Consumption: these small neo-Aquitaine companies that are betting on dressing you in French

But now in 2017, employment started to rise again (+3.6% in the workforce) with 2,000 new jobs. A thrill that has since been confirmed: the "made in France" that survived thanks to the specialization of France in biosourced and intelligent fabrics and thanks to the luxury fashion industry, takes on colors and expands to everyday clothing. Clothing for which imports are still largely the norm (85% of goods consumed in France) with some reason to hope that their percentage will be revised downwards.

This is the bet made by many small structures. Le Slip Français was one of the first to get the ball rolling. In New Aquitaine, although the territory is far from the cradles of the textile industry which are Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Grand Est, Vosges and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, initiatives "made in France " have seen the day. Behind this choice: the desire to give meaning to the word consume.

Weaving craftsmanship, transparency and ethics

April 24, 2013: 1,127 people die in the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, which housed several garment factories working for major international clothing brands. For Odile Dalla-Barba, it clicked. “I had lived almost twenty years abroad for my work. I had customers who got their supplies from this emblematic express fashion factory. I was shocked. I decided to retrain and launch a brand of eco-responsible and ethical shirts from Bordeaux, called But you're french. »

After completing her entrepreneurial Master's degree in 2017 in Bordeaux, Margaux Juranville appealed to crowdfunding to give life to her unisex clothing project, in organic cotton and made in France, and she also defended a desire to "produce differently". “The textile industry is the second most ^polluting industry. I do not claim to want to revolutionize the world but to act on my scale by offering local production, respectful of working conditions, transparent, limited in carbon footprint and qualitative. »

In the beginning, for Arthur Charle, his brother Tom and their sister Coline, young co-founders of Cocorico, timeless and affordable ready-to-wear from Bordeaux, the "made in France" represented rather the ease, "just to not run to Portugal for find manufacturing plants", but very quickly "in view of the existing know-how on French territory, our desire to co-construct with them and the desire of consumers to give meaning to their act of purchase, it has become a no-brainer,” says Arthur.

Maintenance of local employment and relocation

Once the ambition to manufacture in France has been established, all that remains is to find the industrial resources that will give life to the T-shirt, sweatshirt, boxer or shirt. "We made a tour of France of the factories", says Arthur Charle. Today Cocorico works with 11 partner workshops: the materials are knitted in units in the Somme, the Vosges and the Aube, the products made in the North and in Seine-Saint-Denis. A little detour to New Aquitaine for espadrilles, made in Pyrénées-Atlantiques. “We have developed with our partners economically viable and affordable products. We realized that fashion was imposing on itself standards that were part of a tradition and that made no economic sense. Like the neck tape in the T-shirt collar that we removed. We gain 3 to 6 minutes of stitching on a T-shirt. It's huge to compete with products made on the other side of the world,” continues the young co-founder. Cocorico does not hesitate either to accompany its partners in the investment.

But you're French had more difficulty finding a factory that met "the requirements of the know-how of the shirt". It was a workshop in Deux-Sèvres that made him happy. “He already works for luxury and has accepted my small structure. The plus is that he also does custom-made, an option that I am trying to develop and which has been successful. “Margaux Juranville, meanwhile, found her or rather her happiness in units in the Dordogne and a very small structure in Bordeaux.

Competitiveness and “made in France”, economically compatible

But in the end is it profitable and competitive to think of your entire production chain in France? “When people ask me the question, I answer: 'Is it normal to buy a 5-euro T-shirt?' Who will pay for the environmental and societal impact? If it's not the end consumer, it's someone else…”, says Margaux Juranville. An Until T-shirt is sold for 49 euros. “Made in France costs five to six times more than made in Bangladesh. The sale price of the French product is higher. We therefore play on the margin coefficient which is 2 or 3 for Until when it is 10 for an international brand. »

For Cocorico, the key, in addition to lowering its margin, is not having any stock. “30% of the price of a lambda garment is the cost of stock and the risk of not selling it. The manufacturer brings it to the consumer. Not us. We don't have seasonal collections but a timeless collection. We buy blank products from our partners and take care of printing or embroidery, on request, in our own factory in Lot. As a result, everything we produce is sold. And it's working, Cocorico is building volume: 210,000 products sold in 2020 with the prospect of multiplying by 3 in 2021.

https://www.cocorico.store; https://untilcollection.fr; https://butyourefrench.com