Fur house · Brussels · since 1954
The heritage
of living fur
Seventy years of expert hands, in the last fur atelier in Brussels.
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Seventy years of expert hands, in the last fur atelier in Brussels.
In 1954, the house opened on the chaussée de Charleroi. In 1990, Madame Fuchs-Lejeune took it over and breathed new life into it. In 2001, her son Lionel joined her at the cutting table. Seventy years on, the same house continues the craft — at the same table, with the same gestures, in the same spirit.
The house was founded in 1954. A fur boutique on the chaussée de Charleroi in Brussels, in a quarter that then counted dozens of them. The house made its name — the finesse of the cut, the wisdom of its counsel, the loyalty of a clientele who returned season after season.
In 1990, Madame Fuchs-Lejeune took the reins. She learned in the atelier, she trained at the cutting table, she took the measure of the craft. Under her direction, New Embert weathered the most difficult decades the trade has known — ever milder winters, anti-fur campaigns, the collapse in the number of rival houses. New Embert endured, because Madame Fuchs-Lejeune turned the boutique into a living atelier.
Madame Fuchs-Lejeune, at the cutting table.
Lionel Fuchs joined the house in 2001. From mother to son, the craft is passed on as one passes on a language: by the ear, by the hand, by patience. Madame Fuchs-Lejeune taught Lionel what no manual ever could — the way a mink pelt responds to the blade, the sense of a bias seam, the moment a coat ceases to be a garment and becomes a second skin.
Lionel Fuchs, in the atelier on the chaussée de Charleroi.
Brussels once counted fifty-four fur houses. New Embert is today the last of them. Not by chance — by choice. By the atelier we have kept. By the transformations we know how to perform. By our refusal of throwaway fashion.
The house was for many years a member of the Union des Fourreurs Techniciens de Belgique — a crest we have kept on the wall, in memory of a trade that was once mighty. Today, it is the Furmark and Brussels Expertise Labels certifications that bear witness to our craftsmanship and our ethics.
“From fifty-four fur houses in Brussels in the Seventies,
we have come down to one today.”
Lionel Fuchs · RTBF Interview, 1st March 2024
The BEL label honours family transmission within the craft. A story of inherited gestures, of glances exchanged over a pelt, of patience learned across the seasons.
88 seconds · BEL · 2024
Behind the boutique, the atelier. A cutting table, wooden hangers, patterns yellowed by the years. And tools that have not changed in fifty years, because they have no need to change.
We have survived because we also have an atelier. Eighty to ninety per cent of what we do today is repairs and, above all, transformations.
In the shadow of the traditional ateliers, there still survives a craft that is no longer taught. Lionel Fuchs and Madame Fuchs-Lejeune are the keepers of a gesture — the one that turns a pelt into a garment, and a garment into a legacy.
94 seconds · 2024
Every woman finds her cut. Every cut finds its fur. And every piece, hand-made in our atelier, is one to be passed down through the generations.
Straight · timeless
Drawn in at the waist
Cocoon · enveloping
Fur marquetry · bespoke
The rarest of all sables
The purest of forms
Couture spirit · sheared mink
Pink fox · an enveloping silhouette
Khaki, brown, black mink · one-of-a-kind piece
A new coat at ten thousand euros is dear, certainly; but over a hundred years, it is a hundred euros a year.
The man who wears fur today does not do so to be remarked upon. He does so because it is right.
H silhouette · leather finishings
Asymmetric collar · mink lining
Sable lining
Mink collar · full mink lining
Catwalk · Caroline Kuhne
Once a year, the atelier steps out of the shadows. The pieces of an entire season parade beneath the chandeliers of a Brussels salon. Arctic fox, velvet mink, Russian sable, chinchilla, rex rabbit — each piece is a dialogue between matter and hand.
Between eighty and ninety per cent of our work is transformation. Your mother's coat becomes a jacket for you. Your grandmother's fur becomes a contemporary parka, a sleeveless gilet, the lining of a trench. And sometimes, when there is a little left over, a throw for the home.
A slate-grey silhouette, long and open. To be worn over a jumper, over a dress, over oneself.
The verticality of black, the density of the fur. From day to evening with no need to change.
Fur becomes the everyday jacket. Hood raised, hands in the pockets.
A clean line, a gilded ivory tone. The grandmother's coat becomes the granddaughter's jacket.
No collar, no fanfare — a confident volume, worn with jeans as readily as with a dress.
Stand collar, long sleeves, three-quarter length. The piece that gathers up the whole of our craftsmanship.
The fur of yesterday becomes border, hood, cuff. The coat gains a second, technical life.
The rain on one side, the fur on the other. A garment that adapts to the morning and to the mood.
Russian sable on the inside. Discreet without, sumptuous the moment the collar is turned.
Two colours in a single piece. Blue for the city, green for the weekend.
Khaki on the one side, deep burgundy on the other. A parka that knows how to change its mind.
The coat rediscovered, spread out by the fire on a Sunday sofa.
A few square centimetres of fur for softness, set upon an armchair.
A statement piece in orylag. Graphic, contemporary, timeless.
For the nights of winter. Yesterday's coat, laid at the foot of the bed.
They are clients between twenty-five and forty-five who do not wish to wear their grandmother's old coat, but who do wish to give it a new life.
Your coat spends the winter with you. In summer, it comes to us: to the house's cold room, on the chaussée de Charleroi.
An editorial evocation · the craft of the last century
Four reasons to entrust your fur to us for the warm season:
A fur is not washed like a woollen coat. It is combed, it is refreshed, it is aired. Each piece is first examined, then cleaned at the atelier, in a drum with sawdust and oil. Only the gestures of the craft.
The process. The fur is placed in a drum with sawdust and oil. As the drum turns, the sawdust works its way through the hair — it absorbs the impurities the season has left behind.
Then comes the extraction and, if necessary, blowing: the sawdust is removed from the hair. Then, depending on the fur, combing, steam and the lustring, by hand, which restores the sheen and drape of the fur. The old craft, adapted to each piece.
Sawdust and oil, in the drum. The sawdust absorbs the impurities in the hair.
The sawdust is removed by extraction and, if necessary, by blowing. The fur recovers its lightness.
Combing and steam depending on the fur, then lustring by hand, in the direction of the hair. The sheen and drape return.
The BEL brings together the houses of artisanal excellence in Brussels — those whose savoir-faire is recognised as part of the living heritage of the capital. Hautes Fourrures New Embert has been a member since the label's inception.
The annual ceremony at which distinctions are conferred upon the recognised artisans of Brussels. A consecration of local excellence in craftsmanship.
The Brussels Expertise Labels is a quality mark that distinguishes the houses of recognised expertise within Brussels. It is the acknowledgement that our craft — fine fur — forms part of the cultural and economic heritage of the capital.
To be a member of the BEL is to belong to a circle of artisans who pass on a gesture, a technique, a standard. From the chocolatier to the tailor, from the restorer of works of art to the furrier — all of them carry the soul of Brussels.
Our film “Like mother, like son — the BEL transmission” tells the story of this family continuity: my mother handed down the craft to me, just as her own mother had handed it down to her before. Seventy years of gestures passing from one generation to the next.
A true fur passes down through the generations. A fake one lasts three seasons, and ends as plastic in the ocean. That is why we do not sell faux fur.
The complete worldwide system for the ethical and sustainable certification of natural fur. Animal welfare, traceability, sustainable production.
Natural fur is biodegradable. Faux fur is made of polyester — which is to say, of petroleum. With every wash, it sheds microparticles that end up in the oceans, in the fish, and on our plates.
Natural fur is enduring. A well-made coat, well kept, well transformed over the years, can cross a century. Faux fur lasts three seasons.
Natural fur is reparable. Faux fur, never. This is what we call slow fashion: a garment made to last, to be handed down, repaired, transformed.
The harm done by fast fashion is denounced often enough. Well — fur is the slow fashion.
Eric Boever puts to Lionel Fuchs the question of the vanishing fur boutiques of Brussels, of transformation as the new heart of the trade, and of the ecological meaning of slow fashion.
Read the article →1st March 2024
A report from inside the New Embert atelier. Lionel Fuchs shows how an old coat becomes a jacket, a throw, or a cushion. Transformation as an alternative to waste.
Watch the report →RTBF Auvio
A radio programme retracing the history of fur, from its golden age in the twentieth century to the present day, with an eye on the few houses that have endured.
Listen to the programme →RTBF Auvio · Podcast
A film portrait of the New Embert house under the BEL label, which distinguishes the houses of Brussels of recognised expertise. On the family transmission of the craft.
Watch the film ↑2024
Our boutique welcomes you from Tuesday to Saturday. For a fitting, a transformation, or summer storage — come in, write to us, or telephone.
35 chaussée de Charleroi
1060 Brussels · Belgium
Tuesday – Friday: 9.30 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.
Saturday: 1.00 p.m. – 6.00 p.m.
Sunday & Monday: by appointment
The house through an artist's eye · an original watercolour