Simonnot-Godard ⭐ Top pick

One core product for 237 years. Linen and cotton, the finest yarns. Five months per piece, because a handkerchief is not a disposable accessory. It is an object made to last.

1787. Monsieur Beaurain, a seller of batiste handkerchiefs, opens a shop in the Palais-Royal district of Paris. Two years before the French Revolution. At the time, the handkerchief is a luxury object, a sign of refinement. Beaurain understands that.

1830. Beaurain retires and hands the business to his employee, Auguste Godard. Godard moves the workshop to Valenciennes in the North and opens shops in Cambrai, Valenciennes, and Bapaume. He has six children, including the composer Benjamin Godard. But the name is fixed through marriage: his daughter Marie marries Victor Simonnot, a client of the house. Simonnot-Godard is born.

1869. Victor takes over and gives the house international stature. In 1886, the company buys the former hôtel of the Marquise de Pompadour on rue du Sentier for its Paris boutique. The collection expands to table linen, lingerie, and fine fabrics.

1889. Paris Universal Exhibition, the one of the Eiffel Tower. Victor Simonnot is appointed assistant to the jury. For the event, the house presents a 3.65-meter-wide piece of batiste with a warp of 16,000 threads. Its fineness is unanimously praised. The reputation becomes global.

The 20th century brings wars and crises, but the house holds. Joseph Simonnot creates the SA in 1917 and remains president until 1937. Emmanuel follows, then his son François. The most delicate pieces are still sent to small workshops in the Cambrésis near the Belgian border, where artisans still work by hand, often from home.

1999. Benjamin Simonnot buys the business from his uncle. With Gersende Simonnot, he relaunches the house. Simonnot-Godard handkerchiefs are distributed in top boutiques around the world: Paris, New York, Tokyo, Naples, Hong Kong, London, Barcelona. Five months are needed to make one handkerchief, from yarn to finished product.