Our ethical approach: always more, but little by little!
Rome wasn't built in a day after all.... Let's look across the Channel to explain our point of view, stopping by a bike ride in the forest.
Being respectful of the environment without stressing out and giving up your freedom and creativity, is it possible? Fortunately, yes. Let's take a little detour through athletics and the forest, if you don't mind...
Indeed, at La Pièce we are inspired by a technique developed by a British cycling coach, Dave Brailsford, thanks to whom the team made phenomenal progress from his recruitment in 2003.
9 years later, the British team wins the Tour de France for the first time; the following year they win again and the British become unbeatable in many other categories, like at the Downhill World Championships where they are unbeatable in 2013-2014, including the women's team. What is surprising is that their method was not a monastic asceticism but a constant accumulation of small improvements. This is the so-called "marginal gains" technique: it feels like you are taking very small steps, and the effort seems negligible, but in fact it is very effective!
So yes, that's a 9-year gap. But you don't become a champion overnight. Especially if you don't want to force yourself, at the risk of getting discouraged. Like with a diet, we all know that losing weight requires a gradual change in lifestyle and not a sudden deprivation more frustrating than anything else.
Image credit: Jamesclear
Actually, a tree would totally agree. Yes, by taking just a little more light than the others at the start, it ends up being the tallest in the forest. In our rushed life (I'm hungry, I order something, done), we are tempted to want everything immediately. But some things require time so as not to end up being swept away like a house of cards.
Well, back to our cottons: if La Pièce is not qualified for the Olympics, we definitely intend to place ourselves at the head of the pack, uh no, the peloton of ethical fashion in less than 9 years by progressing delicately but surely. It starts right from the starting blocks: La Pièce began by paying very close attention to its raw materials, our fabrics.
The textile industry is the second most polluting industry in the world after oil because of water-hungry plant cultivation, pesticides, dyes, and the global division of labor which causes a lot of carbon emissions.
On top of all that, since there is overproduction, thousands of fabric rolls end up in a warehouse. For our first collections, we therefore decided to choose our fabrics from intermediaries in Paris who supply us with production surpluses. This is the method of upcycling.
But that's not all: we started with fabrics partly made of synthetic fibers like polyester. For the new summer collection, we have selected materials even more respectful of the environment and the skin, such as cotton and linen.
And why linen, exactly? We'll explain it to you very quickly!
