3 questions for ... Pascal Gautrand, Founder of Made in Town

Three questions for Pascal Gautrand

Fashion and textile industry expert Pascal Gautrand is the founder of the Made in Town consulting firm. The business helps numerous clients, brands, producers groups, and even regions with challenges in promoting savoir-faire and local manufacturing. One of Made in Town’s recent projects is rebuilding France’s wool industry.

Why should we revitalize the French wool industry?

“Revitalise” is the right word to use, since the industry existed in the past. But it disappeared quite some time before globalisation. And today, in fact, wool is regulated by industry standards. For the most part, we use merino wool produced on the other side of the planet. Consequently, 80 percent of the wool sheared from French sheep goes to Asia without even being washed, disappearing into a relatively obscure circuit. This means there’s no traceability. So we have a high-quality raw material that’s renewable; and we have a lot of it, with 7 million sheep in France that are sheared at least once a year for their wellbeing. And we’re not taking advantage of this resource. And yet, consumers and brands want eco-responsibility and more transparency about the provenance of their textiles. So it’s completely natural to start showcasing this wool again by revitalising the industry. It’s not only a response to a strong demand, it’s also a way to give breeders better revenues. Currently the cost of shearing a sheep is €1.50 and the wool is sold for 0.40€/kg. A sheep produces around 2 kg of wool. The math is easy; the breeder loses money. We hope to change this situation as well.

You have the raw material. But are there still industries in France to transform it?

Obviously, globalisation has caused the disintegration of local chains. Luckily, wool is the last industry that handles every step of transforming a natural material still present on French soil. For supply, we work with either breeders associations or fleece collectors. For washing, there’s still a specialised semi-industrial structure in France. There are also five industrial or semi-industrial structures that use carding to treat fleeces; the combing technique no longer exists in France. We’ve opted to work with Fonty spinners in the Creuse department and with Parc in the Tarn. The later has particularly modern equipment that gives prices equivalent to imported wools. That’s a big plus. So France has the resources and all the necessary tools. When you consider that we’re Europe’s top linen producer and that we no longer have any industry for spinning, you understand the importance of working to preserve these skills!

For the French wool industry there are obviously some drawbacks. All the wool comes from animals raised for their meat, and genetic management hasn’t taken wool characteristics into account. So we’re far from the softness and lightness of the blends from Asia. We’re closer to the feel of our grandparents’ sweaters! But we know we can improve fleece quality in the next decade by favouring certain genetic elements of the sheep. Additionally, we’ve chosen to keep the natural colours of the wool; these unique characteristics are also a source of creativity. For example, there are 60 breeds of sheep in France, which means 60 distinctly different wools – a wonderful variety that can inspire designers.

You mentioned brands. What has been their response to this French wool?

We were really surprised by the positive reaction. We started work on this project in the beginning of summer 2018. It’s a collaboration with the Occitanie region where there is still a certain number of professionals in the sector – that peaked our curiosity. And without the expertise of the Passe-Trame Atelier near Mazamet, we could not have followed through on the initial idea of re-establishing a dialogue between breeders and brands, designers, and even end consumers that covered all the steps within the chain. Thanks to Passe-Trame we presented a small collection of fabrics and yarns at the Première Vision trade show in September 2018. It was the perfect testing ground for being sure that brands could be clients. And they were – both small and committed or bigger but an advocate of French production. And this is because, even today when transparency is a must, it’s still very difficult to know the provenance of wool. So we were convinced there was a real need. We had a chance to go even further at the April 2019 Made in France Première Vision trade show, where we had a space to present the industry. We had wanted to mobilise 50 brands to create prototypes with our wool. In the end, 68 participated and 130 prototypes were exhibited. Le Slip Français, De Bonne Facture, Bonne Gueule, Le Sac du Berger, Maison Fabre (gloves), Atelier Tuffery, and others are now starting the commercialisation phase. Since then, interest has only grown. Numerous labels have contacted us, including Saint-James and several luxury groups.