Manager Julie Collett still remembers how fast the look went: “When I arrived there were a lot of employees in tears, people who have been working here for thirty years. I was also of my milk for a moment. But after five minutes you start thinking: how do we resolve this and how can we start back?”
Because upholstery mainly happens traditionally and needs few machines, the studio was able to start again fairly quickly. Yet the damage is enormous: all finished furniture was lost and must be made again. “Everything that was ready to deliver is destroyed. Punishment that we are already here again, it is really recovering,” says Atelier chief Gregory Windels, who has been working at the company for 30 years.