Ladies, here’s what we offer you (and it starts now!)

Flashback, Saturday June 15, 2019 to be exact.

It’s 10:55 a.m.

I am invited to a wedding in Pornic, in Brittany.

But it’s also the day we launch our first women’s capsule , made up of a shirt, jeans and a jacket:

At 11 a.m., when the sales open, I finish my tea, and respond to a few comments, with my phone's laborious internet connection.

I feel a certain nervousness, because I don't know at all what to expect, and this is the culmination of an idea that had sprouted in Geoffrey and I's heads in the spring of 2018.

As I explained, there were many objections to leaving this project as an idea, a sweet dream.

But we had strong convictions, and it was time for the trial by fire.

The first comments at 11:03 a.m. are very positive in any case.

I then slip away for about ten minutes to tie my tie knot (yes, I'm slow on tie knots), brush my shoes one last time and put them on, and I go back to my computer to monitor the sales.

And there the stocks of the three pieces are at 0 or almost.

600 pieces gone in 20 minutes, it's impossible, there must be a bug!

My stomach knots, worry rises.

Do you feel the anxiety coming? Having a stock bug on the day of the launch of a women's capsule, a project in which I was very emotionally involved, is really my ultimate fear.

Except that the team confirms it to me: no, no, the stocks are not bugged, it's just that everything is gone at lightning speed. Our eshop's server sputtered a little in the face of the large number of simultaneous connections, but it held up!

And then… I can tell you that I felt relief like I rarely do, a relief that made me feel very alive.

The shirt, in organic selvedge cotton voile from Japan ( and back in stock since! ), seems to have been particularly popular:

But now another question faced:

Okay, what’s next?

We took the time to think. What was certain is that our convictions from 2019 are intact and have been strengthened.

We always believe in:

• even more transparent and sincere women's fashion,
• to consumers who want to be informed in detail about the clothes they buy,
• who are not (or no longer) attracted by a crossed out price, but by a justified price and explained quality.

More than ever, I want to destroy this myth of the caricatured female customer, an objection that was raised to me on many occasions when we talked about our women's collection project:

"But Benoit, women don't care about the weight of the fabric of a jean, the material of the buttons on a shirt, or the origin of the leather! Stop with that! You'll scare them away!"

(I promise I'm barely exaggerating)

More than ever, we believe that our experience in men's ready-to-wear in terms of manufacturing, choice of fabrics, and even hidden technicalities, can be profitable for women.

I'll take the example of the shirt once again, but I find that it perfectly symbolizes what a BonneGueule garment for women should be: an organic material woven on old looms, a relief, etc.

Women should have access to:

• with textured Japanese fabrics woven on old looms, with fragile but still preserved know-how,
• with Italian Margom soles, the reference in high-end soles,
• French and Italian fabrics with magnificent know-how,
• to fabrics that become more and more beautiful as they age, and not the other way around as in fast fashion,
• with well-thought-out details, such as truly functional interior pockets, or coat pockets lined with fine fleece,
• in winter with state-of-the-art thermal insulation, such as Climashield, while keeping a room with a very urban design ,
• beautiful and rain-resistant materials, so you don't need to take an umbrella.

You see, the program is going to be very busy!

Putting words to our beliefs

To formalize our thinking and better communicate it within our teams, Geoffrey and I sat down and wrote a document that summarizes our entire vision and strategy. To give you an idea, here is the summary:

For example, this is how we communicated our vision for our women's collection:

This type of document allows teams to be well aligned… and to create discussions! For example, with Geoffrey, we modified and retouched it several times to further clarify certain intentions or on the contrary to give more freedom ("enlarge the playing field") to the teams.

What are we planning for 2021? Our secret plan

2021 will be the year where we will gradually roll out four launches for women:

• the first is Saturday May 29, 2021 for the launch of our pair of sneakers,
• then it's in July for a capsule of three clothes for the summer,
• then in September, there will be a sweatshirt, a jacket/blouse, white jeans, and the return of our raw jeans,
• and in November, you'll see, a little surprise doesn't hurt!

And in 2022, we will reach our cruising speed with a collection of several dozen pieces, and a women's stylist specially recruited for the occasion, who will work in (very) close collaboration with the product division and me.

See you Thursday, May 27 for the article presenting our first sneakers for women! And I will be live Friday May 28 at 6 p.m. live on our Instagram account to present this pair to you from every angle.

To avoid missing anything:

And in the meantime?

We made a few restocks on our first women's capsule, there is still stock here: