Astrid - my partner.

Today I present to you Astrid . I'm wary of superlatives that trivialize everything and I'm careful not to let myself be overwhelmed by too much joy... I practice it every day, it's work!

Today, however, I am going to make an exception by introducing you to the one who has become my ASSOCIATE and I am very happy about it.

Last March 28, will remain engraved in my memory as the date of the first beautiful days of spring and cherry blossoms, including in Paris with a minimum of imagination... and what's more it's true, it was a beautiful day sun that day. This date is also engraved at the bottom of a document entitled Shareholders' Agreement and, under this date, our two signatures affixed without trembling: Astrid and Charlotte. I have just opened the capital of Mister K to Astrid, which will no longer be a SASU (simplified single-member joint stock company) but a plural company.

Our association illustrates so well that “ There is no chance, there are only meetings ” (Paul Eluard).

We attended the same preschool, in different classes. Perhaps we brushed against each other over hopscotch in the playground? No very specific memory. More than 25 years later, we realized this when we reunited a few months ago. Sylvain had just decided to leave my company and its projects, leaving me without explanation and very disappointed... So Astrid appeared in my landscape as if by magic. During these few months, we talked a lot, about everything, about nothing, but enough to see that the scattered pieces of the puzzle of our two characters and our professional projects fit together well.

Who is Astrid, where is she from?

Born on July 17, 1984... Saint Charlotte's Day... you can see that there is no coincidence! Parisian at heart since her birth in a home of doctors, turned towards others, with the added desire of providing her 3 children with a solid education. In this family bath, these three could have been predestined to medicine, like an obligatory screening. This was not the case, this is never the case with parents who love and encourage without putting uncontrolled pressure on the children. I know this feeling too. Baccalaureate in hand, prep. business schools, head to EDHEC in Lille, the beautiful metropolis of the North, very popular with students it seems. The quality of studies is certainly not the only criterion of attraction...! But no shameful excess, just the memory for Astrid of two beautiful years outside her Parisian comfort zone dedicated to her diploma and a revealing side activity: Astrid got involved in a student association which organized photo-taking internships. public speaking and negotiation for all students, including those from all over France. Discovery of teamwork and a meaningful project. Then, the takeoff, literally and figuratively: a 1/2 year gap to do international internships (including Hermès in New York) and very quickly discover a taste for marketing and fashion professions. But perhaps the most educational was this exchange program carried out in Mexico. Discovery of a welcoming and endearing “Latina” culture... and then when it came to breaking with any comfort zone, Astrid was served! the exchange program was crowned by an exit diploma, but also by... the accidental fire of the shared apartment and finally, a medical repatriation due to the avian flu pandemic in the country. .. everything is fine. Back in Paris, Astrid has clear ideas, not the neurosis of ambitious women ready to do anything to make a career - but can you seriously “make a career”, serving others and a project, by being a hired killer? impossible, it has no deep meaning - no, Astrid just thinks clearly and goes where her tastes and her heart take her. His tastes, first of all, go to the French Fashion Institute, to complete in a practical way the theoretical course of EDHEC. When you leave the IFM, there is no downtime. Internship at Comptoir des Cotonniers, a happy and decisive internship, converted into your first job. Managerial environment rewarding on a human level, in line with the image of the brand and its soothing “mother daughter” values. Well ! Does the image of a brand have to do with the quality of the human factor that composes it? Obviously, I am convinced of it, more than ever. Capitalization of experience in marketing, merchandising and promoted to “buying manager” within this lovely brand. Happiness never comes alone, Jean-Baptiste wins Astrid's heart... 6 beautiful years pass and naturally Cléa came into the world. But how do we explain that most companies, even the most virtuous, instead of seeing maternity leave as a superb opportunity for fulfillment in a woman's career, only see it as an annoyance in the managerial table? Still, upon returning from his morning leave. , the picture had changed: different hierarchy, influence of Japanese investors in the capital of the Holding, the somewhat family culture of the beginnings had given way to financial injunctions. Nothing really unbearable, it's part of the hazards of a growing group. But for Astrid, the desire to continue on this new path evaporated day after day, until the day when Pia came in turn to brighten up the days - and the nights! - of his parents and his big sister. So without fanfare, Astrid left without really knowing where she was going to end up, with the only certainty that she wanted to get back into a project on a human scale and with a start-up spirit.

So Astrid set foot in my office-workshop-chamber. What spark could she have found in the bric-a-brac of my shop, so that Astrid would ring my doorbell every morning to enter gently into my project?

Only she knows it, or simply because it was her and because it was me, to paraphrase Montaigne. Impossible to determine which of us was the first to consider the association. Together, implicitly, is most likely. There were no real negotiations between us, so much so that we converge on the essentials. We were spared the moments of paranoid tension and the theatricality that governs negotiations as we see in TV series, you see when the two parties are rolling machines on each side of a meeting table which brings nothing together. We are not made for that, so there is no point in playing a harsh and conventional game which is not ours, but the spirit rather than the letter. This is how last March 28, at noon sharp, Astrid and I committed to each other - and both to you - to make Mister K. prosper, multiply creations for you and give meaning tangible to our Brand. Our complementarity is so obvious. Our pact formally establishes some rules of governance, however no need to take refuge in the document to know that: method-organization-financial and accounting analysis-purchasing-merchandising-.... it is Astrid, General Director, and that creation - design - artistic direction - external relations - community management .... it's me, President.

But titles or the slightest line of demarcation have little meaning as our affinities are interdependent. “ They mingle and confuse each other, with a mixture so universal that they erase and no longer find the seam that joined them ”, thus spoke Montaigne to describe his friendship with La Boétie. Shareholders' or friendship agreement, for us, no difference.