Nathalie

When Nathalie talks about Maje, she does not speak of a Brand or a style.

She speaks first of a meeting, of an inspiring person, of a singular woman: Judith, the founder. After several years spent in prestigious luxury Houses, she naturally chose to go back to the one who, 5 years prior, had offered her a position in the Artistic Direction team.

While as a child she dreamt of becoming a criminal lawyer, Nathalie says with discernment: “I have no good story to tell about my beginnings. It was not a calling when I was little, and yet today it is my whole life.”

Always on the move, in time and space, she considers her job a full-time sensory awakening: to feel materials by the hundreds, to observe the clothing habits of people, those that work and those that match with the Maje DNA,to be attentive to the latest trends but also the latest flops.

Although the mission is common to all stylists in the world, their way of working is rarely the same. “In my opinion, there are as many ways to be a stylist as there are Houses. At Maje, we are lucky to have an atelier and it changes the way we create the garment” she says. Far from the perfect picture image of designers, the stylist tells us about a more diversified daily life, punctuated with model fittings, fabrics sourcing, suppliers’ appointments and constant questioning with Judith and her stylists.

To turn a creation into a commercial product, Nathalie must coordinate the stylists, the studio, the atelier and the production. It is a marathon both physically and mentally. Back and forth on patterns, cuts or quantities are numerous, but necessary to reach the widest audience, because Maje addresses both the grandmother and her granddaughter.

« Now when we create a dress, we don’t produce 400 of it anymore but 7000. »

Now present in 20% of the world’s countries, the Brand has to learn to conjugate its type of client in the plural. The Maje customer is no longer a Parisian, but a woman of the world.

When the SMCP Group was formed in 2010, the issues took on another dimension: the style & the atelier must think broader, and the production must think bigger. Finally, this geographical propulsion has changed the creative approach of stylists because from Shanghai to Mexico City, climates, morphologies and Maje ideals of women are no longer the same. We must adapt!