This is the bright side of the Covid 19 health crisis. Economic upheavals are now allowing clothing production projects to multiply in the north of France.

But this old textile land is struggling to find support.

In 1999, Levi's left La Bassée, in the North, for Turkey, leaving 541 people behind.

A play,

Levi's Blues

, was created in the process, carried by five former workers.

Twenty years later, it has just been relaunched.

This time with good news announced at the "premiere" of this show in Lens, Pas-de-Calais: the upcoming opening of an integration workshop, which will produce jeans for 1083, an emblematic brand of the Made in France.

Eleven jobs only, then 27 in 2024. But a strong symbol, at a time when projects to (re) localize textile activities are flourishing in the region.

The health crisis has stimulated more local and responsible demand.

And while 450 industrial companies in the sector remain in the north, 15 projects promising 4,000 jobs are supported by the recovery plan.

"The planets are aligned" to make Made in France take off again, enthusiastically the professionals of Hauts-de-France.

"We can maintain, or even improve, the margins"

Former capital of the wool trade, Roubaix, in the North, is seen at the epicenter of this dynamic, with a figure for mantra: relocating 1% of the clothes bought by the French would generate 4,000 jobs. "Producing in France will cost around 2.5 times more expensive, but if we manage to produce on demand, without stocks and therefore without markdowns, we can maintain, or even improve, the margins", professes Guillaume Aélion, whose Atelier Agile designs small collections for retailers.

Even “fast fashion” brands are positioning themselves.

The Mulliez galaxy (Jules, Pimkie, etc.) will launch FashionCube in Neuville-en-Ferrain, in the North: around a hundred employees, to produce 6% of the denim pieces of these brands, i.e. 400,000 pieces / year, with the objective of not cost more than 20% more than Asian jeans.

“We are all looking for meaning, to do less, but better,” explains project director Christian Kinnen.

“I've never experienced this!

"

In Hordain, technical textile specialist Dickson-Constant is opening a second northern factory.

And faced with the demand of French sons, Safilin, who left for Poland in 2005, reopens a spinning mill in Béthune, in Pas-de-Calais.

“I've never experienced this!

», Rejoices Olivier Ducatillon, president of the Union of textile and clothing industries North.

So much so that a difficulty appears: the lack of manpower.

If textiles represent only 14,000 jobs in the region against 150,000 a few years ago, 170 offers are to be filled in clothing, in the Lille metropolitan area alone.

Many initial training having disappeared, companies are mainly looking for motivation.

And train internally.

Our Made in France dossier

In Roubaix, ENSAIT, the last French engineering school still focused on textiles, has grown from around fifty students to 130 in 20 years, according to its director, Pierre Delannoy.

An industrial production school has also just been launched in Roubaix, to train young people often outside the school system in two years.

They learn to use 14 different types of sewing machines, some of them voice activated, with USB port.

"These are jobs of the future, which will not be relocated," insists the director.

It is no longer the confection as their parents knew it.

There is no assembly line work left in France.

"

Economy

The growing fashion and luxury sector

Reindeer

Monts d'Arrée, a brand of mountain clothes made in Brittany

  • Relocation

  • Industry

  • Textile

  • Lille