Behind Léo and Violette are Léo Dominguez and Violette Polchi, an inseparable duo for eight years. Together, they founded a brand of bags with a sleek style and high-quality materials. Self-taught, they were still students when they created the brand. With more than two thousand products sold in 2017 in France and abroad, they are now enjoying real success.
Violette, an opera singer by profession, does not work for the brand on a daily basis. We meet Léo at their studio located at 12 rue Saint-Anne in Paris.
Hello, Leo! Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Léo, co-founder of the Léo et Violette brand, and I am 28 years old. We created the brand almost five years ago now, when we were both 22 and 23 years old. This brand was created through a crowdfunding project: Kickstarter.
The original idea was to create a single-product brand: a satchel designed to hold a laptop, tablet, and smartphone. We wanted to make a well-made product of very high quality. The idea was to create a simple, minimalist product without any monograms or logos. We first sold it directly to consumers on the Kickstarter website, then later on our own website.
Neither of us are involved in the fashion world at all.
Speaking of which, can you tell me about your background? Your respective studies?
I went to business school, which I finished in 2015, and Violette has an artistic background; she's an opera singer. That's her job. She doesn't work at Léo et Violette on a daily basis. We've been involved in the fashion world a little bit thanks to her mother, who was the head of pattern making at a fashion school.
But we haven't done any studies in the fashion world. Violette is the artistic one of the two of us. She's the one who designs the models and handles all the artistic direction for the project, whether it's photos, videos, or drawings that we send to our manufacturers.
How did your studies help you in setting up your fashion business?
Firstly, there is a very practical aspect that my studies have enabled me to consider, whether it be implementing a marketing strategy for certain tools or knowing how to analyze a market. I followed a course focused on digital marketing, so I am familiar with all the current communication strategies.
Being in school at the same time as launching a project is very interesting. I absorbed what my teachers were teaching me and tried to apply it to my own project. And then, of course, studying allows you to start building your first network. There were four thousand students at my school. So four thousand potential customers. I sent promotional emails on my school's intranet to raise awareness of the brand.
How did you come up with the idea for Léo and Violette?
It came from a need. At the time, we were both looking for a school bag with a slightly vintage feel. A retro style that could be worn as a backpack. We wanted to revamp it and wondered what people put in their schoolbags these days. The answer was a computer, a charger, a tablet. And at the time, schoolbags weren't designed for that.
So we decided to modernize these models, adding compartments, linings, pockets, working with other materials, colors, etc. We also wanted it to be versatile, so it could be worn as both a handbag and a backpack. That's when we discovered Kickstarter which was the perfect way to test a project.
So it was entirely crowdfunding that enabled you to create Léo and Violette?
That's right. We had never sold a product before. Kickstarter. We really started this project with just one product. Our idea was simple: before trying to create a brand, let's try to create a product that we like. If people like the product, maybe we can consider developing a collection. That's how the project began. Kickstarter in 2013.
Right from the start, we had a lot of orders, almost 160 in one month. That amounted to almost sixty thousand dollars in orders, well above what we had initially set out to achieve. Without Kickstarter, we wouldn't be here today. It has been—and still is—a calling card for the brand. Telling our clients that this is how we started is both rewarding and reassuring. The creation of Leo and Violet is not linked to outside investors, but to people who believed in the project.
What type of customers do you have?
It is mainly French. 80% of our products are sold in France. They are young city dwellers, between 25 and 35/40 years old. Our customers are people who are like us. We make products that we love, that we want to be the first to use. So it seems logical that our customers are like us.
Paris is by far the city where we sell the most products. Today, we sell 65% of our bags to women. Originally, it was the opposite. We started out with a range of unisex products and sold much more to men. Then, in 2015/2016, we began manufacturing handbags, products designed exclusively for women. From that moment on, the brand experienced strong growth.
Can you tell me a little more about your international clientele?
Twenty percent of our products are sold outside France. The United Kingdom ranks first, followed by China. The brand's success in China is very interesting for us. In fact, a Chinese blogger started talking about our products, and we've had quite a few mentions on Chinese websites.
This had a snowball effect: more and more Chinese people were talking about our bags or taking photos of themselves with them. Today, we regularly have Chinese customers visiting our studio. They are mainly Chinese students studying at major European or American universities.
These meetings made us want to work with them. In fact, a few days ago, I traveled to China to potentially work with a company that would like to distribute our products on the Chinese market. I believe that they now want to turn to brands that are perhaps less well-known than Louis Vuitton or Dior. They still have a taste for French craftsmanship, but are increasingly turning to emerging brands that are not necessarily seen on the streets.
Why did you initially choose e-commerce?
Because that's the only way to bypass all the middlemen and offer a product that is very well made, of high quality, and sold at an affordable price. If we adopt a distribution model, we then have to deal with the margins of middlemen, agents, resellers, etc.
We wanted to be the first consumers of the products, and we decided that a school bag costing more than three hundred euros was beyond our means. So, in order to sell a quality product at that price, there was no other solution than to sell it directly.
Why then did you decide to open a studio?
It was necessary in response to customer demand. In fact, opening a store doesn't change the system. We remain the sole distributors of our products. We've done a lot of pop-up stores, and each time we've had extremely positive feedback: customers liked being able to see the quality of the products, the materials, the colors, the different sizes, etc.
Not having a permanent location can create more frustration than anything else. We wanted to create a space that could serve as both our offices and a point of sale where we could permanently display our products. We opened the studio in July 2017.
You have a single manufacturer in Italy. Can you explain this choice?
That's where we found the best compromise between quality and quantity, which is very important when you're a young brand. Finding a manufacturer who is willing to produce smaller quantities is quite rare. Our manufacturer is great, and we've built a very strong relationship with them today. Leo and Violet is its largest customer.
As you were novices, how did you go about taking the first steps toward creating your fashion brand?
We used Violette's mother's network a little, as she knew some people who could help and advise us. But the best way is still to search the internet yourself. Just by typing «leather supplier Paris» into a search engine, you can find interesting contacts who will give you advice or refer you to other people who will in turn refer you to other people, and so on.
It's like conducting an investigation! The important thing to know is that at the time, we were students, so we had time and weren't in a hurry to find suppliers. It took more than six months to find the right ones. I can understand that when you're starting a brand, it can be a rather long and frustrating process. For us, there was no frustration in this slowness, because we weren't in a hurry.
Today, Leo and Violet How many people are you hiring?
Four. A store manager, a community manager, a logistics manager, and a production manager, who handles relations with suppliers and manufacturers.
What difficulties did you encounter at the beginning of the project?
The biggest challenge is defining your project and trying to be specific about what you want to do. When you have a blank page in front of you, there are so many possibilities—you can create different styles of products... What's really difficult is defining the true identity of the product and the brand as a whole. You have to be fairly specific and find a guiding principle that will stand the test of time.
In fact, customers need consistency; they need to be able to relate to a story, rather than having things change every three months. At the beginning, you're kind of jumping into the unknown, because you don't know what customers will like or how they will react. You have to have confidence in your idea and tell yourself that it will take time. Launching your own fashion brand requires patience and not focusing too much on the short term.
What starting strategy have you decided to adopt?
Above all, we wanted to focus on transparency. From the outset, we established shared values regarding how we communicate and talk about our brand. We decided to communicate extensively about manufacturing, transparency around materials, and also to communicate about ourselves, to put ourselves forward, to tell people who Léo and Violette are.
Five years later, this is still the case; we spend a lot of time explaining the behind-the-scenes story of how the brand was created. In fact, we sensed from the outset that customers appreciated this closeness and transparency about our history.
Did you use the press and social media to promote yourself after your success on Kickstarter ?
When the brand was created, it was the golden age of Instagram for professionals like us. Our posts were widely viewed and commented on, and there weren't as many brands as there are today. We started using these tools very early on. Our followers then became our customers.
At that point, we organized events, and much later, we approached the press. We called on press agencies. However, my advice would be not to try to get press coverage right from the start, as it's almost impossible and very expensive.
It's best to start by developing your own network, then expand it with good communication on Instagram and Facebook, which are free tools. Once things are well established, it's much easier to approach the press.
Do you now realize how important Instagram is for your sales?
Yes, because it is the number one source for discovering products. Leo and Violet. Everyone who discovers the brand does so almost exclusively through Instagram or Facebook. But today there are so many people on Instagram that competition is fierce, and it's difficult to stand out from the crowd.
Either you have to pay a lot of money to ensure that your posts are seen more and more, or you have to create content of immeasurable quality, originality, and responsiveness... In short, criteria that are very difficult to meet. Nevertheless, at present, there is no other tool for promoting a brand.
Instagram is our number one source of communication. They have integrated lots of tools to simplify visibility and product purchasing, such as displaying the price directly on the photo, etc.
Any major advice for students reading this?
Have confidence in your project. I always start from the premise that if one person has an idea, they are not the only one to have had it. You have to be specific about what you want and defend it with all your heart and soul, for a long time. Above all, don't get discouraged at the beginning, because things take a long time.
You also have to be prepared to work hard. Launching your own project is like launching a new life. No one will do things for you. You have to be prepared to do everything from accounting to supplier relations to communications. It's very demanding, but also very exciting and, above all, very rewarding because when it works, it's entirely thanks to you.
Any plans for the future?
Yes! On Thursday, we are launching our small leather goods range. It's an important project for us; we've been working on it for six months. We are going to release thirty new items next year. Violette and I would also really like to develop the brand by opening other stores and expanding abroad.
If you want even more tips on launching your brand, you can read our article on How to launch your fashion brand in 5 essential questions.
