Maison Cléo is a French brand created by Cléo and Marie. Marie was feeling fed up with what french brands had to offer, so she asked her mother to sew her something. Cléo is a professional seamstress - she designs and sews every item. Marie has a masters degree in communication - she does the marketing and PR side of the brand. It’s a perfect match. The brand became popular through Instagram - at the start, they didn’t even have a website!
Marie wears many hats. She also is the manager of a luxury vintage site called “Vestiare Collective”. Despite still only being 26 years old Marie’s love of fashion led to her co-funding Maison Cléo with her mother. Her Instagram is full of vintage finds and is worth the follow if you’re looking for some fashion inspiration yourself.
What appeals to the brand is that they’re not a big brand. On Instagram Marie posts pictures of her mum sewing or pictures of herself wearing the clothes. There is a family angle to the brand which makes customers feel close to them. The e-shop opens once a week - Wednesday at 12.30 pm NYC time and 6.30 pm French time (5.30pm GMT). Items sell really fast because Cléo can only make about 30 pieces a week, it is usually sold in 10-15 minutes. The inability to buy whenever we want inadvertently contributes to the brand's popularity.
It’s a handmade to order brand, which means clothes have been made to order with your own measurements. Maison Cléo cares about the environment, unlike fash fashion companies that produce more and more product quickly and with a shorter lifespan, thus contributing to global warming. It's quantity over quality. More often than not, these retail companies manufacture their stock in poorer countries, where workers are underpaid. Now is probably time to turn towards brands that are sustainable and ethical. Maison Cléo’s fabrics come from dead stocks/leftover fabrics of couture house and other brands.
