The rejuvenation of "made in France"

"If you want to change the world, start by changing your underwear!" In 2011, the slogan of Guillaume Gibault, for the launch of his brand Le Slip Français, made people smile. Eight years later, his business is no longer a joke. It uses 27 workshops in France for the knitting and making of the models, and 19 others for the production of elastics, labels or packaging. That is the equivalent of 200 full-time people, plus 110 employees from the head office and the label's 16 boutiques. The company, which is no longer confined to men's underwear, achieved a turnover of 20 million euros last year with blue-white-red collections.

“My interest in “made in France” was really born in the field, confides the 30-year-old. When I left HEC, my first job at Bio c'Bon alerted me to this more responsible consumption that would soon go beyond the field of food and become a fundamental trend. I came up with the idea for a brand of men's briefs because it's a small, simple, easy-to-ship product that can be bought without trying most of the time. And it was only after meeting manufacturers specializing in hosiery that the concept of briefs made in France became obvious.”

Jovial ambassador of his brand, Guillaume Gibault is also of a new generation of entrepreneurs who are giving a tremendous boost to the French industrial fabric with various and varied projects, carried out 100% in the territory. On April 24 - the anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza in Dacca (Bangladesh), which in 2013 caused the death of 1,127 people working for fast fashion in deplorable working conditions -, Mr. Gibault was the guest star of a #WhoMadeMyClothes round table in Paris, organized by the Fashion Revolution collective which was born after this tragedy. At his side, the designer Sakina M'sa developing collections with a social dimension, Clément Maulavé of the young label Hopaal creating models according to the stocks of materials unearthed from French manufacturers, or Thomas Huriez, founder of the 1083 brand as the distance in kilometers from the two furthest municipalities in France, where it has produced its collections, from weaving to tailoring, since its launch in 2013.

Read also Le Slip Français: with Guillaume Gibault, underwear takes over

Most of these responsible young people were sensitive to fashion without having planned to make a career out of it. The words “awareness”, “planet”, “overconsumption”, “pollution”, “emergency”, “employment”, “proximity”, “social fibre”, “course circuit” and “quest for meaning” justify their change of trajectory towards textile-clothing. “I was a victim of this existential crisis which affects more and more relatively young people, says Aurélie Varin, the founder of the Edith & Marcel slipper label. The seal of France has been amply valued abroad by large houses. I imagined a project on a smaller scale, starting with a slightly outdated product that relies on know-how that will disappear if nothing is done.

Computer scientist, Thomas Huriez was not closer to the sector at the beginning of the 2010s. Or, then, he knew his sad titles in the economic newspapers, he whose family is from Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme), once a big footwear industrial basin. 1083, his brand of sneakers and jeans, achieved a turnover of 8 million euros in 2018. The key to this success? A fresh eye, coupled with a clinical diagnosis, so to speak, of the reasons that led to the decrepitude of the textile-clothing sector in France - which went from 250,000 employees in 1998 to just over 73,000 in 2016, according to INSEE - and an energy to move mountains to stop this haemorrhage, both artisanal and industrial. “At the end of the Glorious Thirties, many family production companies were sold to financial groups with a more rigorous approach. The latter began by subcontracting to a neighbor, because the human management of the production proved to be too complicated. Then to produce beyond the borders because it was cheaper and, little by little, further and further away. The production chain has thus become weighed down with intermediaries, each applying their own coefficient. Thus, the cost price of jeans made on the other side of the world is sometimes multiplied by ten when it arrives in the shop. This leaves a margin for manufacturing in France, as soon as we imagine a light structure dealing directly with producers and consumers.

valuing compliments/the approval of teenage boys far more than compliments/acceptance from other teenage girls https://t.co/3RlnaxA87p

— Ivy Dupler Fri Dec 14 22:43:24 +0000 2018

Like Le Slip Français, Atelier Tuffery specialized in denim or Bleu de Chauffe in leather goods, the 1083 brand has taken advantage of the Internet to make itself known, to unveil a local approach in complete transparency. and ultimately sell its products at competitive prices. A “Come and see our workshops in Florac on the way to the holidays” accompanies the delivery of Atelier Tuffery jeans. Every Bleu de Chauffe bag has a label on which the person who made it from A to Z has written their first name. A pioneer, this SME, founded in 2009, now produces some 16,000 pieces a year, in its workshops in Saint-Georges-de-Luzençon (Aveyron), opposite the Millau viaduct, on the Larzac plateau.

At the beginning of 2008, the latter even won the Living Heritage Company label from the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, which reinforces the slogan “local know-how” of leather goods 2.0. “Having previously worked for different brands as designers, we had all the contacts to create a story and make our models in China, remembers Alexandre Rousseau, co-founder of Bleu de Chauffe with Thierry Batteux. But these manufacturing methods in deplorable human and environmental conditions, as well as this system where the product circles the earth three times - between animal breeding, leather tanning, weaving of the lining and the manufacture of the other components - and, finally, the assembly, we didn't want any more. When I imagine a model, I always think about its manufacture, I anticipate the arduousness of the assembly, I probe the need for the slightest seam because we are within ten minutes for the bag to come out below 300 euros. The working time constitutes half the cost price of “made in France”, unlike “made in China” where it is a bare minimum.”

Read also The founder of 1083 bets on French denim

To the economic and human difficulties - recruiting, training, etc. - are often added industrial problems to keep the "made in France" equation. Alexandre Rousseau cites the example of brass rivets, which the last French specialists have shut down. Thomas Huriez was confronted last year with the receivership of Valrupt Industries, a Vosges weaver who had supported him from the start. Exchange of good practices, his young company had (already) the kidneys strong enough to take over the activity in its bosom. “We retained 28 people out of the 50 employees. Since then, the workforce has risen to 40, and I do not despair,” confides this enthusiast who has created, since 2013, 65 direct jobs and 150 indirect with his brand 1083. “Will I succeed or not? That's not the point! he adds when asked about the limits of his approach. I consider that I have to do my part to change the world and so far all my efforts have been validated. We already consume in a more enlightened way than five or ten years ago. Any profound change takes time. I am convinced that we are only at the beginning of an awareness about clothing.

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