Kalyca project

Kalyca is a clothing brand that finds its inspiration in West Africa and France. This project, born of my passion for fashion, is motivated by my desire to make sense of my professional life. How? 'Or' What? By giving artisans the means to live on their talent. Kalyca is a human adventure. Because it is the man who, with his hands, makes the fabrics. It is the man who perpetuates this ancestral know-how from generation to generation. It is also the man who makes him evolve, by his own intelligence or by cultural miscegenation. Finally, it is by his acts of consumption, that a person can help or condemn his peers to misery.

Raymond Depardon, who spent his life photographing people, published a book entitled Afriques. Traveling the continent since he was eighteen, he knew better than anyone that Africa is plural. And it is this cultural diversity that makes its richness. Every African country has its craft techniques in textile manufacturing. It is this cultural wealth that I want to highlight.

For my first collection, called Ayo (look at the article About me), I associated the expertise of the artisans of Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina-Faso in the field of textile dyeing and weaving of fabric to French savoir faire in the field of clothing making. This cultural miscegenation, beyond its function of creation and evolution, also has a protective function. Indeed, the fair trade that Kalyca practices contributes to the economy of authentic African craftsmanship (generally limited to the making of traditional local outfits), and therefore to its preservation. Finally, taking advantage of the best of each culture is a guarantee of quality on the finished product.

Why must we change our way of consuming

The consumer society has changed our lives. The promise of material accessibility to the greatest number of people has turned into an unreasoned pursuit of ever more, always faster, and whatever the price. The social, climatic and demographic crises that our world is experiencing today announce the end of a system. We often hear that our consumption pattern is changing. That is true. That's why, Kalyca wants to suggest another way to consume.

The first observation is that we consume too much. Today, products are not made to last, but to be consumed. And as it does not last, we do not try to make quality, which reduces costs. The problem the production of material goods has an impact on the environment. The textile industry is the second most polluting in the world, after that of oil. Do you know that making a simple T-shirt requires 2,700 liters of water? In the richest European countries, a woman buys an average of 30 kg of clothes a year, whereas she uses only 30% of her wardrobe. It is estimated that each dwelling contains the equivalent of 114 euros of clothes that are never worn. According to the specialized website Planetoscope, 60% of French people have clothes they never wear. This represents 442 million euros thrown away each year.

To fight against this textile waste, Kalyca chose to make quality clothes, in other words, clothes that will last.
Obviously, the brand must be exemplary. We denounce overconsumption, so it is logical that we strive to avoid overproduction. That's why we have a new pre-order system for new collections that allows us to produce only the necessary quantities and not have overstocks.

What is ethical fashion ?

The last axis of commitment of Kalyca is the ethical fashion. In order to reduce production costs, fast fashion brands are looking for ever cheaper labor, even if they are exploiting workers on the other side of the world. The collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh on April 24, 2013, killing 1,135 workers, highlighted the conditions under which the clothes sold by major international retailers are manufactured. Kalyca is committed to respecting the interests of all participants in the production chain and to practicing a fair and transparent price policy. We work with subcontractors who share this vision of responsible fashion. Because you are the main actors in the change of the consumer society, by choosing Kalyca, you are sure to wear quality clothes and accessories, made to last. You know where they were made, and you know that with your purchase, you contribute to the protection of African textile crafts and employment in France.