Georgette took up residence at the headquarters of La Fée maraboutée, in Roanne (Loire), at the beginning of the year.
In May, she made a trip to Paris, on the occasion of the presentation of the fall-winter 2021-2022 collection.
Georgette?
This is the nickname given by the teams to Emineo, an intelligent computer-controlled mannequin.
According to the instructions of the operator, Georgette can take shoulders, chest, hips at will.
Her silhouette is transformed, goes from 36 to 46, from cup A to cup E, changes her silhouette at will.
A sort of robot, then.
Rather, a “robote”, designed by Audrey-Laure Bergenthal, founder of the company Euveka and winner in 2019 of the Business with Attitude prize organized by
Madame Figaro
.
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For La Fée maraboutée, which achieved a turnover of 58 million euros in 2019, the objective is to improve the entire chain, from the design of clothing to sale in stores or on the internet.
“There is a mystery in textiles, two remote model makers rarely have the same measurements,”
explains Gaëlle Lelong, brand director.
With the Euveka dummy, design offices and manufacturers work on the same values, which avoids three or four back and forth trips before arriving at the right prototype.
We can also judge the wear and fit of a garment on different body types. ”
La Fée maraboutée also tested Georgette for remote fitting sessions, by video in her store in Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine).
"By programming the measurements of a client, she can judge at a distance from the fall and the fit of a piece"
, specifies Gaëlle Lelong.
The use of the Emineo mannequin for La Fée maraboutée is part of an impact approach with, upstream, the increasing use of organic cotton (50% in 2023, 80% in 2025), recycled wool, and biodegradable viscose.
The manager has also worked to rationalize the collections.
“I divided the offer by three.
It was overcrowded and that risked compromising the quality of the clothes, ”
continues Gaëlle Lelong.
A blow of necklace
La Fée maraboutée came close to welcoming Georgette because Euveka has come a long way.
Audrey-Laure Bergenthal, who has a degree in industrial property law but also holds a BTS in styling and model making, started in 2011 with the idea of an intelligent model.
She first cleared the technical ground on her own.
She then turned to design offices to develop her robot mannequin while increasing food activities in fashion to finance the start-up Euveka.
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Between 2015 and 2019, she led two fundraisers to finance R&D.
Emineo was operational in 2019 and arrived at its first customers, most often in a subscription plan.
While it had to give a boost to marketing, Euveka found itself entangled in a classic situation: orders to be fulfilled but not enough cash on hand to continue the activity.
“I launched a capital increase which was supposed to end in the fall of 2019,”
says Audrey-Laure Bergenthal.
But the investors who had given an agreement in principle walked away.
In January 2020, an article in
Figaro economics
enabled me to sound the alarm.
We needed 300,000 euros to last until the end of the month and 1.5 million euros for our commercial policy. "
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His appeal was heard. Two company directors and the historical shareholders contributed 300,000 euros to ensure the immediate deadlines. Sofimac, a private equity company based in Clermont-Ferrand, has invested 500,000 euros. Euveka was also able to take out a State Guaranteed Loan (PGE) of 850,000 euros.
Finally, customers have confirmed their orders.
Euveka was saved.
But while the company employed 40 people, it had to cut its workforce by four.
Manufacturing remains subcontracted in the Drôme where Euveka is located.
The company always ensures the final assembly and calibration of the algorithm.
“In the last quarter of 2020,
specifies Audrey-Laure Bergenthal,
we caught up all year.
By the end of 2021, we should have around 100 installed robots. ”
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