At 19, from her room-workshop in the Paris suburbs, she brings old soccer jerseys back to life by transforming them into corsets, a colorful, ethical and eco-friendly concept that caught the eye of a fashion pope. Parisian, as the World Cup approaches.
“I do everything on my own, from collecting the jerseys to designing and sewing,” smiles Maï Jarach, taking out her favorite from the closet, the one cut from an FC Barcelona tunic, whose garnet and blue.
“Above all, I don’t want new jerseys, the idea is to do ‘upcycling’, that is to say without chemical intervention, it’s not recycling”, explains this girl from an Argentinian father and a Breton mother.
It is “not out of environmental conviction at the start, but rather born of indignation over the mistreatment of the workforce in certain countries. I reduced my consumption by nine to move towards ethical brands, ”she continues.
Originally, she developed this project to enter her fashion school.
Then Maï was spotted by Youssouf Fofana, the artistic director of the Parisian brand Maison Château Rouge (MCR), who met her one day when she was wearing one of her corsets.
Packed, he offers to put them on sale when MCR, associated with other creators, will have invested the old Tati store in Barbès, next month, in the middle of the Soccer World Cup (November 20-December 18).
“In my grandmother’s cellar”
“I was lucky enough to meet someone nice, who respects my values, Youssouf Fofana,” greets the young designer, who then had to speed up. “I worked all summer in my grandmother’s cellar, with her sewing machine, asking my relatives for swimsuits. »
Luckily, soccer runs through the veins of the family. As a good Argentinian, his father is a fan of River Plate, one of the giants of Buenos Aires. Maï’s little sister, Luz, plays with the under-15s of Paris Saint-Germain.
During this studious summer, the seamstress made eleven corsets, but the very young entrepreneur also had to “create a brand in three months, it was done super quickly”.
She finds a logo, “mai:”, sets up an Instagram account, “madeinmai”. “My friends pose on the pictures, girls and boys, because they are corsets for everyone, and my boyfriend takes the pictures,” she explains.
But the heart of the job remains the manufacture of corsets. Applied to her machine, Maï Jarach sews the small tubes to slip the whales into, made of “very flexible and not at all restrictive” cable ties, another “upcycled” material.
“Unique Pieces”
She also places the eyelets to slip the ribbon which allows the garment to be tied in the back, taking up one of the colors of the jersey, yellow for the corset in the colors of Boca Juniors, River’s great rival.
Fortunately Maï has in reserve a white jersey with a red cartridge belt of the “Millonarios” (nickname of the River Plate) ready to live a second life. “Otherwise my father will be pissed off! she laughs.
She prefers to work in children’s sizes, because “it fits my pattern better, an adult swimsuit causes more falls”. And then they are easier to sell, become too small, people no longer use them.
In her collection, the young woman also has corsets in the colors of the neighboring club Red Star, but also of Lyon, France, Brazil or Mexico, involved in the World Cup.
“The collaboration with Maison Château Rouge relieves me of the pressure of finding a point of sale”, she continues, but in the future she will have to think about how to market her work, “probably by pre-orders, since these are unique pieces”.
“I don’t want to enter a mass production system,” concludes Maï, faithful to her ethics.