Bonnegueule as a brand has been around for over 10 years.
And believe us, a lot happens in a decade!
To round off this year 2025 in style, we're sharing 10 surprising, little-known or unusual anecdotes about our brand and our creations.
1. All our sweaters are made from 100% natural materials
Everyone needs a good knit.
Preferably several. Warm and cozy for cold days, light and airy for warm weather.
This is the perfect breeding ground for our uncompromising love of beautiful materials.
Since the very beginning, we've been committed to bringing you sweaters and cardigans made entirely from natural materials with a unique sheen, durability and optimal thermal properties. Extra-fine merino wool is available in different thicknesses and textures, alongside cashmere, baby alpaca and cotton fibers.
This means you won't find knits with polyester, acrylic or polyamide in our range, which means lower costs and, above all, lower quality.
2. Our clothes are also worn by women
Although we're a men's fashion brand, we frequently see women making our clothes their own. Whether it's through in-store purchases or photos posted on social networks (feel free to tag us on Instagram, by the way: @bonnegueule.fr), we're always delighted to see how women integrate our pieces into their style and world.
Our entire wardrobe goes through it: in addition to sweaters and shirts, some wear our pants, coats and even our shoes with brio.
3. We've got a belt with a buckle that's been used by superheroes, astronauts and singing stars.
Yes, you read that right.
It's our Vercors belt with its authentic Cobra buckle® buckle, made in Austria by Austrialpin.
Beloved by our co-founder Benoît, a fan of techwear, this belt features an infallible buckle with a unique design.
Initially designed in the 1990s for rock climbing, the Cobra buckle ® buckle quickly outgrew its primary function and found its way into popular culture through :
- Cinema: it appears in numerous films such as The Avengers and Black Panther,
- Music: stars such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have worn it in concert,
- Aerospace: Austrian Felix Baugmartner wore a Cobra® buckle on his suit during his famous 40km altitude jump. Space X and the ISS (International Space Station) also use them on their suits.
4. Some of our denim fabrics are woven on looms over 50 years old.
Denim is part of Bonnegueule's DNA.
As proof, our very first garment was a pair of jeans. And denim lovers know that the finest fabrics are found in Japan. Irregular, neppy, slightly hairy and selvedge, these exceptional materials are slowly woven on ancient machines, over half a century old.
These old "shuttle" looms are rare and fragile, and are therefore meticulously maintained by Japanese weavers who wish to preserve this know-how for as long as possible.
In our collection, you'll find these singular Japanese fabrics on :
- The jean Renji brut woven by Kuroki
- The jean Nîmes brut woven by Kurabo
- The jean BG10 brut (soon available in restocking) woven by Nihon Menpu
5. Our Chester brogues are made with a rare assembly inherited from the world of work.
Chester brogues mark the return of the English brogue and introduce Norwegian stitching to our collection for the first time.
Considered more robust and waterproof than the well-known Goodyear stitching thanks to two visible seams on the welt, the origins of Norwegian stitching are not entirely clear. Some sources say it was invented in Italy, others in Austria. Curiously, it does not originate from Norway, as its name would suggest.
We do know, however, thatit is the fruit of the craftsmanship of rural shoemakers working in cold, damp areas, who designed it to be as water-resistant as possible for manual labor (farmers, lumberjacks, hunters, fishermen). Goodyear stitching, on the other hand, is a more industrial invention, designed primarily for the city.
6. The Milo overshirt is one of the team's most worn garments.
The Milo is one of your favorite pieces, and has been for many years.
But it's also a favorite of the Bonnegueule team.
Warm, cozy and above all extremely comfortable thanks to its organic cotton jersey lining, it's a garment you slip on and never leave. Our boutique advisors love it, and at the office, those who don't (yet) have it in their wardrobe like to borrow the shooting models on chilly days.
7. Our shaggy sweater is itch-free
The shaggy (or shetland) sweater has become a staple in men's wardrobes.
Its furry appearance and raglan sleeves give it a distinctive charm that we at Bonnegueule love.
But it does have one drawback: even brushed, it tends to scratch due to its rustic wool.
That's why we developed the John sweater with a clear idea in mind: to offer you a soft shaggy sweater that doesn't scratch.
To achieve this, we had to move away from the Shetland sheep's wool that gives it its name, and use a blend of other fibers. We found what we were looking for at an Italian spinner who blends :
- Baby alpaca to recapture the fluffy, ruffled look of the original shaggy sweater.
- Merino wool for softness
- Cotton for stability
We've been offering the John sweater for over 5 years now, and its success continues unabated, so much so that the yellow and mottled gray John sweaters launched at the start of the season quickly found themselves out of stock. We had anticipated this and were able to launch a restock from our Venetian atelier. As a result, the John sweater is back in stock, its little ecru brother having joined the party in the meantime. :)
8. The model in our Autumn-Winter 2024 campaign was unprofessional
Our Winter 2024 campaign was photographed in the Channel, on the Isle of Wight.
Our photographer Célia had been there a few weeks before, on vacation. She attended a sailing festival and met a young man named Scott. We didn't have a model at the time, and she thought he might be a good match. She went to see him and learned that he was a carpenter working on the island.
He liked the idea and agreed to shoot for us. It was his first time modeling and he did admirably, don't you think?
9. Our latest shoot in Japan took an unexpected turn
In autumn 2024, we're working on a rather special project: a shoot with Yuthanan (Nicolas Chalmeau).
A Frenchman who has lived in Tokyo for many years, we love his work and gave him carte blanche to reinterpret our winter collection with his own artistic and stylistic vision.
But we ran into a problem: the pieces we sent him to Japan were stuck in customs. Looks, shooting location, models: everything has already been organized and prepared, and the shooting date is approaching. We're running out of time to unblock the package or send another shipment of parts.
So we take the radical step of sending Antoine, our image director, to Tokyo with two suitcases containing the clothes for the shoot, to make sure everything arrives on time.
Informed on Friday, Antoine left on Monday and was not only able to assist and help on the shoot, but also took advantage of his presence to organize a shoot in the streets of Tokyo with a local friend.
10. We were very reluctant to change our name
Bonnegueule was originally a blog, created in 2007.
In the years that followed, the clothing brand was created and grew.
So much so thatin 2022, 15 years after the project's genesis, we asked ourselves the question of changing the name.
There were many reasons for this. Firstly, we wanted to free ourselves from the legacy of the blog of the 2010s, a name whose image could be perceived as lacking in maturity. Also, the name change would support our international development, as "Bonnegueule" could be difficult to pronounce for foreign customers.
So we organized meetings, brainstormed ideas for a new name and a new logo.
Then we realized that this name was an integral part of our identity. That the brand you know and love is Bonnegueule. We heard our name pronounced by English speakers in particular, and we liked the way it sounded when they said it.
So, in the end,we decided to keep Bonnegueule, and go with it. We've simply removed the capital letter from the G.
We are, and we will remain, Bonnegueule.
Thank you for spending 2025 with us, for following and being part of our adventures. We look forward to seeing you soon, in January 2026, for new pieces, still carefully crafted in Europe from the singular materials that make our hearts beat, and which we hope will make yours beat too.
The Bonnegueule team
