Mylène L’Orguilloux, Modelist: "Zero waste in fashion stimulates creation"

From chinées fabrics, Mylène L’Orguilloux designs stylish clothes without the slightest fall of fabric.A daring and avant-garde bet on fast fashion time.The young model maker, based in Bordeaux, tells us about the genesis of her zero waste fashion brand Milan AV-JC.

It is no longer a secret for anyone, fashion rhymes very often with carbon footprint."There is something wrong," sums up Mylène L’Orguilloux, and a big puzzle to solve.Rather than yielding to fatalism, the 26 -year -old model maker made her strength a strength.For more than two years, in her workshop in Bordeaux, she has turned and turned her bosses tirelessly, until they fit perfectly into each other, to the nearest millimeter.It emerges from clothes with clean and geometric shapes, scratched Milan AV-JC.

Its raw material comes from fabrics shot in the stalls of the Saint-Michel market, in Bordeaux, from the end of industrial rollers, and even from the Le Relais sorting center, with which it begins a partnership.Mylène L’Orguilloux is part of the very closed circle of zero waste creators, even if she does not really like this qualifier."Creator, it is too affiliated with‘ I draw and it is the others who execute ', "defends the one who prefers to say that she plays with forms and materials.After a witness collection, the young woman will launch in April in the sale of clothes.Meet.

What is your training?

Mylène L’Orguilloux: I am a modelist by training.I chained BEP, Bac Pro and BTS, and just after, I was hired at Lectra, a big box in the textile industry, which creates software and cutting machines for brands of clothing.

How did you start to be interested in zero waste in textiles?

I had my job at Lectra, where I stayed three years.I realized that even if I had powerful software in my hands, there was always waste.We rarely reach optimization beyond 80-85%.Which means that we have 15 to 20% waste.In parallel, I was asking myself a lot of questions about the textile industry in general.It was the beginning of all this movement that was born following the Rana Plaza in 2013 in 2013.I loved what I was doing but I felt like I endorse something wrong.I personally boycotted the big brands for a year.I started to create my own clothes and that's where I realized what the fabric falls were physically.I couldn't do anything about it, I piled them in a corner of my room.By doing research on the internet, I discovered the work of Joe O’Neill, who carried out a parka, a coat and a zero waste tailor jacket as part of his end -of -studies work.I looked at the question, I looked for new software that I could use to create zero waste clothes.

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Since that day, have you been devoting yourself to your research?

Since November 2016, I have only devoted myself to that.I leave for example from mainstream clothes and I try to reproduce them in zero waste, respecting all the constraints of making.And to demonstrate that it is possible, I share my patterns in open source on my site.Last September, I released a witness collection, 40 pieces, which I present to schools and businesses to show them that we can do it differently.With companies, it does not take, the subject is too avant-garde.It doesn't matter, we'll see.In the meantime, I want to create, develop new forms of clothing.Try to live what I like to do.

Are you going to become a designer?

At the start of the project, I did not want to put myself in a creation process, because there are enough brands and that we have textiles in Gogo.I was more with a view to awareness, because I think there is only by education that we can change things.But at the same time, people who are interested in what I do have no way to reach it because I don't sell.So I am about to create clothes to sell them because it may be one of the solutions.

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Doesn't that exist, a brand that is zero waste?

There is Skunkfunk, the Spanish brand, which has a global eco-responsible approach, which has already used Zero Waste in capsule collections.But that implies questioning so much in the creation process that brands are rather at the minimal Waste, like the COS brand, which has made a capsule collection for its ten years.It is rather the small creators who embark on zero waste.In France, there are three of us, with Sempervivum and Marie Labarelle, in Paris.

What constraints does zero waste impose on making?

The constraints in relation to the material are multiplied.But I find it super stimulating.In fact, it is not innovative.Creators already used this method before industrialization.The material was expensive and precious, so it was necessary to use the entire.Now there is a person, the stylist, who draws what he wants to get in her collection and everything starts from there.Large fashion houses have the luxury of having exactly the fabric they want.At my level, this is not possible, we do with what already exists on the market.Zero waste is creating with patronages, from the material.

You create clothes with clean lines, geometric shapes.To what extent are your cuts influenced by zero waste?

I created above all the clothes that I like.I like sober cuts without too much fuss.I am not a fan of dresses that make girly and force the body.What the Zero Waste is involved is to take you to other directions.When I created my witness collection, a short pattern gave birth to a dressing pattern in the remaining fabric.This dress, I would never have thought of doing it without it.

What are the limits of creation technology?

The sensory limit.Many people like to create because they like to touch the fabric, make adjustments on the mannequin, on the body.With the software, we lose this appearance.It is therefore necessary to control the parameters, otherwise it is difficult to handle.I am lucky to have started to use it very young.For my collection, I did not do any physical prototype, the cut as I had entered the software was the right one.I wanted to show that we can really count on the reliability of the virtual, if we master the tools.

Does the young generation of creatives try to move the lines?

I clearly see it.We are at the end of something and at the beginning of a new era.Unlike the generation of our parents, we face new challenges, and at the same time we benefit from an easy opening on a lot of information.If I discovered zero waste, it is thanks to the Internet.This sharing dynamic, which is the very basis of the Internet, has an impact on fashion.Typically, patronages are supposed to be something secret, precious.For having worked on a daily basis with different brands, I can say that everyone is working on similar patronage.I do not understand this mentality of keeping everything secret.We have more to win by working collectively.

You put a point of honor to share your experience and your knowledge yourself, by organizing workshops.

Yes, because I find it very important that people know how to do things by themselves.Doing things with your own hands is essential and rewarding.Having people make clothes to people is also my way of revaluing a job in their minds that has been extremely degraded by fast fashion.Now, we only see by the stylist and we tend to forget the human armada that hides behind.Twenty euros for a dress, it is just not possible, when you consider that there are four or five hours of work behind.Involving people in one way or another in a creative process makes it possible to restore value to things.If in two months, the pattern of clothing they made does not please them anymore, I think they will think twice before throwing it.