We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful MANON MARTIN. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with MANON below.

MANON, appreciate you joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

A few years ago, while shopping for a wedding dress in New York, my friend and I were shocked to learn that we should have started shopping at least 8 months prior to her wedding date due to industry standards. Despite limiting our options and being unable to customize the design, we discovered that wedding dresses are not made-to-measure. Additionally, we found out that 13 million of brides in the US spend an average of $500 to $800 in hidden fees for fittings.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

A few years ago, while shopping for a wedding dress in New York, my friend and I were shocked to learn that we should have started shopping at least 8 months prior to her wedding date due to industry standards. Despite limiting our options and being unable to customize the design of the gowns, we discovered that wedding dresses are not made-to-measure. Additionally, we found out that 13 million brides in the US spend an average of $500 in hidden fees for fittings.

My name is Manon Martin, I am a former 3D fashion technical engineer for the women’s apparel industry, and I built a solution so brides all over the world can digitally customize the design of their choice for such an important piece of clothing, but also body scanned themselves from home and receive a wedding dress made to order to their body measurements with the promise of a true fit, within 8 weeks instead of 8 months from the industry standard. In addition, we built a logistic platform to manage the manufacturing supply chain to connect all the stakeholders of the making to disrupt the traditional way of manufacturing wedding gowns.

Since my friends struggle, we helped 300 brides over the past two years to get a streamlined bridal shopping experience. We are proudly growing our business across new sales channels such as online and in showroom experience

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Looking back to 2020, when I launched Les Aimants, our business model was focused on B2B, helping small retailers across the country to achieve higher-margin sales and attract more brides with an innovative approach to designing made-to-order dresses based on their needs and body measurements. Our goal was to reduce the wait time from the industry standard of 8 months to just 8 weeks, and we were excited to collaborate with retailers to disrupt the industry.

However, it wasn’t until a year later that I realized the industry standard was actually set the ones I wanted to actually help. As a one-time consumer, you have no control on the industry standard. This was a hard lesson to learn, as the bridal wear market is worth $65B, yet no one had found a way to make the shopping experience more convenient for brides. Despite talking to various stakeholders in the industry, it became clear that collaboration wasn’t possible.

This realization led me to shift my business strategy to directly reach brides through new sales channels that offer the most convenient shopping experience possible. Two years later, Les Aimants is now part of the Techstars cohort and has developed a front-to-back solution that not only streamlines the shopping experience for brides but also produces wedding dresses in a more sustainable and efficient way.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I am a former 3D technical designer and my background has been working in close communication with the local and oversea manufacturer when I was working in the fashion industry. Les Aimants produces wedding gowns that are made to order to the bride’s body measurements and manufactured them directly in New York within the same atelier as couture houses. What makes us different? Mostly pricing. Our wedding dresses retail for under $2500, and materials are sourced from the finest embroideries and silk houses from Europe.

Contact Info:

• Website: les-aimants.com
• Instagram: @lesaimantsbridal
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmanon/

Image Credits
@studiococonyc