In 2004, Amedi Nacer, current manager of the workshop, bought it, before also taking over the Fonlupt workshop, located in Ballots (Mayenne) in 2012. “When there was the wave of offshoring in the 90s, managers had the reflex to swim against the tide, and positioned themselves by moving upmarket», says Amedi Nacer, former production manager within the LVMH group and Hermès.
With ten million turnover in 2023, for 220 employees in its two workshops, the manufacturer is doing well. However, a year and a half ago, Amedi Nacer decided to recruit a communications manager, to make the group better known. With the objective not of looking for customers, the order book being filled to overflowing, but to recruit. “At the end of covid, many young people wanted to change careers, and at the same time, luxury exploded and we felt that we did not have enough capacity», Explains the manager.
Three years of training
To be fully trained in luxury couture, which requires great attention to detail, it takes three years. First, the future craftsman begins a three-month training period, before being taken on a professionalization contract for six months, renewable. A job that requires a certain sense of adaptation, because here, all the series are unique and comprise around 250 units on average. “We never make the same model twice, and we don't get used to a gesture», Indicates Amedi Nacer.
It also requires some flexibility in workshop equipment, which can sometimes be rented for the purpose of manufacturing a single model. The manufacturer may also be required to develop new skills, as in 2019, when the manager opened a small workshop – where around thirty employees currently work – to manufacture leather sub-elements, such as collars and belts, on the Ifs site. “We are one of the only workshops that can work with textiles and leather at the same time.», ahead of Amedi Nacer.
From sketch to finished product
Like all luxury subcontractors, the Thierry workshop does not manage its stock of raw materials itself, strictly speaking. It is the customer who sends all the fabrics, accompanied by a technical file made up of drawings and very precise instructions, and it is up to the manufacturer's design office to intervene. “We can estimate the production cost of a garment based on a sketchunderlines Anaïs Osmont, head of the design office. We also ensure that its manufacturing is industrializable.»
-To do this, the modelers transform the sketch into a 3D model, then make it using canvas. It is then up to the methods office to create the list of operations necessary for manufacturing, to estimate a manufacturing time. “The coordinated work of ten people is necessary to manufacture one unitpoints out Lucie Ehanno, methods officer. We assign each operation to an operator, and we check every two hours that he manages to carry out the gestures within the calculated time, as the models change regularly».
The intelligence of the hand
It takes an average of 500 minutes of work to make a part. An important figure for Amedi Nacer, who likes to point out that the workshop “sell time“. While most operations are done with a machine, hand sewing stitches represent 35% of the time spent on a jacket, for example. Even cutting the fabric, generally carried out with a machine which optimizes the quantity of material and reduces waste, is sometimes done manually. “As soon as the fabric has patterns to assemble, it is necessary to use the hand, because machines do not have this intelligence», smiles Amedi Nacer.
Next to it, a young designer meticulously irons a piece of tweed held in place by needles to prepare it for manual cutting. The luxury manufacturer will continue to instill this attention to detail in new recruits, 25 of whom are planned this year. The skills that will be required of them? “Desire and motivation».
