Les Ateliers de Paris incubator renews its residents

Paris is for the whole world: fashion. But beyond the designers in the media during Fashion Week, it's also a rich fabric of young designers, artisans and other workshops. Aware of this asset 20 years ago, the City of Paris decided to set up the BDMMA (Bureau du Design, de la Mode et des Métiers d'Art), a public service dedicated to helping designers finance, structure, network and make themselves known.

"Paris is determined to support a significant economic sector in its territory, a vector of attractiveness and international influence and an essential lever for transforming our society. This will be reflected in various tools for the BDMMA, such as the Grands Prix de la Design de Paris. Our Les Ateliers de Paris Incubator was one of the first actions taken back in 2006, with the aim of hosting and supporting the early development of design, fashion and professions d'art companies", emphasizes Mathilde Nony, deputy director of Les Ateliers de Paris.

A new call for projects

Mathilde Nony, Directrice adjointe Ateliers de Paris. Photo credits : ©BDMMA">

Among their reasons for existence, the fact that "the Ile-de-France region has a number of young designers, graduates of Paris schools of applied art, she points out. We equip and structure these profiles in need of Business skills, a point common to all our residents." As Les Ateliers de Paris renews half (i.e. some 15) of its incubatees each year, a new call for projects kicks off this February 18, with online submission of applications until April 16. In addition to entering information, applicants will be required to attach a visual file"enabling us to appreciate the singularity of the project, an essential criterion for being selected, says Mathilde Nony.You'll need to have an innovative proposal, not necessarily from a technical point of view, but also creative, proposing quality of manufacture or mastery of savoir-faire".

To be selected for the one-year program, renewable once, future residents will need to have begun the commercialization phase and already worked on prototypes in-house or with manufacturing workshops, not necessarily French. "We demand consistency and thoughtfulness in terms of manufacturing locations, and take into account environmental and societal impacts. We give preference to manufacturing made in France or Europe, but above all we look at the coherence between production and the business model." However, a survey carried out in 2022 among the network of former Ateliers de Paris residents showed that, across all sectors, 75% manufactured exclusively in France and 41% in Paris.

Workshops and numerous free tools

The lucky ones benefit from a valuable asset in a city with high rents: the provision of 9 to 35 m2 premises, enabling them "to get out of their homes to have a real workspace, individual or shared". Les Ateliers de Paris now totals two sites covering 800 m2. Open from the outset at 30, rue du faubourg Saint-Antoine (12th arrondissement), the first houses some fifteen workshops (compared with six at the start) and a gallery for organizing exhibitions, pop-ups...The second, born of an extension in 2015 at 28, rue Faidherbe (12th arrondissement), also has some fifteen workshops. Premises divided evenly between the three sectors of Design, Fashion and Métiers d'art.

Incubates also have access to a veritable "toolbox, deployed according to need". They benefit from "personalized support from Incubator management and the BDMMA team, free appointments and training with expert consultants (finance, communications, legal, marketing...)". Among the topics addressed, often lacking among her incubatees, Mathilde Nony notes the "positioning" of the brand, "the ability to understand one's customer well, whether in B to B or B to C", but also "the challenges of digitalization (communication, sales...)".

Residents also enrich their contacts, via connections with the Ateliers de Paris network, nearly 300 companies incubated over the past 20 years, and with the sector ecosystems with which Incubateur and BDMMA work on a daily basis.

Strength of the collective

A strength of the collective that residents also experience within the Incubator, where they share consulting and best practices, "even in a sector different from their own", and "sometimes realize creative collaborations". The case of two fashion and jewelry brands, currently developing a capsule jewelry collection, at the crossroads of their two universes.

Finally, the Incubator also means visibility offered, whether via the communication tools (newsletter, website, social networks, open days...) of Ateliers de Paris, the various events organized in its gallery or outside appointments, such as the Biennale Révélations, Métiers d'art et Design in Paris or Milan's Design Week.

Current Fashion incubates include Home Douillet, inspired by the rural and alpine lifestyles of yesteryear, valorizing natural materials, mainly wool, in its ready-to-wear and accessories in France, or Lora Sonney, which transforms old garden hoses into a material used to make fashion items in France or Portugal. The upcycling brand 2 Mai Paris, for example, transforming fleece blankets into blazers between Paris and Troyes, graduated from the Incubator in September 2025. Strengthened by her time at Les Ateliers de Paris, its creator Alice Rio Derrey has opened a boutique workshop in the 20th arrondissement of Paris.

Easing access to garment making with MSFC

On the manufacturing side, the Incubator is not intended to put incubatees in direct contact with each other. "Our strength lies in being well-connected to the ecosystems concerned, and in relying on the right partners for each precise problem, Mathilde Nony emphasizes. In this case, for French garment making, the Incubator works with the Maison des Savoir Faire et de la Création (MSFC) (and for leather professions with the Faire de Lance scheme)."Start-ups, with very low production volumes, have difficulty finding workshops. Thanks to its in-depth knowledge of the sector, MSFC is able to put people in touch with the right people. Sylvie Maignan, the structure's mission manager, comes along every time to present the platform to new residents."

"In a difficult economic period whatever the sector and a fortiori for structures just starting out", Mathilde Nony emphasizes that the role of Les Ateliers de Paris is "to continue and strengthen" its "support for those embarking on the beautiful adventure of entrepreneurship". And to conclude that "more globally, the City of Paris continues to support and promote local manufacturing, the shortest possible circuit, and to make all these local companies known to customers (notably via the "Fabriqué à Paris" label, editor's note).