Unbeknownst to her at the time, Ruth had married into a celebrated French silk family. Julien Faure (our “Artisans of France,” see p66), is a fifth generation, living heritage company that creates silk ribbons for haute couture fashion houses such as Hermès, Dior and Chanel, as well as the Vatican. Up until then, her knowledge of ribbons had been limited to beautifully wrapped birthday presents. When she was gifted a box of ribbon samples from the 1800s — small morsels of silk embellished with real gold and silver thread — their beauty changed the path of her life indefinitely, and her moniker, “The French Muse,” was born.
It was with this memorable introduction that Ruth delved into the world of antique French textiles, a sublime rabbit hole of ribbons, silk,…
