Tell us a bit about you.

Louis Antoinette Paris is made up of 3 enthusiasts of fashion, haute couture, DIY and entrepreneurship… 3 founders who wish to create their own brand with their interests at heart.

First of all, there’s Julien, 26, the design prodigy.

Graduate of the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, he earned his stripes with some of the biggest names in fashion: Christian Lacroix, Balenciaga, Jean Doucet, Agnès B and Emanuel Ungaro.

At the age of just 26, this fashion genius has already won the first prize in the French Révélations de la Mode in 2010, a gold medal at WorldSkills in the Fashion and Creation category in 2011, an Excellence medal in the world championships and the Moovjee 2012 Envol prize.

At Louis Antoinette, he works with Floriane to design new easy-to-make styles as well as setting out the patterns. He ensures that the proposed fabrics are easy to work with and suitable for the piece.

Next we have Romain, 32, the project’s big thinker.

Passionate about fashion, he had always dreamt of creating his own business. After 7 years of loyal service to an American multinational company, he decided it was time to bite the bullet.

Finally there’s me, Floriane, 31, more commonly known as the team magician.

Having spent several years in a digital communications agency, I was looking for a more human project where I could put my editorial and social media expertise into practice. I met Romain and Julien, learned about their fantastic project and the rest is history.

 

Tell us how you met.
Julien and Romain had known each other for several years through their shared passion for fashion and craft trades. When Romain had the idea for Louis Antoinette, Julien seemed an obvious choice to join him as a creator and designer.
As for me, I met Romain through mutual friends. The way he talked about the project won me over straight away. I didn’t think twice about joining them in their venture.

So what exactly is Louis Antoinette?

Louis Antoinette is the first collection of DIY clothing, or ready-to-wear that is created by our community of ‘makers’.

Each item is available in 3 versions:

• PatternOnly: the pattern of your choice with instructions to guide you through each stage of creation
• KitCouture: includes the fabric chosen by us and all the haberdashery required, as well as the pattern

• Ready-to-Wear: those who don’t know how to sew (or who don’t have the time) can receive the finished article created by one of our team

 

What are you most proud of?

Discovering the pieces created by our community on a daily basis. It’s an incredible feeling to see the clothing that we’ve designed visible on social networks, and to observe the ways in which our customers adapt the designs to create their own unique item.

To encourage people to reinvent fashion with us, we’ve created the hashtag #hackfashion.

The latest example: we’ve created a dress, LAParisienne, and are offering a free download of the pattern (more than 7000 downloads in 15 days). We’re planning to offer a prize to the 6 most impressive results, and we’re really proud to see the different creations and adjustments that our makers bring to the pattern in order to create their own unique versions.

 

Why the name “Louis Antoinette”?

Louis Antoinette pays tribute to 2 of fashion’s great precursors, Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, who were both the first great muses of French fashion in their respective eras.

And let’s not forget the nod to history with our passion for ‘revolutionising’ the fashion world.

 

Are you thinking about expanding internationally?

We’re currently in the process of having our patterns translated into English so we’re not just thinking about it, we’re actually doing it!

The Anglophone market is more developed in the Do It Yourself sector, so it’s an obvious choice for us to expand internationally, especially given our positive French-made fashion status.

 

Tell us about your typical day.

If there’s one thing that changes when you go from employee to start-upper, it’s that the typical day doesn’t really exist anymore!

You can be working on anything from communication to finance, as well as dealing with warehouses, as up until very recently we had prepared our kits ourselves.

We also pass a lot of time with our customers, recommending designs or responding to their sewing questions. We make a particular effort to accompany them through the creative process we offer them, as well as listening to their feedback in order to improve our products etc.

 

Any anecdotes to tell us?

The first time I met Romain was at a bar that had organised a pheromone evening (a type of speed dating where you smell your potential partners’ T-shirts).

Was it was the pheromones or the project that won me over? That is the question!

 

Finally, any advice for young people dreaming of starting their own business? Or those scared of setting up a new project in France?

Just go for it! At the very worst, it won’t succeed but you’ll finish with invaluable life and professional experience. At best, you’ll have created your own job that will allow you to go to work every morning with a smile.

There is more and more financial help and support from both public and private bodies, so it would be a shame not to give it a try.

And Romain also has a piece of advice: be (or become) sociable! Take every opportunity to meet other start-uppers and anybody with advice to help define and launch your project. Their feedback from their own experiences will speed you up, allowing you to make decisions more quickly.

 

Resolutions for 2016?

For Romain: take up boxing to in order to release stress caused by the frantic life of a start-upper

For Floriane: cycle to work every day (just to be able to say that yes, I too do a bit of exercise)

For Julien: create a DIY wedding dress (and yes, he already creates bespoke wedding dresses:

 

How Look Forward Incubator helps ?

Precise and specific advice that is very practical for a start-up in the very early stages like ours.

We’re surrounded by experts who we can regularly turn to and who support us in our progression. Not to mention the informal exchanges with the other Look Forward start-ups and the incredible premises that we have access to!