Puces Lover: Ramdane Touhami
How the Paris Flea Market inspires those who love it
Our very own Renaissance man, Ramdane Touhami, started out at the Puces de Saint-Ouen back in 1992, coming up every weekend from his native Montauban to sell his own collection of T-shirts at the Marché Malik, naturally drawn to the hustle and energy of the market and resonating with its contradictions – straddling as it does rich and poor, old and new, real and fake, French heritage and cosmopolitan melting pot. From those humble beginnings, Ramdane has built an extraordinary career, with one of his most recent achievements being the sale of Officine Universelle Buly, which he created with his wife Victoire de Taillac, to LVMH. Today, via his creative agency Art Recherche Industrie, “branding is elevated to the level of total art” for clients including Gucci, Zara and Christofle. Touhami has inspired a young generation of entrepreneurs to prioritize craft over efficiency, authenticity over trends and cultural specificity over global uniformity. Restless, ambitious, endlessly curious, he moves effortlessly across fashion, design, publishing and retail, always combining craft, politics and beauty. When he’s in Paris, you can be sure he’ll be back at the Puces, hunting for whatever feeds his current obsession.
