le Baluchon de Louison puts style and ethics in a box

Alix, creator of Baluchon de Louison and Karine, who will join the team in September, have set up a corner in a Nancy toy store to promote their concept beyond the internet. Photo Week

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Tired of renewing with new the wardrobe of your children who grow up too quickly? No time to look for nice second-hand clothes? Le Baluchon de Louison offers on the principle of the box, second-hand clothes, collected locally and selected according to your tastes. Created in Nancy, the concept is successful throughout France.

Sometimes you have to admit it: it’s easier to fall for an old leather jacket that’s a little tanned on the hanger of a thrift store than on the second-hand layette on display just next door. Second-hand clothes, OK, but for children? Mixed opinions, with pros and cons. The responsible fashion trend has been there, and the desire to turn to the circular economy to dress children is attracting more and more families. Alix Binaud was quickly convinced. Coming from a large family, she has always worn the clothes of brothers and sisters, which pass from hand to hand, from year to year. This 30-year-old from Nancy, a former engineer in the construction industry, seriously asked herself the question when her first child was born: “When you bring a child into the world, you ask yourself the question of what world you plan to do it in. to grow. Scour sites such as Le Bon Coin and Vinted or go around the corner thrift stores, when in a few clicks, you can receive fast fashion in your mailbox? The transition is likely to be a long time yet… But these children’s clothes will only be worn for a few months, which is all the more problematic since the fashion industry is the second most polluting”. How do you reconcile the desire to reduce waste with the desire to dress children as we see fit? Faced with this problem, Alix founded the Baluchon de Louison concept with her friend Tania Kalfa in 2019: to offer parents of young children a simple and fun solution for buying second-hand clothes from 1 month to 8 years old in the form a responsible and personalized fashion box.

The beautiful tailor-made opportunity

How it works ? All the clothes offered on the Baluchon de Louison website are collected locally. Around Nancy by Alix, Toulouse by Tania, moved to the pink city recently. “At the beginning, we went to flea markets, says Alix, but our growing network, we now go directly to individuals to collect the clothes, in very good condition, which we buy at flea market prices. Checked and washed in the laundry, the clothes are sorted and we assemble them to create outfits that will make up the backpacks”. Customers simply log on to the site, where they fill out a profile. Age, height, season, styles, particular tastes, according to all these criteria, three complete outfits are offered to them, at variable prices around 50 €. “I compose these outfits from around ten second-hand clothes, matched in three complete outfits, made to measure to match the clothing preferences defined in the child’s profile” explains Alix. In recyclable cardboard, packed in a small fabric pouch, the box plays on the surprise, as long as it is good. Parents have several days to calmly have the clothes tried on and make their choice, before returning at no additional cost what is not suitable. Payment only takes place once the return has been taken into account.

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A growing network

The interest of Le Baluchon de Louison is the network it has been able to create: “most of our families play the game and put the clothes back into the circuit when they become too small. This is what maintains a working capital in clothing”. The current stage of Alix Binaud’s project is to make himself known. After some after-school in her apartment, she set up a temporary corner for the first time in a children’s toy store in Nancy last Saturday. “We share the same philosophy with Jérémy, from C’est papa qui l’a dit, a responsible approach to consumption. Clothes or toys, it’s the same fight. We even thought that our customers could meet in the same place”. It is at this precise moment that between the mother of Capucine, 3 years old. She has already ordered two backpacks for her daughter and son Antonin, 5 years old. “I was attracted by the second-hand side, but above all by the practical side and the proposal according to the tastes and criteria of the family. Today I come with Capucine, because for the first time we will be able to touch and choose them directly! “. Very trendy with sequins and frills, the little girl will find what she’s looking for in a striped dress with a little metallic detail. By combining elegance and second-hand clothing, simplicity of ordering and responsible consumption, Le Baluchon de Louison intends to dig its furrow. The site now has more than 1,000 child profiles and bundles have been sent to 64 French departments, Belgium and the Netherlands.

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