“Follow the cat”: the true story of my first BonneGueule creation

(Photo credit: BonneGueule)

THE ANNOUNCEMENT, THE FIRST EXCHANGES AND THE CHOICE OF THE PART

MARCH 22, 2021, 11:50 a.m.

It starts off quite well, with a surprise. All hands on deck at the Editorial Department: something is being prepared 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 seems far away.

The news announced by Benoît has a small effect on David, Jordan, Nicolò and me. The first exchanges flow and I discover a new aspect of my comrades' personality: they are generally inexhaustible on the subject of clothing , but give them the possibility 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 effervescence and it comes so fast that I can't really keep up. That is to say, 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 those you order as soon as possible.

What piece would you make if you had the chance? This is something I had never really thought about. An exceptional piece, ultra-stylish, 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, it's a complete novelty, but David is such a clothing enthusiast that he's 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'm going in with a flower in my rifle, still a little flabbergasted to be participating in this adventure.

A few hours pass, the map of the future capsule is taking shape before our eyes and everyone already has their own little idea of ​​where they want to go. I more or less decided to take the remaining space, just to see what I can do with it. Yes, I am strangely pragmatic, and I also sense that it is not going to be easy to manage.

Since I arrived at BonneGueule, I have heard some echoes of what life is like for our product team: lots of enthusiasm, tests and discussions with suppliers and manufacturers, of course, but also lots of technical and logistical issues 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: knitting is not the easiest thing to make .

That's good, I received a message from Jordan that same day at 2pm: " I think you're getting the money, if that's OK with you ". So the die is cast.

Are you okay? I don't know yet. But Jordan takes the opportunity to give me a little inspiration as usual:

This isn't exactly the original photo, but you can still make out from the above photograph a polo neck sweater worn by Eric Clapton in the early 90s. It has a slightly fluffy, snuggly, cuddly feel. I'm not a huge Clapton fan, but the piece itself is cool. It gives me ideas to get started.

INSPIRATIONS AND THE FANTASY OF CREATION

APRIL 27, 2021, 11:03 AM

A month has passed. Everyone is going about their daily business without losing sight of the capsule. Ideas are still flying, huh. For my part, the idea of ​​Eric Clapton's sweater has made its way. What we want is a spring/summer sweater that fits in with the other pieces . Maybe in linen or cotton/linen. We'll see.

You probably see where I'm going with this: 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.

Images come to me quite easily. Colors too. However, we are moving towards a light color, beige or more likely ecru. As you can imagine: you don't make a garment from a piece of film . To get back down to earth, I record a one-hour meeting with Julien. There will be a few more 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 , so that it does not duplicate 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 60-70 cinema images gradually begin to disappear to make way for something simpler, more spontaneous and natural: the kind of piece that you 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, the color, etc.

So we dig, we seek consensus and we also think of the future owners of these products. Fortunately, it is a team effort. Julien is the conductor.

I finally find myself with several possibilities of shapes, collars, materials, which will now have to be transformed into a product language. It is an awareness: I have an almost idealized image of the design of a garment .

Maybe I visualize something like Karl Lagerfeld drawing on a corner of a table to later create works of art from it . Easy, obvious, magical. But of course, it doesn't really happen like that and the months that follow will be a learning curve.

THE CLICK

JUNE 11, 2021, 8:43 AM

Everyone's projects are moving forward 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 visualize 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 are more comfortable with the clothing itself and the technical aspect. For my part, I always need an atmosphere, a story, a universe: that is how I like clothing. And quite a few other things too.

Julien tells us today that we need to quickly give a name to each of our pieces, for referencing. The baby is not yet born and it already has a first 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 that in my case will continue for another week, until the name emerges during a Skype evening with some foreign friends. With the successive lockdowns linked to Covid 19, we have gotten into the habit of meeting up from time to time to exchange our little daily stories. It allows me to work on my English, too.

The name of my future piece is emerging somewhere between Paris and Dortmund: Seamus, it sounds Irish , it reminds me of the sea and it brings a bit of freshness . Admit that it's a plus for a summer knit. It's also the first name of Marty McFly's ancestor in "Back to the Future" - one of the first Bobine articles:

Finally, to go with Pochette, it is also the name of a song by Pink Floyd and we can find a link with the Beastie Boys as well, for those who know:

This all makes sense to me. OK for Seamus. Julien and I then move towards a cotton/linen sweater . We opt for several types of yarn to test. We validate three and two types of shapes - a round neck sweater and another with a polo neck. The shades are rather light. Everything is fine.

THE FIRST SETBACKS

OCTOBER 6, 2021, 9:16 AM

Summer has passed and we have already received some prototypes for David and Nicolò. Their pieces are progressing well. It is more complicated for Jordan: the supplier chosen for the jacket let us down. As for me, we have to start from scratch .

The quality that we had identified is not available to mount a prototype and the minimum to produce the threads is too high to make one (60 kg so minimum 60 sweaters, roughly...). Needless to say, it looks complicated: back to square one, and time is seriously starting to run out.

We don't give 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 in chenille thread. It's beautiful, very soft, quite close to velvet visually and the color is natural.

To the touch, something quite surprising, like a Proust Madeleine: it's as if I had already had this garment in my hands, in another life. We may be holding the part of intimacy that I ventured to seek above. It is nevertheless quite rare to feel a garment .

What Julien shows me is just a small, slightly shapeless piece of fabric, not yet a sweater, but something is definitely happening that goes far beyond style . From there, there's no need to overdo it: the material is enough 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, love at first sight. 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 track.

THE FIRST PROTOTYPE

NOVEMBER 24, 2021, 9:55 AM

Julien shares with us the first images of the prototype. There are three different shapes, all of which arrived in an S shape, which means that none of us can try the pieces. It's off to a good start! But the color, the texture, all of this makes us want it.

We received several shapes, round neck, long sleeves, short sleeves, etc. The long sleeve round neck sweater wins all the votes. It is a cuddly sweater or almost, which calls for layering . It remains to be seen if this beautiful material is durable, able to withstand wearing and washing.

This is because we do not compromise on 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 that I am not at least a little proud of. This is valid for the entire team, and of course as a priority for our product team.

A few days later, when we seem to be on the verge of seeing the light, Nicolò sums up the situation in three bullet points:

TIME IS RUNNING OUT, WORRIES ARE ACCUMULATING

DECEMBER 2, 2021 12:28 PM

Never cry victory too soon. Julien dashes most of our hopes, with tables and detailed explanations: the material does not hold up to wear and machine wash, it relaxes, deforms, and even shrinks when washed. As magical as it is, it is impossible to take this sweater out as is. It does not comply with our quality standards .

Too bad. This sweater would have worked wonders: I already saw it as the new basic of my wardrobe. A very simple piece, easy to match but with character as I like and above all a material that makes you travel in thoughts, even in childhood. Not common, that. And a little magical, too.

So what to do? Think about another product? Continue developing the sweater, with the idea of ​​solving the technical issues and giving it its place later in the BonneGueule collection?

There is little time left and we have to juggle with the uncertainties and complications related to Covid 19, take into account testing and production deadlines , etc.

At this point, I'm more or less thinking about taking up knitting . A quick training course, to make a single sweater – just to have something to present on this capsule! The idea is fun, a bit conceptual but rest assured: I came to 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 allotted. We must therefore accept "failure", while continuing the research . It is a hard blow, all the same.

MY TEACHINGS

Julien probably has dozens of clothing projects that never saw the light of day. For my part, this is the first and of course it is not very pleasant. But you have to see everything I learned through this experience .

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, can be:

At BonneGueule too, the creative process owes a lot to exchange and discussion. And with us too, not everything is perfect. But everything is human . There are sometimes failures, delays, material or manufacturing issues, things that we work hard on and that don't come out.

That's how it is, and in hindsight, I realize that all these stories from the shadows make the BonneGueule clothes you wear even more beautiful .

In the end, I know we made the right decision. After all, producing a garment is a responsibility , even if only ecological. Unimaginable for me, for us, to release a piece for the sake of releasing a piece, to 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 the most reasonable and honest thing to do. The product is still the most important thing: you have to be able to be both proud and confident in the garment . So maybe it will be for next time.

In short, it is important to show you this reality of things. "My sweater" is one example among others, but through it, you may now understand a little better everything that is behind our clothes: exchange, time, passion, quite a few 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.