“Utopias are made to be realized”: Alexandre Rousseau, one of the creators of the southern Aveyron brand Bleu de Chauffe

Alexandre Rousseau met en avant un savoir-faire plus que centenaire. BLEU DE CHAUFFE – JONATHAN GUILLOT

A major economic player in the southern Aveyron leather goods industry.

Alexandre Rousseau is one of the creators of Bleu de Chauffe, a company created in 2008 in St Georges-de-Luzençon. Originally from the West of France, he studied in Paris before joining the leather goods and watchmaking industry in the Richemont group.
His experiences in luxury and workwear (Editor's note: this style has its origins in denim clothing used by cowboys and the work clothes of American and European workers) as a designer take him through the world. rsquo;Europe and Asia. From his meeting with Thierry Batteux, an employee in the same company as him, Bleu de Chauffe was born.

"Utopias are made to be realized"

"It’is a set of planets that have aligned," tells Alexandre Rousseau. "We wanted to leave and we aspired to produce differently. I went to China several times a year and noticed that it was the factory of the world: buildings as far as the eye could see with dormitories for men and women. I felt like I was condoning. At not even 30 years old, I was a utopian. But after all, utopias are meant to be realized. 

“Being an expert by being different”

"I started by making packages and purchasing materials. Then I surrounded myself with professionals who were better than me in these fields. I'm a creative so I kept this part. I work with people with whom I get along well but also who form a collective that works" confides Alexandre Rousseau who is currently working on the development of new markets in Northern Europe. Married and father of a 7-year-old boy, he says: "Lego and boredom encourage creativity, that’s my whole childhood. I'm trying to get my son to have a well-stocked Lego box. If young people read my portrait, I want to tell them that even if you are not a particularly gifted student, if you know what you want to do and are passionate about it, you can develop skills. SKILLS. You have to aim to be an expert by being different, by developing your uniqueness. Passionate about windsurfing, the manager of Bleu de Chauffe confides: &quot ;When I'm on the water, I recharge the batteries.

Their desire: to return to cleaner and local production. Well before the era of Made in France, they imagined French and artisanal manufacturing with a strong stylistic identity of the products. Alexandre Rousseau advocates "the singularity of the brand", "the beautiful materials used such as vegetable tanned leather or very beautiful cotton canvases made in the traditional way". He, who always manages the creative part of the products, specifies that "copies from Asia are commonplace. The use of these materials allows us to protect ourselves. This is a centuries-old know-how that only exists in Europe.

The partners chose Saint Georges following their meeting with Julien Hanchir, who takes care of the manufacturing part, and for the ecosystem existing in the region around leather. "We wanted to be close to the employees who manufacture our products. It's super stimulating to be able to go back and forth between my office and the production part, explains the business manager, illustrating the prototyping phases.< /p>

Crafting 2.0

"When I left Paris, some people told me that I was sheltering myself from fashion. Not at all, our products leave St Georges for all over the world. A little less than 50% of sales are made in France. We do 2.0 craftsmanship, that is to say our means of communication are very modern, we take beautiful photos and videos that highlight our creations, we are on social networks, we have a beautiful website but our way of producing is always artisanal."

"The main thing is to maintain a measured level of growth, while continuing to train our employees and create new ranges".  A series of t-shirts will be released very soon. "It’is very ambitious! rsquo;be reasonable. We are cautious, we see in the long term.

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