“I start from the principle that everything is possible”: Romain Biette, founder of Ardentes Clipei – Déclic #9

COSTUME, DISCOVERY AND AWARENESS

“My father is in a suit every day. He is a lawyer. I was born in 1990 and in those years, dressing in a suit and tie was still something accepted. With lawyers, this is completely normal. My father likes to dress well, nothing more, but I liked the way he dressed. I also liked cinema.

Cinema is something that my father passed on to me : he showed me films where people were well dressed. I liked it. My first memories of clothing are there. There is also militaria: I love everything linked to military history. I always found the uniforms very beautiful.

This all came very early, when I was a child. I started dressing in costumes when I was 16 . I had a fairly chaotic school career. I ended up in a school where you had to wear the costume - I had asked my parents because I needed management. It didn't work at all but I liked being in costume. I was able to start wearing them at that point. I haven't really stopped wearing the costume since .

I say that but of course I had plenty of periods. When I was a teenager, Diesel was fashionable, for example. So I wore Diesel, low-rise jeans, American Apparel V-neck t-shirts. I tried. What I realized, and this is what among other things pushed me towards formal clothing, was that I really looked like an idiot when I was in a t-shirt .

I'm not naturally muscular. I never managed to develop myself through sports. I know Nicolò well, who I follow and who gave me some advice. But I'm not a thoughtful person. I don't want to make a five-year plan to build muscle and when I was a teenager I wanted it even less.

The shirt allowed me to visually expand immediately, without having to change my body. The costume is a bit of a logical next step. Well-tailored pants can make you taller, less fat, etc. Same thing for a jacket. A well-tailored jacket can cut you into a V shape, give you shoulders when you don't have any, and soften your shoulders when you have too many.

This is the kind of thing that came little by little, naturally. I researched, I learned, I tried. When I was at university, I also had a bit of a workwear period. It was a bit fashionable at the time, in 2010. There was a blog that I really liked: Redinguote.

I was one of the first to contribute to the Lawig crowdfunding campaign. I bought one of their wallets, I really like what they do. I was very inspired by them and the brands they were promoting during that period.

I think it plays a role in my career. The objective of this new boutique +, which is larger, is for example to be able to also sell products that are a little less tailoring, formal, and to go a little more towards casual, workwear, military inspiration. -wear . It's more in line with the way people dress and that's something that interests me too. »

HONG KONG, CLICK AND LEARN

“Both my parents are lawyers. I grew up in the west of Paris, with people who did intellectual jobs. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good in class. I was very interested in cinema and clothing , I was not destined to work in an office. In any case, it didn't show in my passions.

My parents didn't necessarily understand it that way. In their entourage, there were no people who worked in cinema or clothing. They wanted to protect me by making me do general studies. The threat, when I had bad grades, was to put me in a technical school. The technical high school in France is unfortunately still considered the place where stupid people are put.

I restrained my passions, so as not to end up in a technical school. I did a general baccalaureate ES, so economics. Then I went to law school. The idea was to continue doing something a bit general. At the same time, I worked every summer to pay for things and clothes. I was trying to find internships or jobs that matched everything I liked: crafts, clothes .

My first summer job was packing boxes at Bazar Chic. I also worked at Poiray, a jewelry brand. In 2013, I worked for one of the brand's Hong Kong suppliers, which links factories in mainland China and companies. It was watches and costume jewelry.

I wanted to go to Hong Kong. There's a store there that I really like called The Armory and that inspired me a lot. Hong Kong was also a city that attracted me. He was a French entrepreneur who had started his business there, from scratch. It fascinated me.

I always had in mind to set up my company: it was part of my desires, to create something . In short, I loved it. I spent a month there. It was absolutely brilliant. The man I worked for was very interesting, he opened my mind a lot. We talked all the time. I asked him questions about his career, I followed him in his work. I was a bit of his assistant.

And then the city itself is great, with a dynamic that you don't find in Paris. In Paris, everything is on hold. It's magnificent, I love it, I was born there, I've lived there all my life and I would have a hard time leaving. On the other hand, there is a somewhat fixed side and then we pay so many taxes for everything...

When you have a business, it's very difficult to move forward. The banks are very cautious so it's difficult to get loans. Whereas in Hong Kong, everything goes very quickly. You can find an investor, it costs nothing to create your company. It's very simple, there is no paperwork. If you earn money, the Hong Kong state gives you nationality and ensures that you can stay. It was a shock for me.

I'm back in France. It was 2013 and I decided to stop studying law and do what I always wanted to do. I trained to become a tailor, offered by the Association of Master Tailors of France . In the 80s and 90s, this represented several thousand people. Today, it's maybe five or 10 people. In 2014, there were already not many people...

The training taught me to sew for two years. I had never sewn in my life, I didn't know how to do that. It was quite complicated because I didn't have any ease but I was tenacious. After attending this school, I set up my company directly. I couldn't see myself working at Cifonelli or Camps de Luca. I didn't necessarily have the profile: I was 25 when I finished my studies, rather old when you want to become a craftsman.

I still lived with my parents. I didn't feel like earning the minimum wage for years, living like a student or a young working 25 year old. It depends on the people of course but at a certain point, we want to settle down. I said to myself “ for that matter, I’d rather earn zero as an entrepreneur than earn a pittance.” When you start from zero, you can move up. When you are a craftsman or a small hand in a workshop, it is more complicated. I understood this when I crossed over to the other side.

I rode Ardentes Clipei in 2015 . I have been very lucky. Back in the days of the wealth tax, you had the ability to invest up to 25% in a start-up and you had a tax credit on it. I met a person who had a company specializing in this: his job was to find companies so that his clients could invest in them. He loved my project.

I was able to start like that. I had a small room, I was on rue de la Boétie in the 8th, on the courtyard. I bought myself a small tripod, I took photos of myself. It started like that. I immediately focused on the half measure but aside from that, I tried to continue on the big measure, my initial training. So working by hand, putting the garment together by yourself.

I worked with a tailor based in Rouen for a year and a half at the same time as my company Ardentes Clipei. It did not work. I understood that I could not live decently as a craftsman, that it would be too complicated.

When you make tailor-made suits by hand, it's 70 hours of work, three fittings, you are obliged to sell it normally for at least 4,000 euros. When you go for this type of suit, you don't go to Romain Biette: you go to Cifonelli or Camps de Luca.

I was too junior and the master tailor I worked with had too narrow a vision of the profession for me. The whole Instagram thing didn't interest him at all. I then decided to stop working with my hands and to assemble clothes and I focused on half-measures, where I continued to make alterations and finishes by hand, sometimes even making additions . »

AESTHETICS, SOURCES AND FORUMS

“In my initiatory journey, when I was a student, I started with The Sartorialist, a gigantic source of inspiration for me. I scrolled for hours to see the photos that inspired me, Pitti Uomo , etc. It was a dream for me. A dream place.

I followed the forums a bit too. I wasn't registered and I wasn't posting because I didn't think I had anything to contribute. But I always loved watching . When I mentioned cinema earlier, what I liked was seeing. In the same way, I always loved passing someone elegant on the street. Or not, just a pretty face. Aesthetics interest me, whether in clothing or in general . This is why I love Paris, the architecture, etc.

Forums weren't really my thing. I was one of the first readers of Parisian Gentleman . As soon as an article came out, I read it. It fascinated me. I read a lot of The Bespoke Dudes, Permanent Style, Redingote. A bit Like a truck and BonneGueule too. But less so, because they were blogs that I discovered at a time when I had already moved on to something else.

I also think of things that no longer exist like High Toned or a blog that I loved: Le Chouan des ville. He was a guy who just talked. A provincial reactionary, traditional Catholic, who spoke of the France of the past. It was beautiful, so well written. He spoke of the elegance of certain artists, of statesmen, of filmmakers, of elegance in general . It was almost philosophical in approach, very beautiful, very interesting. When I started setting up my company, however, I was less interested in all that because I had already moved on to the other side. »

MEASUREMENT, MEETINGS AND FIRST STEPS

“Ready-to-wear is a profession that I have discovered for 5 months, since I have had this store. Before, I didn't design clothing other than through measurement , the one I sold at least. What really appealed to me was the measurement and advice approach, the fact that the garment is made, cut and assembled for you , with the fabric, lining and details that you have chosen. I always saw it like that.

But there is a small community that exists around clothing and shoes. Ptti Uomo and Instagram have contributed a lot to this. I have always been very curious about others , to meet people who interested me. For example, there was a guy on Instagram who I really liked, Allan Baudouin, who created a brand now called Baudouin & Lange.

I met him in 2016 or 2017, before he teamed up with Bo Lange. It was then only Allan Baudouin, only moderation. It was mainly videos: I loved seeing Allan putting on his pumps in a tiny thing in Shoreditch in London. I said to myself “this is so stylish, I absolutely have to meet this guy!!”.

My girlfriend at the time was studying there so I went there regularly. We then met Allan. He explained to me that it wasn't easy, because he assembled the shoes with a guy a bit like my master tailor in Rouen. His barely spoke English, he had a somewhat narrow vision of his craft and customers weren't necessarily able to understand what he did.

Allan told me something that I found absolutely brilliant: " I don't do measuring for fun, I do it because I don't have the money to finance my stock . I have to make a mistake." by piece". Wow, I didn't understand the measurement that way at all! I didn't tell myself that it was to have better inventory management.

It was more like “I’m going to do what I want and we’re going to see if it works or not”. This is where I was very lucky because I did a bit of nonsense at the beginning. I hadn't done any market research. There is very little market research on the subject anyway: it is such a niche profession .

When you do half measures, you have all the prices: things made in China at 300 euros that you can buy online up to Camps de Luca or Cifonelli at 6500 euros entry price, with 500 levels of finishes and of different qualities. You are going to have different types of services, big companies, small companies. It was very complicated for me to know where to place myself.

I was a little groping about it at first. Fortunately I took measurements: that’s precisely what saved me ! If I had done ready-to-wear, I probably wouldn't have made the right investments at the beginning. I am very demanding, I wanted the best. At the beginning, I had everything made in Italy. I would have sold too much, I wouldn't necessarily have found my customers, I would have been left with a lot of products on my hands, it would have been quite complicated.

I stopped manufacturing in Italy to work with other workshops in Portugal, Romania and Poland for shirts. I understood after a while that the most important thing is not “where is it made?” but “is it well made?” , that it is consistent with the price that the customer is prepared to pay. It took me two or three years. Luckily I had this early investor and started small. »

BIG MEASURES, HALF MEASURES AND REALITIES OF THE BUSINESS

“When I was in my tailoring school, I was in dreams, with the image of the master tailors guardians of the temple and in fact, they are the guardians of the temple. We sometimes hear some people say “it’s sad that there are no more craftsmen to make costumes”. Except that the reality is that there are no more customers. This is already an answer to the problem. Why are there no more craftsmen? Because there are no more customers .

And then the other problem is that the artisans who make these clothes are very often people who have no other training than artisanal training, sometimes even training as specialized workers. That is to say, they are only part of the costume.

They sometimes found themselves masters of their destiny against their will, forced to become self-employed because their boss had either died or retired, without knowing how to manage the business. One of the reasons why there was no generational continuity in this profession is that we found ourselves with lots of workers who did not have the capacity to transmit their knowledge, either because that they only had part of the knowledge either because they did not have the financial means to do so, because they did not have the customers or did not know how to reach them.

Today, we have a few large houses and this figure is gradually falling. Lanvin closed its large-scale workshop just around the time of Covid. It was a process that had been underway for a very long time. These few houses that still exist today exist because they have an international clientele . They are not necessarily narrow by choice but by obligation. The 6,500 euro costume, entirely handmade, is also a choice they were forced to make.

Before, when you went to the tailor, you had all the finishing qualities. There was no ready-to-wear. There were small local tailors, tailors for princes, for kings. Those who remain have been forced to focus on very, very high-end customers to be able to justify the difference with half measures . That's the costume in a big way.

As for the half-measure costume, it will depend on the houses. You have people who want to have a very strong home style. Here it's narrow by choice: it's a style, like ready-to-wear, but in half measures. That is, a house lapel shape, a house width, a house shoulder shape or a house jacket length. You are purchasing a house style.

For my part, I positioned myself a little differently. I decided to start from the principle that I was neither a craftsman nor a creator . I don't give my name, but I advise, I support the client, whether they come with a very precise idea or not.

If he comes with a very specific idea, it's simple: I just have to listen to his instructions and do my best to ensure that the entire chain that will assemble the garment follows my client's instructions, to ensure that it fits perfectly, etc.

If I have a client who knows nothing, who has no idea, then I will support them as best I can to find out what they want. Even if you have no idea, you often have ideas of what you don't like . This allows you to gradually put together a costume.

I have the possibility of making clothes a bit like I wear today, very classic, old-fashioned. This is what I enjoy wearing today: high-waisted pants, fairly wide pants, very structured shoulders, fairly wide lapels, fairly long jackets .

Most of the costumes I make are either for weddings . Either for business: for example, people between 25 and 40 years old, who want something fairly fitted, a fairly short jacket, natural waist pants.

But if I have a client who wants an ultra-unstructured suit, I can make it for them. If someone wants something very structured, I can make it for them. I have 6000 fabric references. I work with Italian fabrics, English fabrics, very heavy fabrics, very light fabrics, summer, winter or mid-season fabrics. I try to be as open-minded as possible .

I'm talking about marriage or business but I also have people who come for pleasure to make a piece that they saw in a film or something that they imagine. We can try. It becomes more and more complicated in half measures because the principle of half measures is that you have a limited framework .

But I work with several workshops that have frameworks that are more or less limited . I also work today with a master tailor. I continued to offer this service and this level of quality by delegating it to someone whose job it is, who does this every day. So we can propose a cinema or theater play.

If a customer wants a Napoleonic hussar type jacket, you can make that yourself. In principle, it amuses me. Afterwards, the truth is that it costs a lot when you do that. When you go for something that has nothing to do with the base, it will cost you the cost of the large measure , so 4000, 5000, 6000 euros. Often people who have desires like that don't necessarily have the means, so it doesn't always succeed but I suggest it. I'm open.

At weddings, people want more and more original things : bohemian weddings, bohemian chic, country chic, fabrics that are winter but summer, etc. Sometimes they come in on a pretty tight budget and they want amazing fabric but in reality it doesn't work like that .

If you want something original, it's going to cost you money and it's not up to me. It's simple: I have a margin that is the same for all my products, which allows me to pay my employees.

Today, I have my wife working with me, three apprentices, two in retouching and one in the store. We have a store, we offer coffee, we do whiskey tastings, etc. In short, there is a service, we take care of you, we don't count the hours . For some colleagues, it's 45 minutes of hands-on order taking. For me, it could last two hours. I want the customer to be comfortable, but on the other hand, that's not the minimum. I can't.

I have managed to find consistency between the price I charge and my services in the sense that I have found workshops which work at very reasonable prices if we compare on the market. What will really determine the price is the fabric.

If you want exceptional fabric, it's going to cost you a lot of money . If you want a simple VBC fabric, it will be much less. If you want a green, we're going to have a green in our first prices but if you want THE green that you saw on Pinterest, you want this specific shade of green, if I don't have it in my first prices, it you'll have to move on to the higher ranges and it won't be me who pushed you to do that. It will be your choice.

I wanted to distinguish myself from my predecessors. For generations before, the final price was not necessarily taken into account . The margin could vary depending on the customers. For my part, I know the price of the fabric in advance because I took the time to make additions: manufacturing price + my margin + fabric price, applied to all my bundles of fabric. When the client comes home, I can tell them how much it will cost them at the time of the appointment. There are no distinctions.

If prices increase, which happened in January with inflation, Brexit and Covid, we are not directly impacted too much but our fabric manufacturers are. The wools come from Australia and New Zealand. Here I'm really getting into something not sexy, but the price of the container has exploded and our fabric manufacturers are very upset. You already have to find the container, then you have to pay for it.

Prices have increased twice, three times, four times. They cannot increase in the same way because there would be a gigantic gap in the final price: the customer would not understand, would not want to hear that it is linked to the price of the container. He's not interested. This is the reality of my job. »

MEASUREMENT, A PLEASURE AND AN EXPERIENCE

“There are people who come to me and say “so as soon as I buy something, it’s a perfect fit”. It's true that there are people with a "model" size. In ready-to-wear, you have a morphological base . You have a pattern maker who declared at one point "a size 50, he's a guy who is 1m75 and 70kg, he has shoulders that are 42 wide, he has arms that are 65 long, etc."

In short, a framework. Knowing that each brand will use different patterns and that in a brand you can have three, four or five patterns because they have worked with five factories, that there are costumes from the previous year, that you can have several cuts (fitted, straight). Either you fit into this framework perfectly, which is impossible, otherwise it was done for you and you are the basic boss, which is very rare. Either you accept the fact that you do not fit perfectly well, taking into account more or less important things. Shoulder width, if it goes wrong, it's still very unpleasant.

You have brands that determine that a size 50 jacket is a size 42 pants. It will be too bad for you if you are a size 44, you will not have the pants in your size. It is still very limiting.

As a measure, there are people who don't exactly fit into the ready-to-wear pattern, but above all what I recommend for my part is experience : that's what makes the difference. I don't have the watch in my hand. In ready-to-wear, you are in a logic of return. You have collections that need to be sold.

The other thing is a frustration that I have always felt when buying ready-to-wear. When you have a very small idea of ​​something, dreams, desires, you never find what you want . The jacket is always too short, the check is always a little too strong, the fabric too fluffy or too smooth, the pants are too low-waisted... Or you would have preferred with cuffs or with pleats.

It's very rare that the match is completely done. You have a designer who has made a collection and offers it to you. Either you accept it or you go elsewhere. What I appreciate in half measures is that I am serving the customer . If he has a specific idea, I will try to achieve as much as possible what he wants. It's awesome ! I would have a hard time going back today. It is so nice.

There are a lot of things today that I have a hard time getting formatted for. If I do it, it is generally not for comfort but for practicality or for cost, because it costs less. Furniture, for example: I have neither the money nor the time nor the culture to go and make custom furniture .

That being said, tailor-made is exceptional. The advice side is very important. If you have readers who are having trouble making the transition, it may be a question of confidence. That's what's complicated: you have to trust the person who takes the measurements. »

COSTUME, TECHNIQUE AND THE FUTURE

“Modern costume was born at the end of the 19th century in England, in a society which was very standardized at the time. You had the suit for tennis, the suit for golf, the suit for lunch or dinner, for when you received your loved ones or more prestigious guests. So the costume was a uniform .

One of my English suppliers told me that one of the reasons why the English are still very standardized in this sense is that they still have uniforms at school. They are trained from a young age to wear clothes according to occasions .

In France, it is perhaps much less strong. On the other hand, there is a context where people continue to dress: it is marriage . It is the last place where there are traditions, things expected and things that would not be accepted. The costume is one of them.

If you are not dressed for your wedding, there are many people who will not understand: the grandmother, the old aunt, even your friends. In the traditional view, there is a celebration of some kind followed by a party. We make an effort, we organize ourselves and therefore we get dressed.

Apart from that, this is no longer the case at all. Covid came to affect the last sector of activity where people continued to dress out of obligation and standardization: this is the business sector , bankers or business lawyers, because they no longer see their clients.

So they are perhaps still "dressed" better than the average in the sense that they continue to make an effort for the sake of status : you have to wear a shirt, chinos, maybe a pair of moccasins or a mix between moccasins or sneakers, Loro Piana shoes with rubber soles. In short, people will try to find in-between clothes, polo shirts, etc. But they don't wear the costume anymore.

That's always been part of my goal, except that people come with the idea that I only make suits, but actually, you don't have to buy a suit from me : you can buy a suit, just the jacket, just the pants or even a coat.

You can also now buy chinos, jeans, have jeans made to measure, quilted vests in flannel or synthetic Patagonia type even if I think it's a shame to buy custom-made synthetics. In itself, you can. We even make flex-tailoring suits, elastic suits that you can machine wash, dress pants with elastic waistband and drawstring, etc.

It’s really something that I like: our workshops try to move towards that, towards the technical. It’s relevant: if there’s one thing that will allow us to continue to offer quality clothing, it’s technique . This is one of the things I push to measure.

It's also linked to how you use it: are you going to wear your suit once? Are you going to travel with it? Wear it in hot countries?

That's a bit how I see the future of my job: offering more casual, tailor-made things . For example, make great custom-made pants in fairly thick cotton or in winter, moleskin, corduroy or coats. Coats are something you wear because it's cold, they're items that are immediately expensive.

In ready-to-wear, they very often use synthetics or just 5% cashmere. I can sometimes offer cheaper for equivalent quality. For example, at Ralph Lauren , the polo coat in pure camel hair costs 2,600 euros. At home 1600 euros. So 1000 euros cheaper, for a tailor-made garment, where you will be able to choose all the details, the width, the length .

This is something that will continue. I do educational work. Via Instagram, I try to push people to go to this type of piece and to say to themselves " Romain is not only there for my wedding suit, he can be there for my coat, for chinos, shirts in flannel or denim , etc."

All of these are things that I want to develop and offer to my clients. We're almost there already: the suit as I wear it today, in flannel and 80s Wall Street style stripes , people will perhaps continue to wear it for fun or for pleasure, but people don't already wear it more to show their power, their wealth or their status.

Today, I even have bosses who tell me “I don’t want to seem like a boss” . I tend to have interns or juniors who come to make costumes because they are passionate about clothing . These people will remain the exception.

So the idea is to go for something more casual . If the customer wishes. That will remain the key word. This is the most complicated side of my strategic positioning and communication: succeeding in making people understand that you can do everything with me. I am not closed. I'm not going to judge you because you want to wear a black suit or a fitted suit. I am here to make your dream, your desires come true.

On the other hand, I will advise you if I think you are making a mistake. Its very important. If I think the client is going to make a mistake that he will regret, I will tell him “sir, it’s your suit, you’re the one who’s going to wear it, but I want you to know that I warned you, that I advised you that it was not a good idea but you do what you want.” That's really the key word for me: I start from the principle that everything is possible. »

CINEMA, A HISTORY OF COSTUMES AND GENERATIONS

“I have several passions. I love history, architecture, clothing but I also love cinema . As soon as I have a client who works in any way in the cinema, I will try to chat with him. As soon as I meet someone who likes cinema, I go and discuss it with them: it fascinates me, and not just cinema with beautiful costumes either.

Because the other thing that interests me enormously is people . Cinema is the reflection of many things: it highlights our strengths and our weaknesses.

On the clothing side, you have incredible films where people are very well dressed . For example “The Godfather”. The production was chaotic, it was apparently horrible but the film itself is a slap in the face every time I see it. I've seen it fifteen times - all three. I'm completely blown away every time.

The costumes are crazy. It contributes to the quality of the film. In “Apocalypse Now,” another Coppola film, same thing. Everything is so on point: the casting, the image and the clothing .

There are films that I love because they are stylish. For example all the films from the 60s in France with Lino Ventura and Jean Gabin. I watch them both because I love the movie and because the costumes are so beautiful .

There are also films with Delon or Belmondo. Some are perhaps a little less good, like the Sunday films that we go to see to relax a little. The films of the time, eh. It's still ten times better than most current blockbusters! We feel like that was part of the thing. Delon or Belmondo were not necessarily very well dressed people. But on the other side, you had people like Bernard Blier, Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, who were super-dressed all the time .

For our parents' generation and even a little before, everything post-68, there were plenty of things to change but at the same time we rejected outright a thousand years of history. My generation has taken back possession of a lot of things with the Internet , and that's great!

Cinema and France are magnificent. It took me a little while. My father showed me some pretty advanced stuff like “Excalibur” when I was 6 years old. There were scenes that I didn't necessarily understand.

My favorite movie is Once Upon a Time in America. Everything is perfect in this film. All. I'm not necessarily a huge music fan, but Ennio Morricone's music in this one is incredible. That said, seeing him at 8 years old was perhaps a little early.

Afterwards, to go back to my generation, I too ate triangle sandwiches and I dressed in synthetics, and in a very Americanized way . One of the things that makes people come back to measuring is that we are now going back to the grocer. It's the local side. I don't do this for that, but it makes me happy to know that there are people who live in the neighborhood and who enjoy buying from me.

It's something that I also sell: I'm there every day, from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday. Whatever happens, it will always be me, a bit like the butcher.

There are people who want to give meaning to the way they dress . For example, something that doesn't exist among clients of my generation: I have very few clients who have their wives or girlfriends dress them . It's quite rare. In our parents' time, it was almost systematic. There were a lot of husbands who didn't care or who were crushed by their wives. Very often, when you try to dress someone, it doesn't work .

Certainly, there are people whose job it is. But if we take for example the release of the latest James Bond, there was quite a thing during the big premiere in London. Daniel Craig wore a pink double-breasted velvet jacket .

Everyone was talking about it because it was very tight. What I learned is that it was Daniel Craig who wanted her to be like that. This was largely done in Savile Row , by a very successful house called Anderson & Sheppard. I was very surprised that they accepted this thing.

Except that Daniel Craig had style advisors and when you go to their Instagram account, you see that tailoring is not their thing. It's really something catastrophic: you have plenty of films today where the costume designers are completely off base , because that's not their job. This is definitely something we feel among costume designers in current productions. Maybe it's a lack of knowledge or interest. It's a shame.

For the record, I proposed to my wife in California. I went there partly because I love cinema and I wanted to go to Los Angeles. Everything is connected ! There is also some second-hand stuff there, with movie costumes that are resold. It's awesome !

There are two or three companies that make costumes for productions, with people who work incredibly hard. It's something I admire in Hollywood and at the BBC in England, all these people of exceptional quality.

The number of BBC productions like “Downtown Abbey”, “Hercule Poirot”, more recently the mini-series “And They Were None” which I recommend . It is the adaptation of “Ten Little Negroes” by Agatha Christie, with Charles Dance who plays in “Game Of Thrones”. Everyone is dressed super well, I love the art deco of the house in the show, etc. This is so cool !

In France, we still know how to do a lot of things well in cinema but I don't get it right. There are certain subjects that we don't know how to do: history, for example. Some will tell you that it's because it's not profitable enough, but I rather think it's because it doesn't interest the cinema industry. They don't want to. Ending up with an adaptation of Napoleon by Ridley Scott is a bit sad . There are fashions too: the fashion for peplums after “Gladiator”, the fashion for films about the Second World War, etc. »

THE SECOND HAND, THE PHYSICAL LOOK-Alike AND THE SHOES

“Military clothing for example, I find it so interesting. When I was a student, I only dressed in second-hand clothes . These are clothes that I still have, indestructible. I have an M65 from the Vietnam War that I bought at the Saint Ouen flea market. I went to get the original model, which I still have and which has not moved, which has taken the float, the snow, etc. »

Second hand is more a question of means than anything else. At the time, I couldn't afford to buy clothes or have them custom-made. In second-hand clothes, you can really get good deals.

Today, I still enjoy buying second-hand things from time to time, but not on a daily basis. I go there with my wife or with friends, but I don't really have time. I work six days a week. I want to change that, to have a day when I can go for a walk, see my friends, see the shops, get a little inspiration because I think it's important.

In any case, I recommend second hand . I have lots of customers who go to Ammar, a very tailoring-oriented thrift store. When it's not there, they come and have the part made at my place. They go beyond the “I don’t have money” part. These are people who, on the contrary, earn a good living and who are “established”. They do this because it amuses them.

For the record, I was very lucky, I have a friend in Berlin whose job was to collect lots of clothes, mostly English, to repackage them and sell them to Berlin. I worked with him at the beginning, he was my “business bringer”. I came to Berlin every two months. I came to complete his offer.

One day he said to me: "I have an Austrian nobleman whose entire wardrobe I collected, it's incredible and I think he's your physical double." I try and it was really made for me, in the style of the time. Costumes from the 80s to the 90s, a bit dated because it was an old Austrian, so old-fashioned style, a bit massive.

I collected shirts, suits, a jacket, a tuxedo and a coat, the tailcoat. And everything suits me perfectly : it's incredible! I didn't even hesitate. I liked the idea of ​​being able to extend the story of these clothes . I don't like dead stocks.

Second-hand shoes are perhaps the most “touchy” point. There is an English expression which says "to be in someone else's shoes". I am very good friends with Malfroid . Victor the founder is a very good advisor. All my life, I thought that I was a size 45 and then a one day he told me "no, you're a size 44 or 44.5, it depends". In short, he recommends the best size depending on the pair of shoes and the shape.

WOMEN'S FASHION AND THE ESSENTIAL OF THE BUSINESS: THE CUSTOMER

“I'm dressing my wife Anna little by little. She serves as a bit of a guinea pig for me. We have a few clients, mainly partners or wives of clients, who are trying the experience. We are in a bit of a construction phase.

Women are truly a very different world , from a marketing, strategic and psychological point of view. Women are all different, like men, but there are thought patterns that are inherent to our nature, our personality or our society.

Women have a relationship with clothing that is very different from men . So we're going very slowly. Anna and I take a lot of inspiration from an Australian brand called Patrick Johnson. He is a tailor, who works with his wife. They launched a women's range and it's magnificent: the products, the store. Perhaps one day, when we want to take women seriously, we will distinguish in the same way.

From a business point of view, making gender neutral clothing is better. The term is something else but “unisex” does it. For some products, this makes sense. A loose t-shirt works. A sweater works. Very loose pants too. Afterwards, what I try to find as a craftsman is not to dress women like men . Unless they want to. I try to dress a woman like a woman, with her personality, etc. I am in the same approach as for the man. It's really a wish, something essential for me and that I want to preserve: the most important thing is my client . »