Everything was going like clockwork though.
On Friday November 25, 2022, on the 5th floor of a Parisian building, a man ponders in front of a pile of clothes spread out on the floor in front of him.
This pile of clothes is decisive for the clothes you discovered with us this year. Because the man in question is Julien. Our head of collection.
Julien doesn't cover the floor with Italian fabrics and Egyptian cotton for the sake of it: he ensures that the outfits from our spring/summer 2023 collection will be inspiring for you and consistent with each other. A team effort that I detail behind the scenes of our latest summer new products, to discover here.
And precisely, for the product team, the whole thing is not inspiring enough. A touch of relief is missing to challenge, energize,
Last year, it was the paisley design of our Niijima shirt that guided the spring/summer theme. We found it on several garments, even in the lining of our Leonor chinos for example.”
A summer patterned shirt is just what we need! The team then thinks of a selection of designs printed in the office next door. A loot brought back from a fabric hunt in a textile fair.
Sarah, our product manager, goes to get the samples and it clicks:
The team doesn't think it's bad. Julien thinks the motive is strong but the more he talks about it with the team, the more he realizes that he ticks all the boxes.
First of all, this floral design is cool. It recalls the Hawaiian shirts of the unmistakable Tom Selleck in Magnum, an iconic American series from the 80s.
At the same time, we wouldn't jump into the cliché with our feet together while wearing it. Its color gradients, which almost appear hand-painted, make its vintage aesthetic more subtle.
This way of flirting with kitsch without falling completely into it gives it a beautiful personality. Perfect for energizing the silhouettes of our spring/summer 2023 collection, but it still needs to fit well into the whole.
Here it is integrated into the mood board of the collection. At the bottom, in the middle, Julien has embedded the pattern on a photo of a shirt using his photoshop skills. And without AI, please!
Bingo: its touches of blue, terracotta and sage green respond to the dominant colors of the collection . A bit as if they were made to be part of it. It's so beautiful that Julien feels tears coming, which is completely false.
Fun fact: the planets are really aligning because at this time, we are also working on a vegetable-dyed shirt. With the flowers in this pattern, it could even make a theme for a special capsule.
The shirt project in question did not come to fruition but it shows the importance of thinking like that when you want to create collections that tell stories.”
(Besides, if an article on the little stories of the prototypes that we were never able to release interests you, now is the time to say it in the comments at the bottom!)
Still looking at his clothes laid out on the floor, Julien wonders where this shirt would fit. What if we slipped it under our new Bellagio costume for a special capsule?
“It will give a stronger statement to our costume collection! And it will give our community ideas to wear them with more fun.”
Julien takes a photo and goes around the offices to show the idea to the whole team.
It convinces! Especially since the fabric is woven by Trouillet, a French company with 15 employees that has existed since 1910. The product team has wanted to work with them for a while, for their creativity and to highlight a French company.
It's decided ! Get ready
(Photo credit: CBS)
Or at least get into Jordan's 308.
But so that there are not only 10 of you who can play “detective in Hawaii” like us, we need hundreds of meters of fabric. And for it to be released in our costume collection, it must be in stock from April 2023.
However, we are already almost in December 2022 and the production of a new garment involves:
- around 6 weeks of weaving, if we are lucky enough that the yarn is already available,
- then 10 days of printing to place the pattern,
- and 5 weeks of assembly in the workshop, if the latter is available over the right period
I've done the math for you: that means the shirt will arrive in stock at the end of February 2023 if all the odds are on our side. And at the moment, in the textile industry, they almost never are. Development
No time to waste, you have to put your foot down now!
Starting… and stalling
Julien sends an e-mail to Trouillet the same day.
The Trouillet team will respond to us the following Monday. This is the opportunity to take our wool/linen/silk cap to them for their availability and responsiveness.
Julien opens the email:
The good news is that we can make the fabric on time!
The least good: the design is designed in France but to limit the final price of the garment, Trouillet has the fabric woven in China. Blocking point for us.
This is often the case on printed fabrics because the cost of this printing is added to the final price of the garment. So obviously, for the latter to remain affordable, manufacturers must compensate by outsourcing certain stages.
And behind that, some brands can talk about fabric made in Europe when this is only the case for printing.”
For this key stage of manufacturing, we want to find a source that provides better certainty about working conditions.
Of course, Trouillet can very well relocate with trusted partners and this does not take away from its professionalism. Moreover, you can see that his team was immediately clear about the origins (verified in the following days). The final quality can be the same as in Europe too. The goal here is therefore not to denounce or stigmatize a manufacturing country, but to show you the nuances of the textile industry: when we have the opportunity to try to do better, we do it.
Printing in Portugal is a good compromise between local production (editor's note: since in Europe) and affordable price, knowing that our shirt is subsequently assembled there.
Yarn making cannot always be European, because this know-how is sometimes completely outsourced.
But there must be someone in Europe who weaves ecru (editor’s note: an untreated fabric) ready to print at an affordable price, right?”
This is what we are going to discover together! On the way to find:
- a poplin, so that the print has the same appearance as the Trouillet sample,
- with a count of 60 or close, to find the same supple hand (and not crunchy as with most poplins),
- untreated , to be able to apply a special treatment so that the ink sticks to the print,
- made from natural materials,
- and woven in Europe.
What is a 60 titration?
Warning: in this article, you will become a pro in this area. Please do not use this knowledge to attack the sellers you come across, because with great power comes great responsibility.
Level 1: Padawan of the Shirt
The count indicates the fineness of the yarn used. The higher it is, the finer the wire.
Our fabric from Trouillet has a count of 60. This means that there are 60 spools of thread (one spool is 768.1m of thread) for one pound of fabric (i.e. 453.6g). The higher the count, the more thread was needed to weave the same weight of fabric, and therefore the finer this thread was.
Higher counts, and therefore finer yarns, result in more refined fabrics and therefore particularly suitable for dress shirts. 70 for a poplin shirt that you wear with a suit for example. And if you have more than €400 to put into it, you can try the experience of a 300 titration. Good luck coming back to reality after wearing this.
Lower counts, and therefore thicker yarns, lend themselves to casual shirts with more hold and resistance.
While waiting for level 2, you are ready to join the ranks of our product team and go on the road with us!
Acceleration and collision in France
Friday December 9, 2022, Julien opens his emails.
OK, finally two good news:
- Our team will be able to develop the prototype in parallel with the fabric research to save time, because Trouillet can send 5 meters of its initial fabric to our workshop in Portugal.
- Trouillet has a fabric woven in France that could do the trick.
Now you need to know:
- if the finish of this fabric is the same, to ensure it will have the same supple hand
- if the price is not too high for us, and therefore for you ultimately,
- if the weaving time corresponds to our deadlines
The team is going!
They organize the sending of the 5 meters for the prototype. Charlotte grabs her phone and calls Trouillet to find out.
And there, the Ferrari takes a palm tree. Even two.
The first is the delivery time of the fabric: arrival mid-March. Add the 10 days of printing and 5 weeks of assembly of the shirt and you arrive at the beginning of May, too late for our launch in April.
The second is the minimum production: 1000 meters of fabric.
That would make a stock of 600 to 700 shirts.
This is for example possible for a sky blue chambray shirt, because it is a basic that everyone buys and that we wear all year round.
But for a piece with a more pronounced style that is worn more in spring and summer, you risk ending up with excess stock for two years. That generates a lot of storage costs and tied up cash for a structure like ours.”
We start again: Julien asks for the technical sheet of the fabric and the team sets off to travel the European roads in search of an equivalent fabric!
Well, OK, they look through their address book instead. But they still went out to buy candy at Franprix.
Turns and skids in Europe
Charlotte and Sarah first heat the Portuguese bitumen.
They email Somelos, who woven our Ofir shirt. A fabric is possible but by adding the cost of printing, the price becomes far too high to be able to offer you a shirt that does not break the €200 barrier.
They turn to TMG, which woven our Sistelo cargo pants. They have a double-ply fabric ready for printing… but woven in China, for the same reasons.
They are not giving up: can they weave an equivalent on site? YES !
And weave it quickly enough? YES !
And there, new collision.
No wire available, you have to wait for a new spinning, which will be far too long.
Drift 180 degrees. Direction: the Czech Republic!
Mileta made the refined fabric for our Avellino shirt there, they must have something?
That’s a yes! Is it woven in Europe? That's a no! Weaving in China. Definitely!
This is the kind of daily challenge that lies behind a brand's clothing. Behind ours. Behind a piece that you are wearing while reading these lines perhaps.
Between these hazards, those of our other designs and the development of prototypes, the clock is ticking: it is February 2, 2023 and the team is still at a standstill.
We are not discouraged: it is time to leave for Italy. Albini, weaver of our Volpaia shirt, has expertise that is as expensive as it is beautiful, but you have to try.
A finish line on the horizon, in Italy
Stroke of luck: Albini has just released a whole catalog of fabrics ready to print, with good availability.
Where are they woven? Can they offer them to us in our quantities? At what price ? Julien sends all his questions and Albini's agent answers him the next day.
Albini weaves some fabrics in Egypt but he does it himself, on a production site that belongs to him rather than to a partner. This allows him to have better control over the conditions and quality of the work. We are making progress.
Two fabrics can match us and be woven on time:
- The Byron Kent, with 120/2 count yarns for 12.50 euros per meter
- Futura, titration of 70/1, 9.95 euros per meter
Here, the pros that you are now will notice that you can read the titrations.
What is a 120/2 titration?
Level 2 of your shirt training: “Spinning Jedi”.
Two 120 count yarns can be combined to make a single 120/2 count yarn. The “2” therefore indicates that it is made up of two wires. We speak of twisted yarn, because these two yarns are twisted together to make one.
This new 120/2 yarn therefore has the thickness of a 60 count, but with more finesse in the feel.
Also note that you can weave a fabric from two threads with different counts to play on the texture of the fabric. For example, a 120/2 thread and a 60 thread.
We touch our Magnum detective shirt with our fingertips, but there remains a 1000 Hawaiian dollar question: how much will you pay for this shirt if we take one of these fabrics?
To find out, you must add to the initial price calculation:
- the costs linked to finishing the fabric and printing the pattern, which Trouillet therefore does separately,
- transport costs between Albini and Trouillet for the transfer of the fabric,
- Jordan's Prime Video subscription who went all Magnum again to get into character.
This calculation must take into account many other details such as adding printed fabric to make the pockets, the finishes chosen for the shirt, etc..”
Charlotte and Sarah go into detective mode to gather information such as the exact addresses of factories or the processing of fabrics by Albini.
Thursday February 23, 2023 (tick, tock), after several reminders and Excel formulas, the final price falls: €170 per shirt. We do not want to offer you this shirt at this price, which is too high compared to our other shirts of this level of manufacturing.
There, we ran out of gas in the middle of the road.
And guess who’s coming to supply us?
When the finish line becomes the starting line
Monday February 27, 2023, an email from Trouillet arrives:
By watching our team struggle to find this fabric, Trouillet visibly deepened his research.
The team digs into the lead and almost everything aligns: the price, the minimum order, the possibility of releasing the shirt in April and everything, woven in France!
Our regions have talent
Julien, Charlotte, Hélène, Landry and Sarah are very pleasantly surprised to discover that this fabric is woven by a company in southern Burgundy which has existed since 1986: Coublanc textiles.
To remain competitive in the face of globalization, they modernized in the 2000s by investing in modern “air jet” type machines, with optimized air and therefore electricity consumption. As their name suggests, these machines send the wires with a jet of air so that they crisscross, rather than with a shuttle. Today they have 70 machines.
They have also developed keen expertise in weaving technical yarns to establish themselves in the market for work and military fabrics. An expertise that will serve us well!
But as you saw, I said that ALMOST everything lined up: in fact, the count is not 60 but 50. The thread is therefore less fine than on the initial fabric.
We are not sure we will obtain the same flexibility and the same printing quality with a titration of 50. There is only one way to find out: do a test!”
The problem is that Coublanc does not have a sample available and the weaving will take too long. You must validate the order as quickly as possible so as not to receive the shirt too late!
So what do we do ?
We admire the agility of the Trouillet team, which sent us a test print on another sample woven in China but with the same quality.
Wednesday March 8, 2023, Julien receives the envelope and observes the fabric. He takes the time to compare it with the very first material he had focused on more than 3 months before.
Julien confirms: we got there!
Ultimately, the team finished its fabric race where it started: in France.
Sarah places the order the same day, for the printed fabric to be sent on April 12. Time to assemble the shirt in the workshop, arrival on our e-shop and in stores is therefore scheduled for May 24. So she won't be able to go out with our April costumes, but the team is happy to have managed to have her woven at home. It was worth it.
Especially since when Hélène checks the technical sheet when ordering, she notices that in fact, it is not a simple 50 titration, but a compact 50 titration!
What is a compact 50 titration?
Level 3: Jedi Master of the... no, we're not going to lie. It gets weird knowing so much so keep it to yourself: for the same count, a compact yarn is both softer and more resistant. It results from a more technical spinning process, during which the cotton fibers are compacted.
Why more resistant, then? Because by compacting the fibers, we increase the density of the yarn by 17% on average.
Why softer ? Because we also reduce the hairiness of the yarn by around 20%. To understand how that makes it softer, imagine the difference between a baby's cheek and Tom Selleck's. Yes, I told you it would be weird.
A good surprise then, but unfortunately not the last.
One last obstacle on the road
Tuesday April 4, 2023. We are supposed to receive the fabric for the shirt in 8 days... and Trouillet tells us that the weaving is almost a month late. We won't have the material until May 24 for assembly.
This is why some clothes in our collections arrive later than expected. And that's why it's difficult to announce precise release dates in advance.
When this happens, there's not much we can do.
Some brands ask for discounts from suppliers. I've had to do this working for other companies in the past. This is not the kind of relationship we want to have with our partners at BonneGueule.
A brand can also reduce the order in this case, but this is not interesting for our already reduced quantities. In the end, we will simply frustrate customers who arrive after a sell-out.”
We don't let ourselves be defeated. We are rescheduling the delivery date of the shirt with the workshop for June 14. When she arrives, our studio team, made up of Antoine B., Jordan,
Today our shirt finally arrived at its destination. You can come and try it in store or discover it directly on our e-shop. 9mm sold separately.
Head over to the comments section at the bottom to tell us what you thought of this behind-the-scenes tour and ask us your questions!
