“Producing jeans in the region for our brands can be distributed within a radius of ten kilometers” the ecological footprint with 1,000″. Jean-Christophe Garbino, head of Fashion Cube, presented on Tuesday the jeans project “made in the North”, made in Neuville-en-Ferrain, near Tourcoing.
Fashion Cube is therefore this new production site where five brands of ready to wear of the Mulliez galaxy (Bizzbe, Grain de Malice, Jules, RougeGorge and Pimkie) which was inaugurated at the same time on Tuesday. The jeans, called “Cinq Neuf”, will first be launched on the market for 59.99 euros from Jules, an average of ten euros more expensive than the mid-range brand.
No payment and no mess
For 410,000 jeans produced per year (or 2,000 jeans per day), 4,500 tons of CO2 are saved, or the equivalent of 240,000 days of gas heating a house. However, these products now only represent 6% of the jeans turnover of all FashionCube brands (with a turnover of 2.3 billion euros).
Relocation today goes beyond the simple ecological footprint. “We will only produce in reasonable quantities, only what we can sell, with no sales and no waste, to restore all the value of this French-made product and civilian purchase,” explains Christian Kinner, project manager.
Amount of water divided by six
In order to reduce labor costs and offer an affordable product, Fashion Cube has invested heavily in automation: these are machines that cut the different pieces and then sew the pockets, the loops, the belt and the decorative seams. Assembly will then be done by hand, which should create 100 jobs by 2023.
To limit the use of chemicals, the worn look is obtained by the combined effect of a laser on each piece and passage through a sort of huge washing machine that combines ozone and water in a short circuit. This latest machine can treat 350 jeans at a time and divide the required amount of water by six.
“Ultimately, the aim is to offer jeans made from 100% recycled material,” explains Jean-Christophe Garbino. We start with fabric from Turkey, but our long-term ambition is to create a fully circular sector by 2030: the customer can use it after three to five years to recycle his jeans. †
