Open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 7.30pm. Label Origine France Garantie. Delivery available (e-Shop). Over 100 years of history.
Once called "ox mantles", used to protect animals from the sun and parasites, the robust and striped cloths typical of the South-West have been able to pass the test of time and fashions, to become a great classic of decoration for the last twenty years.
At Tissage de Luz, household linen is a family affair. Jean-Baptiste Gouze, the grandfather, already claimed more than a century ago that his tablecloths were woven to last... 100 years! Visionary, because four generations later, this ancestral know-how is still perpetuated within the family business which became Tissage de Luz in 2002.
Season after season, the gestures and the values continue to offer quality linen and collections developed in harmony with contemporary trends. In 2014, Tissage de Luz obtained the "Origine France Garantie" label for all its weavings and made-up products.
Over the generations
More than 100 years ago, in 1908, in the Béarn village of Gestas, Jean-Baptiste Gouze, son of a hand weaver, created a mechanical weaving workshop, one of the first in the region. On his looms: "Mantes à bœufs" and table linen with wrought backgrounds, satin stripes which give refinement to his tablecloths. The originality and the quality of his fabrics are his reputation with the cloth merchants. In 1925, Jean-Baptiste's efforts were rewarded with a medal at the famous Paris Decorative Arts Exhibition and the sale of his linen in Parisian department stores.
Faced with a large influx of orders, he and his son Felix decided to build a factory in Bayonne in 1930, in the Saint-Esprit district. At that time, the Basque Country was already a fashionable destination, and the quality of his linen was exported all over Europe.
In 1960, Félix's daughter Maïté, trained at the School of Textile Industries in Lyon, but also in her father's workshop, brought an air of modernity to the family business with her colorful creativity, her original patterns and her famous jacquards. Unfortunately, with the crisis in the textile industry, the family factory closed in 1977. A new start was needed: Maïté developed mail order. A winning bet, since the collections in the Oyala catalog were a great success. In 1991, the Oyala boutique opened in Saint-Jean-de Luz, rue Gambetta.
An air of renewal
In 2002, the brand Tissage de Luz was created and Jérôme, Jean-Baptiste's great-grandson, continues the activity today by perpetuating the know-how of his forefathers and developing new products. In order to maintain the quality of production, the fabrics are woven in the Lyon region, which also has a solid textile know-how, by a partner weaver. From the selection of raw materials to the manufacturing process, the company supervises each stage of production in order to offer a linen made in the greatest respect of the family tradition. A guarantee that does not prevent fantasy, renewal and innovation
A constantly reinvented pattern
Our family has always imagined and designed its fabric models in order to keep them in line with the latest fashion trends. Styling, i.e. the design of the models, is therefore a key step in the creation process. During the research phase, the stylist draws and defines for each range the color palette, their combinations, as well as the width and rhythm of the stripes. While the traditional stripes have been preserved, their rhythm and composition are less symmetrical, regular and conventional than those of the linens of the past. Like a musical score, they vary in width and beat time. The colors, them, have been widely diversified. In addition to the traditional colors of red, indigo and green, there are now modern and vivid colors that constitute a palette of more than 50 shades.
Tissage de Luz now weaves in GOTS certified organic cotton
Our products are now woven with GOTS certified organic cotton yarns. After our honeycomb bath line went organic in spring 2021, it is now the entirety of our weaving and products of our house hundred that has just gone green.
The dyeing of the threads, made in the Tarn, is made from pigments that respect the environment
Jérôme Fanfare, great-grandson of the founder Jean-Baptiste Gouze and current director of Tissage de Luz, is proud of this change of direction: "If for 5 generations, our family has perpetuated its know-how within our company, which became Tissage de Luz in 2002, the gestures and the values remain to offer quality linen and collections developed in harmony with contemporary trends. The switch to cotton was a natural step in our evolution, in perfect adequacy with the current environmental values. Linen is organic by nature, meaning that it grows naturally without added products and is cultivated in a quality biosanitary environment.
Bien cordialement,
L'équipe Tissage de Luz Bayonne