Advice from designer Valérie Berckmans for a more ethical brand
In 2006, you moved to the Dansaert district. This workshop-boutique was quite a bet, wasn't it?
If we put things in the context of the time, not so much. By 2006, some consumers were beginning to tire of fast fashion and were looking for more sustainable alternatives. Especially in this neighborhood which, in the 2000s, was at its peak. Dansaert embodied avant-garde Belgian fashion, but it also brought together a few designer boutiques such as Shampoo & Conditioner (the first project of designer Aude de Wolf, Ed.) or Conni Kaminski. And then, this district quickly allowed me to reach a very mixed clientele, both locals, French-speaking and Dutch-speaking, Walloons and tourists passing through the historic heart.
How did you get into fashion?
I first studied at university. A classic start. Then, I trained as a textile designer in Saint-Luc. Already at school, the teachers reproached me for the simplicity of my drawings. For my part, I already saw so much beauty in a well-designed sleeve that I refused to do more. My first steps in creation date back to 2003, but it all really started in 2006 with the store. As long as renting a workshop, I thought it was more logical to couple it to a store that would allow me to be in direct contact with my clients. For me, the notion of short circuit starts there. I never had the ambition to grow disproportionately or to tend towards a structure that would not fit with my values.
Valérie Berckmans in her boutique, with her close collaborator Théo Auquière.
You say you came at the right time. Why ?
There was again room for well-constructed clothing, a more distinctive style and a world of consumption that stood apart from the shopping frenzy usually associated with large international chains. I like exclusive things and pieces in small series. Nothing gives me more pleasure than hunting for old buttons to ennoble a shirt.
This morning, you joined us by bike. You're wearing a pair of vintage boots and running away from supermarkets. Can we say that your brand looks like you?
Indeed, I think that as a creator, but also as a consumer, we have an incredible social, political, urban planning power... If you applaud local initiatives, but continue to shop in supermarkets or to dress in fast fashion brands, town centers will empty out and small shops will gradually disappear. Sometimes, we have the impression that as individuals, we cannot change things. It would be forgetting a little too quickly that small streams make big rivers.
Even if, from the outset, you won over a public aware of the importance of dressing differently, we can imagine that in fifteen years, the sustainable fashion sector has changed...
In 2004, when I started to be interested in organic fabrics, the choice of colors was limited and not always very sexy. Today, we work with three manufacturers, mainly German ones. Their catalog is now rich with hundreds of references. They make custom striped fabrics for us or, as for this winter collection, a magnificent embossed organic cotton. When a garment is simple, every detail shows. We therefore do not neglect any of them.
Valerie's creations? Simple, well-constructed pieces, produced in small series.
This simplicity is not synonymous with an absence of femininity, on the contrary...
I am indeed more seduced by beautifully constructed dresses than by jeans and sneakers sets. It is not because we aim for ethics that we consider fashion as a vain concern. I attach particular importance to the enhancement of the female body. Not just when he's thin. We dress women from size 36 to a good 42. Each season, we reinvent our basics. Everything inspires me: a woman I meet in the street, a painting, a scrap of fabric... This winter, we notably made coats based on a mottled vintage wool which particularly inspired us. I like the femininity associated with the 30s and 40s, but I make sure to stay connected to our times. What interests me in fashion is to operate a great mix between yesterday and today and to offer my personal interpretation of all this. With Théo Auquière, my collaborator, we are trying to create a complete wardrobe, which makes it easy to combine the pieces with each other, but which is also easy to maintain and requires no ironing.
Your clothes are designed in the basement of your shop, then produced in small workshops, your long-time partners...
For me, this is obvious, but also a challenge. Two of these workshops are in the neighborhood, including one in the street. The third is in La Louvière and the last in France. I am aware of the price of clothes produced in Belgium. For the jersey pieces that we produce in larger series, I can offer better prices by having them produced in France.
For a handful of years, you have also been concerned by zero waste...
When you start worrying about what textile production produces as waste, even in the context of a small workshop like ours, you take on a big challenge, but one that is worth it. If, tomorrow, all world textile production stopped, we could still dress the entire planet for a hundred years. I started this process by creating a line of children's T-shirts, dresses and sweaters based on our fabric scraps.
Today, is your reflection more global?
I think the perfect balance is to buy less and buy better, to mix second-hand pieces, clothing in natural or recycled fabrics. This is an approach that I have long established with my children. I dress them in thrift stores, but from time to time, I give them a nice Aymara quality sweater, a brand that conveys the same values as mine and that I distribute at the shop. In the same spirit, I have also dedicated a corner of the store to a parallel project: Super Green Me, a selection of ethical products for the body and the home.
This selection of products is sold online, just like your label's clothes. For you, this choice of digital was not easy.
To appreciate our clothes, it is best to see and touch them, but during the confinement, we still decided to sell online. Beyond the purely commercial aspect of this approach, the web is an excellent showcase. Today, some customers make a pre-selection on the site before going to the store. It is also a good way to document the garments and explain our approach to our customers. As for social networks, I went a little backwards. I avoid collaborations with influencers that do not fit with the spirit of the brand. I think, somewhat naively, that if people really want to find us, they don't need networks. On the other hand, these networks allow me to convey a militant message and to make political gestures, in line with my project.
You are known for your dresses, but you also develop several models of pants.
We have created five or six cuts, just to dress women with very different morphologies, including a large model created in 2002, almost twenty years ago. The pattern is therefore totally profitable. When aiming for sustainability, this aspect is also essential.
If sustainable is popular, so is Belgium. Do you feel like you belong to a certain Belgian school?
I really like the cultural diversity of our country; a diversity that finds an echo in fashion. Each creator develops his own style without necessarily going through ego wars. The humor and the shift that most show make me hope that other projects will flourish in Brussels in the months or years to come.
And on your side, what drives you?
I hope to be able to reach a wider audience. Not out of a desire to grow, but to be able to fund my zero waste research and save more resources. My goal is to develop systematics in this area, but for that, we have to get out of the logic of non-profitability in which zero waste is still locked. Still in this desire not to overproduce, I would also like to identify even more precisely the desires and needs of people.
valerieberckmans.be
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