It's all hands on deck.
It is Saturday, September 22, 2018. No one is wearing a mask, work still means full offices and a few weeks ago, we brought the cup home.
But today, it's another fight: it's 10:54 a.m. and at 11 a.m., we're launching a clothing capsule in Japanese materials that we're very proud to have unearthed.
One of the stars of the week is her:
This is our very first workwear jacket and we have high hopes for it. We would like to be able to do it again later and for that, the bet must be successful. So, we're crossing our fingers and we can't wait to see what happens next.
In 6 minutes, we'll put everything online. Everyone wishes each other good luck on slack .
Oana spread the word to email subscribers. David already answers questions on the networks. Our teams welcome the first arrivals in stores. Simon monitor the e-shop so that nothing crashes because at the moment, we have ERP problems .
Anyway, we're all a little excited.
I've just arrived at BonneGueule and I'm discovering how it works, with a lot of curiosity and a little popcorn.
Starting signal ! And it crashes.
Images are not displayed.
In stores , computer stocks are poorly deduced and cause sizing errors . Our software is starting to bug payment systems.
So the team hangs on, rectifies, adjusts the stock, reassures customers and updates the photos on the e-shop throughout the day.
And you know what ? None of that stops you from giving this launch a great welcome.
In stores and on the e-shop, it's madness.
The page for our first workwear jacket is overflowing with orders. We get asked for it in every store. In a few days, three-quarters of the jackets flew off your shoulders.
It’s a successful bet and great news for the future: we’ll be able to make workwear jackets again!
Why am I telling you all of this ?
Because at that moment, the story of this piece (and especially of its material) is only just beginning.
She made people happy...
...and happy ones 🙋♀️
Already, there are messages from our first customers who are receiving it.
It makes the product team even happier to have found this stuff.
“I love workwear jackets, I needed one for every day and I was clearly seduced by the style of this one.
In addition, I like its robust material, which lives over time while retaining nice traces of aging.
And that’s what makes it unique!”
- Loic, member of the BonneGueule community
We invited Loic for a shoot around clothing sustainability and we had a great time. Hello if you read us Loic!
When people send us photos and we see it fading over the years, that means something to us too!
It must be said that it had very good patina potential. That's one of the reasons why we chose it and we couldn't wait to see what it was like.
One day, I meet Jade at the office and I notice that she is wearing it too.
“Hey! This is our workwear jacket, right?”
"Yes! It's a prototype. It's super comfortable!"
It's still 2018 and BonneGueule clothing for women is still just a project. So, in the office and in our stores, the women on the team sometimes wear our men's pieces while waiting for it to happen. Often better than us in fact.
"I really like the basket weave of the material and the way it is woven. It is very supple! People often ask me where it comes from when I wear it.
At work, I wear it with jeans and in the evening, rather with a dress. I like to create contrast with more feminine pieces."
- Jade, animation manager of our stores
This year, during team building, I noticed that Morjane is also wearing it.
"I bought it as soon as it came out. The material is completely crazy and I didn't see anything like it in women's brands. I knew it had the potential to patina well and I wasn't disappointed. wash is really cool!”
"I wore it a lot, both with a hoodie and sneakers and with more formal shoes, to go out or to work. Besides, customers in stores often asked me if we had a jacket like the one I door and unfortunately, we didn't have any more!"
- Morjane, manager of our store in Bordeaux
What if we made it into a women's workwear jacket?
For that, you first have to convince the chef 😉
Back to the future, it's December 2020 and the mood has changed a bit in the world.
In the product team, Julien and Charlotte are thinking about our first women's workwear jacket. You have to choose a subject and among the selected candidates, there are three very nice fabrics.
Charlotte mentions the possibility of remaking the material of our first men's workwear jacket.
In principle, Julien is not convinced:
"I'm afraid it will be perceived as too masculine. I think we should move towards something lighter and less thick."
- Julien, collection manager
But Charlotte doesn't give up on the idea. She is convinced that you would like the material of our first workwear jacket.
As with the other clothes in this collection, she asked the women on the team.
“What material do you see on this jacket?”
“That of the kano , that would be great!”
“Yes, frankly, it’s much better than the other two. It has something that you can’t find elsewhere and the grain is superb!”
Beliefs confirmed. Between its reliefs, its flexibility and its washing, Charlotte knows that this is the material you need. She comes back with the team's ballots.
BonneGueule shirt, top secret jeans.
"OK, I trust you completely. You have supported your point of view very well and you have carte blanche on this subject. I think it's a good bet. I'm with you!"
- Julien, collection manager
For the bet, Charlotte is crossing her fingers but first, there remains another challenge: reproducing the same material.
The real fight begins here
And it's not won!
In order to tell you why the product team almost didn't succeed, I have to explain to you what makes this material so exceptional.
I will give you his recipe.
BonneGueule jeans and sweatshirt .
Our Japanese weaver spins then composes the cotton fabric on an old loom without a shuttle called the rattier. This gives the variant of an armor which we call the picket. This is the base that allows you to obtain this basket weave.
Previously, this fabric was used in Japanese work clothing.
By the way, do you know the mystery of the Dova house?
Dova is our Japanese supplier. On the internet, the only thing we find about him is his collaboration with Prada in 2010. Dova stood out with one of his handmade denim fabrics. The spinning mill was described as "the most sophisticated in the world" in the professional press. Just that ? So what ? I was once at the top of my class in techno.
You never see them at textile fairs. To be able to work with them, you have to find them and build a relationship of trust over time.
Dova functions as an association of craftsmen. It brings together and promotes the know-how of many weavers who are too confidential to export their work outside Japan on a large scale.
This workwear jacket is our 5th piece with them (proud moment). Now, we're even friends on Facebook and yes, we show off a little.
Then he dyes it with indigo with two different intensity levels . It's the secret ingredient to achieving these varied shades of blue. Through the ports and turns in your washing machine , the wash will be all the richer.
It is an average thickness of 370 g/m2, to be worn all year round.
All this is happening in Japan in the Okayama region. Then, we assemble the jacket in our workshop in Europe.
At this stage, the material is still stiff. This is where the magic happens: the washing.
- The fabric swells and reveals a constellation of reliefs
- It softens and softens to become a joy to smell on yourself
- It fades just a bit, resulting in subtle lightened areas.
And that's where it gets stuck. Well, not only that.
There, like that, you say to yourself that it would be enough to do everything the same again and then that's it. We have the crazy material and let's go for a new round of jackets ready to skate.
But here it is: in a recipe, everything is a question of dosage. The washing technique and all its parameters must be identical.
Add to that a global pandemic and you're in big trouble.
Import prices have become very unstable, as have shipping costs for materials, so we have difficulty bringing the same fabric back from Japan while maintaining the final sale price that we have set.
So, we wait for the right moment and it takes time to arrive.
Then, one day, we get there. We can source the material at a reasonable price and therefore without having to make the jacket more expensive.
Now you have to assemble the jacket from the fabric.
We're trying it in our usual workshop in Portugal, but the prices are still rising too high for the construction we want to do. We don't want the jacket to exceed €200 for you and even if we compress our margin, it won't work.
We then turn to our specialized manufacturer in Romania. We already make our chinos and blazers with him. He can offer us a cost price which will help us contain the price.
OK, we finally found a solution. Now we need to find the recipe for this famous wash. The same as three years ago.
The quest begins with a phone call to the workshop with which we made the first jacket.
“Sorry, but the washer I used to do it with is closed.”
Frustrating. We're going to have to go there by trial and error. So let's go. We're trying with our manufacturer in Romania!
Test number 1: the prototype arrives at the office. We open the package and we see very pronounced white marks on the seams. The level of relief is not the same either.
On the second try, it's the opposite. Not enough variety in wash shades. We remain hungry.
We're even sending our only copy of the very first jacket to serve as an example. We hope and we wait.
Nothing to do. It's still not that.
So, we continue to experiment: a little harder, a little less, maybe longer?
Come on, the fifth one is the right one, right?
Well yes ! That's it !
We ended up receiving a prototype with the same level of subtlety in color, relief and volume to the touch.
We also think it matches really well with the shape of the jacket!
BonneGueule t-shirt .
Towards infinity(tions) and beyond!
We love going too far
Finishes and us are a long love story. We pamper them and show them to you down to the smallest button. Are you coming to see?
Our women's workwear jacket in five points
Have you scrolled through everything without reading 😮 ? Okay, okay, I forgive you
- It has the same material as our very first workwear jacket, a favorite that the women of the team were very keen to redo for you
- It is woven on an old loom then dyed with indigo in Okayama, Japan
- It is assembled and washed in Romania, which gives it flexibility and loft.
- It will fade and patina over the years with superb blue reflections
- Message from the team: please leave us some, we're waiting for it too and we can't wait 😍
Now it's up to you to write the rest. Sand it, wash it, abuse it and above all: we want to see your patina in jpeg!
Gentlemen, we also thought of you
The men's version is coming back soon on the e-shop in the same material! Stay connected 😉
How to get our new parts?
Visit our e-shop or in our stores.
