La Dolce Vita selon Sofiane Ben Chaabane

My name is Sofiane Ben Chaabane, I am Franco-Tunisian. I grew up in Tunis and went to France after my baccalaureate where I studied business at ESCP Europe in Paris, where I met my wife, Claire. I worked in different advertising agencies for about ten years in Paris, when Claire made her career in marketing. Our travels in Tunisia and more widely in the Mediterranean region made us want to start our own business and do it together. Since then we have created LYOUM, a ready-to-wear brand made in the Mediterranean and we live in La Marsa.

From a distanced point of view towards Tunisia which allowed us to see certain things. We realized that there was a Mediterranean history of Tunisia to tell: its geographical location, its culture, its history, its geography, its proximity to Italy, Malta, Corsica. This evidence was found elsewhere around the Mediterranean, the blue and white, the white light, certain dishes, the characters of the people, the family spirit, the art of living, the "little old men" who play cards in the shade of the trees. There was something missing that united the shores, Southern Europe and North Africa, in a natural, mixed way. At the time, in the early 2010s, the Mediterranean casual style was hard to find in ready-to-wear, so we created it.

We were in the middle of thinking about the brand when the Tunisian revolution of 2011 broke out. We were immediately attracted by the energy and change that was coming, it made us want to be in Tunis, to see with our own eyes a page turned and a new one written. We wanted to be there, so at the end of 2011 we launched the brand, we changed jobs to get involved in an industry that we did not know at all. We moved to Tunisia with our children in 2012, in a rather rock n' roll way but we believed in it. In 2012, we launched our first collection and opened our first store in Tunis. Today we have 2 stores, the style of the brand has been refined and affirmed collection after collection. Our clothes are made entirely in Tunisia, in short circuit, in workshops that we have carefully selected, which are only a few kilometers away from where we work. Because we are geographically close to our suppliers, we are able to see who produces our clothes and under what conditions.
 

 

 

For us, the key word is métissage. I believe a lot in the beauty of mixtures, our last collection for example is called Sud-Nord-Beauté (Janoub-Chamal-Jamal in Arabic) and it comes as a reminder of the grace of mixtures. For us, LYOUM is a brand that claims a kind of dolce vita without bling bling. Our clothes can be worn every day and for any occasion, from the beach to the city, with that effortless Parisian look we love. Our southern Mediterranean influence is found in the fabrics, calligraphy, certain details etc. At the same time, LYOUM is neither an "ethnic" nor an "expat" brand. We don't claim anything, everything is there. Today, half of our clientele is Tunisian, the other half comes from everywhere, from Chicago to Paris via Dubai. The nationalities differ but all have the same view on fashion. Our brand is meaningful, open-minded and that's what counts.

Tunis has changed a lot in 30 years. When I was a kid, we lived in El Menzah, a residential suburb of Tunis, I would go downtown a few times with my mother to go shopping at the central market. We went to La Marsa only in the summer, to my grandfather's vacation house. The 20 km that separated us from it were on a rough road and la Marsa was above all a seaside resort... In the meantime, Tunis has developed a lot and many people have moved to the city. La Marsa, Carthage, by the sea. 
When I left Paris, I really wanted to get closer to the sea and today we have the luxury of living, working and sending our children to school within 3 kilometers, in a village town. We can avoid the car as much as possible and now, when I go to Paris, I almost like to take the metro (laughs).
 

 

 

I feel Mediterranean in this way of handling humor in everyday life, nothing is serious, there is always a little word, an expression, a proverb to put things into perspective. For me, the Mediterranean means speaking loudly, with your hands, going from French to Arabic, to Italian, to Spanish without any problem. It is also this warm, tactile side, the ease I have when I go to Sicily, Marseille or Andalusia. Of course, there is also the kitchen, the love of olive oil. A little bread, a little oil, a little tuna and that's enough, a view of the sea under an olive tree. The simple pleasures of life in the Mediterranean, the ability to share and appreciate them.

The Mediterranean is also in the words, words in the Tunisian darija that are Italian, French. In the end this Mediterranean, for me, is a nation that has no borders, it is the same mess, it is an indoor pool. There is a form of irony in all this, that we are all linked to each other like that.