Archivio J.M. Ribot
Overview
Archivio J.M. Ribot is an Italian clothing research project founded around 2016 by Karim Fares. Its borrowed name comes from a label inside a pair of 1920s French wool trousers found in Provence, placing an existing garment and its unknown history at the centre of the project’s identity. Fares developed the practice through collecting antique textiles, vintage garments and buttons, then working with Italian makers to return those materials to contemporary use.
The brand is organised through two connected capsules. Archivio J.M. Ribot produces limited editions from finite antique cloth, reproduced archive fabrics and traditional tailoring details. Riforma constructs one-of-a-kind garments from early twentieth-century clothing components, changing their function, silhouette and gender coding while keeping evidence of the original object visible.
Shirts, jackets, trousers, coats, waistcoats, dresses, skirts, knitwear and small accessories are made through slow sewing, hand finishing and deliberately irregular assembly. The project operates through specialist international stockists and Paris showroom appointments rather than a conventional runway system. Its current activity includes seasonal capsules, retail collaborations and archive-object experiments.
Philosophy
Archivio J.M. Ribot treats age as material information. Wear, fading, repair, previous seams and mismatched components are retained as records of use, then placed inside new tailoring structures. Fares describes imperfection as something produced by time, not as a defect to be disguised, and uses nostalgia as a working tool without attempting to reconstruct a single historical period.
The garments are sewn slowly, often by hand and without overlock finishing, so contemporary construction remains compatible with the antique cloth. Soft jackets, layered shirts and recomposed tailoring use patching, visible thread, relocated pockets and irregular drape to alter familiar garment categories. In Riforma, a menswear component can become a cropped top, skirt or dress while its former function remains legible.
Finite materials determine the scale of production. Archivio pieces are made in limited runs, while Riforma pieces are unique because their source garments cannot be repeated. The practice connects archive and present through use rather than preservation alone: textiles are handled as living material, intended to continue acquiring marks, repairs and associations after leaving the atelier.
Recent events
Disclaimer
Creative timeline
Button TextArchivio J.M. Ribot marked its first decade during the Autumn/Winter 2026 Paris showroom period. The anniversary confirmed the continued activity of Fares’s independent archive-clothing practice after approximately ten years of limited editions, Riforma pieces and specialist international distribution.
From 2023, Archivio J.M. Ribot extended its archive practice through documented collaborations that combined limited clothing with scent and small handmade objects. Memoriae Cavsa with Ink Clothing joined exclusive jacquard garments to perfume and mohair figures dressed by the Archivio team, without establishing a permanent furniture or object division.
Riforma became a continuing internal programme for unique garments made from early twentieth-century clothing parts and vintage hardware. Its recomposition method changed original functions and gender codes while retaining old seams, pockets and evidence of use.
During its formative period, Archivio J.M. Ribot developed a two-part clothing system based on finite antique textiles and the recomposition of existing garments. By 2019, the distinction between limited-edition Archivio pieces and one-of-a-kind Riforma work was publicly established.
Karim Fares established Archivio J.M. Ribot around 2016 after years of collecting and altering antique clothing. He adopted the name from a label found inside 1920s French trousers and built the project around limited production, traditional Italian making and the continued use of aged textiles.
Archivio J.M. Ribot divisions and related structures
The project is built around two connected clothing capsules that use different forms of archival material and production.
Clothing capsules
- Archivio J.M. Ribot
- limited editions
- The main capsule uses antique textiles, vintage buttons and specially developed fabrics to produce small runs of shirts, tailoring, outerwear, trousers, knitwear and accessories through traditional Italian making.
- Riforma
- one-of-a-kind recomposition
- Active by 2019, Riforma combines parts of early twentieth-century garments and vintage hardware into unique pieces, altering their original use and gender coding while preserving their tactile history.
Archivio J.M. Ribot collaborations
Collaborative projects extend the archive practice through retailer-specific textiles, objects and temporary presentations.
Retail and archive projects
- Ink Clothing
- Memoriae Cavsa, 2023
- The Hong Kong retailer hosted a special capsule combining exclusive jacquard garments, perfume and Mormor figurines dressed by the Archivio team. The figurines were handmade in mohair by the artisan Nadja.
