Ready-to-wear: Asphalte, another successful French brand

Baptiste Morin / Photo credit: Pexels 08:18, April 19, 2023

Camaïeu, Pimkie, Kookaï... Bankruptcies have followed one another in ready-to-wear in recent months. But new brands are doing well. This is the case of Asphalte, launched more than 6 years ago by a young entrepreneur. Initially 100% digital, the brand opened its first store to convert even more people to more eco-responsible fashion.

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For the occasion, William Hauvette donned a navy blue cap adorned with a large yellow A. This is the 'A' of Asphalte, the brand that the 36-year-old entrepreneur launched in 2016. At the time, he was surrounded by only three people, today his brand has 40 employees, all gathered in Bordeaux. But it was in Paris that he decided to launch his first physical experience: a store open for two months. "On this first wearer here, we have a light cotton/linen t-shirt, a Mao collar shirt and then we will find all the essentials of the wardrobe," says William Hauvette. "That's on the men's side and then on the women's side, we have pretty much the same organization."

Until now, Asphalte existed only on the Internet. The brand offers clothes designed to last the test of time, such as the perfect sweater, that's its name, the first model sold, at 100 euros all the same. "Sweaters are usually knitted in jersey. There, it's a Milano stitch, an extremely dense knitting stitch," explains the entrepreneur. "We like to say that if you take care of this sweater, you can one day pass it on to your son," he says with a laugh.

Pre-ordering, the secret to success

At the heart of the Asphalte concept is the pre-order system. This is also what competitors like Forlife and Patine do. Pre-ordering ensures a large cash flow, avoids stocks and allows you to produce only the desired clothes. Disadvantage: the customer has to wait two months. William Hauvette prefers to relativize: "We will realize that the sweater we bought 3 or 4 years ago, we still wear it, and so that finally, waiting 2 months, it was not so serious."

In 2022, Asphalte sold 23 million euros worth of clothing, mostly produced in Portugal. It now has about 150,000 customers. And it's not over. "Our goal is not to sell more clothes to the same 10,000 people, but rather to sell more clothes to 1 million people," Hauvette said. To continue to develop the women's line launched in 2021 and its sales abroad (15% of turnover is generated in Germany), Asphalte has just raised 5 million euros.