INTERVIEW: The woman according to Marie Martens
Interview with the designer Marie Martens, directed by Véronique Ithurbide.
After these long months of confinement, it's time to take stock with our favorite Belgian designer from Versailles! Marie Martens The designer, still and more than ever, tries to make us see life in pink (her favorite color by the way) with, of course, her leather goods and small leather goods, but also full of novelties to discover. Meet her!
Véronique Ithurbide : How did this period of confinement go?
Marie Martens : With hindsight, I can say that "everything went well" for Marie Martens, the brand and the person!
To my great surprise and delight, customers remained loyal and continued to buy or give handbags, believing that our product is a pleasure purchase with certain values.
One of the three main values of the brand is commitment.
For me there has always been a part of commitment to the other.
So donating 10% of the "Boobs" collection to the Pink Ribbon association seemed obvious to me. As an entrepreneur and actor in the fashion industry. With Valérie Toché, my partner, we also decided to contribute to the "1% for the Planet" association. 1% of our annual turnover is donated to associations that support actions in favor of the environment.
In addition, we choose noble and qualitative materials as well as a high quality manufacturing for quality products, therefore sustainable, as opposed to "fast fashion".
VI: In addition to these actions, have you changed the way you approach your work?
MM: Indeed, at the level of production, this global crisis has also demonstrated our dependence and fragility in relation to the availability of materials. This gave me the idea to create with my manufacturer parts for which I did not depend on any other supplier and for that we used the "dormant stocks". That is to say, stocks of leather that had been sleeping in his workshop for years. It is important to know that some tanneries and other suppliers of accessories needed to make a "beautiful bag" impose high minimum orders that we do not always need.
These stocks pile up and tend to be forgotten...
until the day when there is a shortage of materials and then it is the creativity booster that starts!
These are materials that do not lose value and on the contrary cost us a lot of money in storage. New collection Thus was born the WAKE UP collection, in addition to the other collections.
VI: Tell us more about this New collection....
MM: With this capsule, we prove that we can be both a creative and committed fashion brand. Proof that sustainable rhymes with desirable. The design is deliberately minimalist and made in upcycling mode. This capsule collection is designed from these famous stocks of leather called "dormant", hence the name "Wake Up". I started by thinking about how to produce a bag with as few components as possible by going to the essential with just leather and white thread. I came up with "Amigo", a minimalist backpack with a clean design and thin drawstrings, soft, ultra light, easy to carry (on the back or in the hand), it is the proof that the beauty of leather is enough. To carry your computer, to ride your bike or to travel light, the choice is yours!
Amigo is an elegant and durable version of the backpack with the same bold touch that characterizes the brand. It is even eco-responsible in its transport as it is delivered flat, without paper padding, packed in recycled cardboard. Three other references make up the Wake Up collection: The Smarty Up phone holder, a small "no-bag" that contains the essentials
(phone, keys and credit card), then the Pimpon to be used as a key ring or bag jewel and finally the adorable Baby-Banana, a bracelet purse inspired by the "banana" bag, the brand's best-seller. All this only in limited editions of course.
VI: You are also launching an eau de parfum and a Le Biscuit bag diffuser, so you want to link the olfactory world to that of leather goods?
MM: If this job as a bag designer makes me happy, I am even happier when my bags make the women who wear or receive them "happy". I need to feel an exchange, a return, those famous "feel-good" waves that I love so much. I wanted to translate this emotion of happiness, of impalpable well-being, into a scent. For me, perfume is the first vector of emotions and memories... I wanted this fragrance Marie Martens to be sparkling, luminous, greedy and generous at the same time. That's why I named it simply "Eau de Feel-Good".
It is a concentrate of the DNA Marie Martens, a fragrance with the air of acidulous candy. A fresh and sparkling eau de parfum, mischievous and generous. To express the identity of my brand, I chose an aromatic citrus, a light and sunny fragrance, a real generator of positive waves. An eau de bonne humeur where orange and bergamot, neroli and orange blossom, lavender, amber and musk blend together for a joyful, colorful and fragrant leather goods! Alongside this fragrance, I had the idea of offering my customers a new bag accessory: a Biscuit perfume diffuser for handbags.
I called it "the Biscuit" because of its shape and its material, the Limoges ceramic. We perfume it according to our desires and it slips into the intimacy of the bag. It subtly fixes and diffuses our favorite scent inside the bag for a "feel-good" effect guaranteed each time the bag is opened! A way to add an olfactory dimension to the pleasure of carrying your handbag Marie Martens. Moreover, the link between perfume and leather has always existed, in the past glove makers were also perfumers, so the marriage of leather and perfume has been on my mind for a long time. This olfactory signature "L'Eau de Feel-Good" and Le Biscuit are the result.
VI : Finally, what does the image of the handbag represent for you, can it be the reflection of the woman who wears it, of her life, of her moods?
MM: Yes certainly, that's why I also propose different bags, revisited with a touch of humor and pep, so the backpack AMIGO of course but also the banana Coachella and Neufmille, these accessories needed a new image, it is done! It would be pretentious to say that the handbag defines a woman but a woman's handbag says a lot about her attitude, her temperament, her audacity I would say...
Véronique Ithurbide
Published in Versailles + n°141 - Business section - November 2021
