The House of Denude
A Franco-British
Address Book
A curated directory of Franco-British life, bringing together wellness, hospitality, craft and design from both sides of the Channel in one place.
The Denude Directory is a curated directory of Franco-British life, bringing together wellness, hospitality, craft and design from both sides of the Channel in one place.
Think of it as a trusted address book: people, places and businesses are included because we believe in what they do, creating a considered point of reference for anyone looking for a French or British name in these worlds.
Le Directoire
France · 1795–1799
The name carries a pleasing historical coincidence.
In France, le Directoire was the system of government that ruled from 1795 to 1799, between the upheaval of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Governed by a five-man executive, it belonged to an extraordinary period of political, social and cultural reinvention.
It was also a distinctly Franco-British moment. France and Britain remained at war for much of the period, while fashion, interiors and society in France developed the particular elegance now associated with the Directoire years.
Thérésa Tallien, pictured here in Jean-Louis Laneuville's 1796 portrait, became one of the best-known figures of Directoire society. Her presence captures something of the period itself: a world emerging from revolution and inventing new forms of dress, sociability and taste.
Denude Directory was not named in reference to the historical Directoire.
But for a publication concerned with France and Britain, culture, taste and the things worth carrying forward, we rather like the coincidence.
Ours is a Franco-British Directory of a very different kind: a living address book of the people, places and ideas worth knowing across France and Britain, and a way of bringing those two worlds a little closer together.