(Photo credit: BonneGueule)
If you watched the film from our editorial capsule, you now know that my sense of understanding revolves a lot around cats. I probably wouldn't jump on rooftops for a piece of clothing. Unless it's a BonneGueule item of clothing, and even more so if I had a bit to do with its creation. Like David, Jordan and Nicolò.
So, how is the cat and where did my first BonneGueule outfit go ? The cat has been found and is doing very well, rest assured. On the other hand, for the rest: everything didn't really go as planned . What if I told you the real story of this missed meeting with our editorial capsule?
THE ANNOUNCEMENT, THE FIRST EXCHANGES AND THE CHOICE OF THE COIN
MARCH 22, 2021, 11:50 a.m.
It starts off pretty well, with a surprise. There's a buzz in the editorial department: something is brewing with our product team. We are indeed going to work on a special capsule for the beginning of next year, the idea being to create a silhouette with, for example, a jacket, pants, overshirt and knitwear . At that point, 2022 still seemed far away.
The news announced by Benoît has had a small effect on David, Jordan, Nicolò and me. The first discussions flow in and I discover a new aspect of my classmates' personalities: they are generally inexhaustible about clothing , but give them the opportunity to imagine their own and you will see that we enter directly into another world!
I admit: being of a rather calm nature, I am almost shocked by this sudden excitement and it comes so quickly that I can't really follow. That is to say that at this time, I still have one foot in Customer Service and my priority is not at all to imagine BonneGueule clothes but to help you receive the ones you order as soon as possible.
What piece would you make if given the chance? This is something I never really thought about. An exceptional, ultra-stylized piece, with lots of little details more or less hidden? I like simple and slightly rustic clothes . I also like what they tell me about other people's work.
For Jordan and Nicolò, this is not a first experience. Remember for example our jungle jacket or our summer jacket created with ABCL :
For David and me, this is a complete novelty, but David is such a clothing enthusiast that he has probably already designed some in another life . Or in his dreams.
For my part, I have no experience or skills in the field of clothing design. It's a little scary... but it's exciting. So I go there with the flower in the gun, still a little stunned to participate in this adventure.
A few hours pass, the map of the future capsule is visibly taking shape and everyone already has their own idea of where they want to go. I've more or less decided to take the remaining space, just to see what I can do with it. Yes, I'm strangely pragmatic, and I also have a feeling that it's not going to be easy to manage.
Since my arrival at BonneGueule, I have had some echoes of what the life of our product team is like: a lot of enthusiasm, tests and exchanges with suppliers and manufacturers of course, but also a lot technical and logistical problems to overcome.
That is to say, it is not a long, quiet river. I can already more or less hear our collection manager Julien warning me: knitwear is not the easiest thing to make .
That's good, I received a message from Jordan that same day at 2 p.m.: " I think you're getting the mesh, if that's OK for you ." The die is therefore cast.
Are you OK ? I do not know yet. But Jordan takes the opportunity to give me a little inspiration as usual:
This is not exactly the original photo, but you can still guess in the photograph above a polo collar sweater worn by Eric Clapton in the early 90s. The appearance is a little fluffy, soft, cuddly toy trend. I'm not a huge Clapton fan but the piece itself is great. This gives me ideas to get started.
INSPIRATIONS AND THE FANTASY OF CREATION
APRIL 27, 2021, 11:03 A.M.
A month has passed. Everyone goes about their daily activities without losing sight of the capsule. Ideas are always flowing, eh? For my part, the idea of Eric Clapton's sweater caught on. What we want is a spring/summer sweater that fits in with the other pieces . Maybe linen or cotton/linen. To have.
My very first idea, a sort of cross between Yves Montand's sweater in “César et Rosalie” by Claude Sautet and that of Serge Reggiani in “Le Doulos” by Jean-Pierre Melville - intriguing mix?
You probably see me coming: my first ideas are taken from cinema , from Jean-Pierre Melville or Claude Sautet in particular, for example through certain outfits by Serge Reggiani or Yves Montand.
The images come to me quite easily. The colors too. However, we are moving towards a light color, beige or more likely ecru. As you can imagine: you don't make a piece of clothing from a piece of film . To come back to earth, I record a one-hour update with Julien. There will be a few others and it mainly talks about technique and pragmatism.
Because the idea is not just to dream: the piece must exist and therefore be technically feasible . It must be durable and meet all of our quality criteria , which are demanding. It must also be complementary to our offer , and not duplicate with another sweater.
Finally, and this is at least as important as the first three points, it must be easy to wear and appreciated by all of you who follow us.
In short, inspiration is good but you have to move forward with the technique: find a knitting stitch, choose a type of collar, a particular material . And believe me: it's complicated when you're not a clothing technician to begin with.
Over time, my 60s and 70s cinema images gradually begin to disappear to give way to something more simple, spontaneous and natural: the kind of piece that one would wear with everything, for pleasure, out of laziness or simply because the material would have something a little intimate . I exchange with others. We don't all agree on the collar, color, etc.
So we dig deeper, we seek consensus and we also obviously think about the future owners of these products. Fortunately, it's a team effort. Julien is the conductor.
I finally find myself with several possibilities for shapes, collars, materials, which will now have to be transformed into a product language. It’s a realization: I have an almost idealized image of the design of a garment .
Possible that I visualize something like Karl Lagerfeld drawing on a corner of the table to later draw clothing works of art . Easy, obvious, magical. But of course, it doesn't really happen like that and the months that follow will be the learning process.
THE CLICK
JUNE 11, 2021, 8:43 A.M.
Everyone's projects are progressing and mine is still a little behind. It's a little stressful but since we started talking about the universe of the capsule and the story that will go with it, I can see things a little better.
I am one of those people who need a common thread or an atmosphere to understand where they are going, perhaps more than my comrades who adapt more easily to the clothing itself and the technical thing. For my part, I always need an atmosphere, a story, a universe: that's how I like clothing. And a lot of other things too.
A sample of thread, a little orange, among those initially considered
Julien tells us today that we need to quickly give a name to each of our pieces, for referencing. The baby hasn't been born yet and already has a name. It's strange but in reality, there are a lot of things to think about and ask before even having a product in your hands .
Five or six letters maximum. Brainstorming session which in my case will continue for another week, until the name emerges during a Skype evening with a few foreign friends. With the successive confinements linked to Covid 19, we got into the habit of meeting up from time to time to discuss our little daily stories. It allows me to work on my English, too.
The name of my future play emerges somewhere between Paris and Dortmund: Seamus,
Finally, to go with Pochette, it's also the name of a song
This all makes sense to me. Okay for Seamus. Julien and I then moved towards a cotton/linen sweater . We opt for several types of thread for testing. We validate three and two types of shapes - a round-neck sweater and another with a polo collar. The colors are rather light. Everything is fine.
THE FIRST HISTORY
OCTOBER 6, 2021, 9:16 A.M.
The summer has passed and we have already received some prototypes for David and Nicolò. Their pieces are progressing well. It's more complicated for Jordan: the supplier chosen for the jacket failed us. As for me, we have to start from scratch .
A zoom on the somewhat magical material chosen for the development of the sweater. The blue around it is the overshirt designed by David.
The quality that we had identified is not available to build a prototype and the minimum to produce the yarns is too high to make one (60 kg therefore minimum 60 sweaters, roughly...). Suffice to say that it looks complicated: back to square one, and time is seriously starting to run out.
We are not giving up. A few days later: new ideas and especially new material that Julien had in his boxes and which has never been tested. It’s a cotton/linen chenille yarn. It's beautiful, very soft, quite close to velvet visually and the color is natural.
A photo of David, with the materials of the sweater, pants and overshirt. The three together were a dream, right?
To the touch, something quite surprising, like a Madeleine by Proust: it's as if I had already had this garment in my hands, in another life. We perhaps have the intimate part that I ventured to search for above. It's still quite rare to feel a piece of clothing .
What Julien shows me is just a small, somewhat shapeless piece of fabric, not yet a sweater, but there is definitely something going on that goes well beyond style . From there, there's no need to go overboard: the material is sufficient in itself. It's like a flashback and I quite like the idea of offering something that provides emotion in a slightly unexpected way .
In short, favorite. The rest of the team is excited about the material and the color. Nothing is lost, even if everything still needs to be done. I am far from suspecting the many pitfalls that await us on this new path.
THE FIRST PROTOTYPE
NOVEMBER 24, 2021, 9:55 A.M.
Julien shares with us the first images of the prototype. There are three different shapes, all arriving in S, so none of us can try on the pieces. It begins well ! But the color, the texture, all of this is very appealing.
A first prototype, with a rolled collar - not very convincing...
Second version, with round neck and short sleeves. Interesting, right?
We received several shapes, with round neck, long sleeves, short sleeves, etc. The long-sleeved round-neck sweater wins all the votes. It's almost a cuddly sweater, which calls for layering . It remains to be seen whether this beautiful material is durable, capable of withstanding wear and washing.
© Good mouth
Third version, with long sleeves and nice ribbed edges - there's still work to be done but we're nearing the goal!
This is because we do not compromise with the quality of our products . On a more personal level, I will also not accept being associated with a product that does not hold up or of which I am not at least a little proud. This is valid for the entire team, and of course primarily for our product team.
© Good mouth
A few days later, when we seem to be on the verge of seeing the light, Nicolò summarizes the situation in three bullet points:
TIME IS RUNNING, WORRIES ARE PACKING UP
DECEMBER 2, 2021 12:28 p.m.
Never declare victory too quickly. Julien showers most of our hopes, with tables and detailed explanations: the material does not hold up when worn and in the machine, it relaxes, deforms, and even shrinks when washed. As magical as it is, it's impossible to release this sweater as is. It does not meet our quality standards .
© Good mouth
A very useful table and figures: our product team tests, among other things, the resistance of our products. Unfortunately for me, my prototype does not pass the tests and our outfit requirements. So we'll have to find something else...
Damage. This sweater would have worked wonders: I already saw it as the new basic in my wardrobe. A very simple piece, easy to match but with character that I like and above all a material that takes you on a journey in thoughts, even in childhood. Not common, that. And a little magical, too.
So what to do? Thinking about another product? Continue the development of the sweater, with the idea of resolving technical issues and giving it its place later in the BonneGueule collection?
There is little time left and we must juggle the uncertainties and complications linked to Covid 19, take into account testing and production deadlines , etc.
At this moment, I'm more or less thinking about taking up knitting . Express training, to make a single sweater – just to have something to present on this capsule! The idea is amusing, a bit conceptual, but rest assured: I regained my senses very quickly.
This is the least fun part of the adventure: if we remain pragmatic (and we have to be in this profession), the sweater will not be able to be part of our editorial capsule. Relaunching another project is too risky given the time available. We must therefore accept “failure”, while continuing the research . It's a hard blow, nonetheless.
MY TEACHINGS
Julien probably has dozens of clothing projects that didn't see the light of day. For my part, it's the first and of course it's not very pleasant. But you have to see everything I learned through this experience .
© Good mouth
Imagine all the outfits you could make with a sweater like this. Here for example: a blue overshirt, an ecru sweater, gray velvet pants .
During a recent meeting with Maxime Van Rothem of Jacques & Déméter , I was struck by how complex the production of clothing or, in his case, shoes could be:
At BonneGueule too, the creative process owes a lot to exchange and discussion. And with us too, everything is not perfect. But everything is human . There are sometimes failures, delays, problems with materials or manufacturing, things that we work hard on and which don't come out.
That’s how it is, and looking back, I realize that all these dark stories make the BonneGueule clothes you wear even more beautiful .
In the end, I know we made the right decision. After all, producing clothing is a responsibility , even if only ecological. Unimaginable for me, for us, to release a piece for the sake of releasing a piece, stick to the marketing calendar or complete the editorial family photo.
It's probably a shame for the storytelling but on the other hand, it was above all the most reasonable and honest thing to do. The product remains the essential: you must be able to be both proud and confident of the garment . So maybe it will be for next time.
In short, it's important to show you this reality of things. “My sweater” is one example among others, but through it, you perhaps now understand a little better everything that is behind our clothes: exchange, time, passion, not a lot of disappointments and a little luck too sometimes . Will this sweater one day find its way to our e-shop? The future will tell. In the meantime, you can discover my comrades' pieces there.
