, representing the eighth generation on the Verzier side and the fifth on the Prelle side. Together, they have maintained tradition while innovating technically, notably with the installation of new electronic looms in 2020. In 2018, their daughter Sabine Verzier joined the family venture, embodying the sixth Prelle generation and the ninth Verzier generation. This uninterrupted transmission over nearly three centuries makes Prelle unique in the French industrial landscape: a family manufacture that continues to weave exclusively in France, guardian of ancestral expertise and priceless archives, modern by tradition.