L’Unique Façon joins Nantes’ sustainable fashion ecosystem
“Between defective items, unsold merchandise, and production waste, the fashion industry generates significant volumes of unused materials,” observes Lucie Mestre. This realization led her to found L’Unique Façon, following her training in textile design and a career in garment manufacturing and production. Her goal: to demonstrate that sustainable fashion can build on existing resources without sacrificing creativity or quality. Serving as both a design studio and an upcycling laboratory, L’Unique Façon supports designers and large companies in eco-design, Reuse, and the repurposing of textile resources. “It’s interesting to work with these two types of clients: smaller organizations stand out for their agility and the opportunity to experiment, while major players allow us to have a broader impact. The two models enrich each other.”
Giving New Meaning to Materials
For the SNCF, L’Unique Façon designed storage bags made from work jackets (see photo below) that were still in good condition but had been retired for safety reasons. This initiative created an internal circular loop, giving end-of-life workwear a new purpose to benefit employees. “Depending on clients’ expectations and level of maturity, we can take circularity very far,” emphasizes the founder. L’Unique Façon relies on a network of partners, ranging from sourcing to impact measurement, including garment production. Among them is La Fabrique d’Arakne, an artisanal clothing workshop in Nantes, with which several collaborations have already taken place—notably for designers such as Scand, Edma, and Mahaud, as well as for the costumes of the statues at Place Royale as part of the “Voyage à Nantes” project.
Nantes: An Ecosystem Conducive to Cooperation
“I’d been drawn to the energy of Nantes for some time—it’s a city of action, one that encourages experimentation. I found a welcoming and highly collaborative ecosystem there, one that aligns with my values. I am convinced that cooperation and resource-sharing are essential to transforming the textile industry. The support from Nantes Saint-Nazaire Développement is an added asset for integrating into the local ecosystem of sustainable fashion and Reuse and for building relationships with local stakeholders.”
In addition to the design studio’s projects, Lucie Mestre also develops workshops and training programs for schools, training centers, and companies. The goal is to share eco-design tools, raise awareness about circularity, and inspire new ways of creating.
