3 questions for ... Myriam Aïlo Avnier General Manager

In September 2019, the Avnier brand, founded by OrelSan and Sebastian Strappazzon, participated in the Talents program. The brand, already well known, wanted to take advantage of the year-long training program to create structure and develop in a constantly shifting market. General Manager Myriam Aïlo gives feedback on the experience.

Why were you part of the Talents program?

Avnier was founded in 2014. Above all, it’s the story of the friendship between Aurélien Cotentin, the rapper, composer, actor, record producer, and scriptwriter we know as OrelSan and Sebastian Strappazzon, the fashion designer and art director. Aurélien wore Sebastian’s clothes and the designer naturally suggested a collaboration. That wasn’t enough for Aurélien – they had to start a brand together! That’s how Avnier began; it was the product of two strong personalities who could move mountains with the tools at hand. Success followed and Ahélya Randria, Customer Experience and Service Design Director, and Simon Dufour, Sales Director, joined the duo. Then I came on board as General Manager in January 2019 with the mission of structuring the brand and making it grow. Though I understood my duties, the world of fashion was relatively foreign to me since my background was in service design and user experience. I learned so much from being in contact with the Avnier team; they function like a family with an emphasis on collaboration. But I also knew I needed to better understand the specifics of the sector. Aurélien introduced me to Marc Bothorel, the Etudes brand General Director, and he recommended the Talents program to me. After learning about the program’s contents, we thought getting involved would be a great opportunity. It was an excellent way for a self-taught fashion team like ours to benefit from professional expertise, round out our knowledge, get support, and make progress …

Did the program meet those expectations?

Yes, Talents was a perfect fit for our needs. First, because the program is primarily a human experience. And that’s really important for a team like Avnier, where relationships, good will, and working collaboratively are the priorities. Priscilla Jokhoo considers brands’ personalities when she chooses the coaches that will help them. And she’s got a gift for that; she’s a magician! Everything happens through communication. It’s made-to-measure. All the professionals who helped us clearly understood and respected our DNA. Listening is the rule in the Talents program, for both business and creative concerns. With this kind of support we were able to make solid progress. From September to December we focused on reflection and research. We already had numerous tools but, for example, we didn’t have a brand platform. And yet a brand platform is indispensable for organising an efficient action plan. So we worked on that by going over our vision, our battles, our missions, and our values such as creativity, authenticity, staying close to our customers, humour and irony, curiosity, working as a collective, and perseverance. Since January we’ve worked on strategy in a concrete way. Some projects are still in progress, and we need to fine tune some systems, but we’re reaching our goals!

How will the brand evolve after this experience?

As I said, joining Talents was a way to structure Avnier, and we’ll put our new strategy to use in 2021. Right now, it’s still confidential. However, I can tell you that our goal is to be more in control in an ever-changing market. We want to stand out from the crowd while still respecting our DNA.

We’re a brand made up of passionate people and our bold, powerful clothes and accessories are produced with a lot of care. Our products must reflect our identity and resonate with people who are as passionate as we are, who want to express themselves. We want to inject a new creative energy that’s inspiring, inspired, and unique, especially by shaking up the fashion codes.