Florence Marceau, a graduate of Kedge Business School, decided to create a new eco-friendly fashion brand Made in Ile-de-France, and launch her first product, the Emilie skirt, a wrap skirt that adapts to a woman's body. La 8ème Fois is clothing designed to fit us, not the other way around. The brand's pieces are eco-friendly, as they are made from new fabric that already exists, and local, as they are designed in Saint-Ouen (93) and made in Ile-de-France.

La 8ème Fois was born of an observation:

On average, we wear a garment 7 times before throwing it away (Ellen Mc Arthur Foundation, A New Textile Economy). That's an average, but what's important to remember is that we buy 60% more clothes than we did fifteen years ago, and we wear them half as long. Why do we do this? Because we bought a garment for a particular occasion and can't wear it again, because we fell in love with it and regret it, or because the quality of the garment prevents us from wearing it more. La 8ème Fois is a brand of clothes designed to be worn more than seven times, so that we stop thinking of them as disposable objects. To multiply the number of occasions a garment can be worn, the wearer needs to adapt to the garment, without sacrificing style, and that's the whole concept behind the brand.

After starting her career in the consulting world, Florence decided in 2021 to dedicate 100% of her time to an entrepreneurial project aligned with her values of respect for the environment, ethics and responsible consumption.

Having made her decision, Florence chose to combine these values with her passion for sewing, which comes from her maternal grandmother. In June 2021, she obtained her CAP Métiers de la Mode - Vêtement Flou. While continuing her training in pattern-making, Florence had the idea of creating a garment that would adapt to women, whose bodies change throughout life and throughout the month. And so the Emilie skirt was born: a wrap skirt with buttons on the waistband that allow it to be tightened or widened by 3 cm on each side, corresponding to a size and a half of room. But that wasn't enough! We also had to limit the environmental impact of the brand's production. That's why Florence chose to work exclusively with upcycled fabrics from dormant stocks, surplus new fabrics that had been forgotten. By using existing new fabrics, the planet's limited resources are preserved. Last but not least, Florence wishes to highlight local know-how: thus, La 8ème Fois pieces, once designed in Saint-Ouen, are made in workshops in the Ile-de-France region.

Thanks to the success of its Ulule campaign, the first orders for the Emilie skirt are now being made in a workshop for disabled people in the 20th arrondissement of Paris.

The adventure is just beginning! A long version of the skirt will be available in the next few weeks, and other types of adaptable, modular and customizable garments are in the pipeline (we've heard about a unisex reversible bomber, but shhhh, it's a secret!), always made from dormant stocks of fabric.

• Florence Marceau - florence@la8emefois.fr - 06 72 78 69 73 - https://www.linkedin.com/in/florence-marceau-9722482b/
• Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/La8emefois
• Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/la8emefois/
• Ulule : https://bit.ly/3MbMSDN