Interview with Rouge Boulevard
interview conducted By Caroline Garell
I sat down with Matthieu Berthelot and Maël Ravy from Rouge Boulevard in my Parisian apartment on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Both were drinking tea - Matthieu smoking a cigarette and Maël pausing his music (Parachute by Thee Lakesiders) to start our interview. Let’s dive in.
Caroline: Can you introduce yourselves to our readers?
Matthieu: I am 23 and I come from Paris. I study along with Maël at IESEG School of Management at La Defense.
Maël: I am 23 and I am from Paris. Matthieu and I met five years ago while in our business courses.
Caroline: How do you both balance being close friends and business partners?
Matthieu: We didn't start Rouge Boulevard as close friends; we were rather acquaintances at school. I came to Maël with the early concept of the business, and then we developed the idea together. We started becoming closer as friends as the project advanced. The project actually helped us build a relationship. Our personal life and the project are entangled in our discussions when we see each other, but we don’t try to separate those discussions too much, because sometimes we connect personal conversation topics into the project to be more efficient in managing business relationships.
Maël: Whenever we meet, we always take time to discuss and chat as friends. We had to build a relationship, not just to be business partners, because that is not all who we are. The relationship grew from there.
Maël and Mattieu the day before their first event at a friend’s apartment in the 16th Arrondissement, June 2023
Caroline: How did you both first discover and express your creative side?
Maël: I really don’t know. I have always drawn or had inspirations from comics or music videos. But, I really started to see the results of all the inspirations I had discovered in my life when I was around 17 or 18. That is when I started doing designs for my streetwear line, Samples Projects. As I focused more on this project, my inspirations and personal brand started to grow.
Matthieu: I first discovered my creative side when I was in a lonely period of my life; I created collages in my room. What I like about collages is the double creativity of first shaping the images I cut (using my mind to create shapes) and how to display them on a white piece of paper.
Caroline: Can you explain Rouge Boulevard to me and the readers in your own words?
Matthieu: A location, an experience and unique items.
Both: We have two main activities: selling vintage clothes through events and styling. We like to work with people who have external projects. With them, we style outfits that fit their project. We can work as a stylist or personal shopper in this service. At the end of the day, styling looks and curating unique pieces is what inspires us.
Caroline: Why did you create Rouge Boulevard?
Matthieu: We developed Rouge Boulevard to change the clientele experience in vintage clothing shopping. We wanted to offer curated vintage assortments with affordable pricing, something we saw missing in the market as the shopping options were either curated vintage shops with high price points or thrift shops with low prices but bins you had to sort through.
Both: Relating to the clientele experience, we wanted to present a clean and aesthetic way to shop, with a good selection of music playing, not the random radio music. We really wanted to create a simpler and more inspiring way to shop vintage in Paris.
Maël: Through the styling we do, we also have more control on what projects and who we decide to work with. We want the projects and people to align with the image of the brand of Rouge Boulevard. We recently styled a music video project, where we learned that this type of project for styling is something we would not focus on pursuing in the future.
Caroline: When was the official launch of Rouge Boulevard? When did you start the early ideas of it?
Matthieu: We started working on the initial ideas of Rouge Boulevard two years ago.
Both: "We launched Rouge Boulevard in June 2023, which was our first event. We had no communication for the event and no budget; it was only for friends and family in an apartment setting. It was our way to present our project in an intimate setting while also seeing how people would react and respond to our concept. More specifically, we were testing if events were something we wanted to keep pursuing as our original idea surrounded having a permanent physical shop in Paris."
Caroline: The structure of Rouge Boulevard is unique right now, exclusively in pop-ups and sometimes only to close friends - what is your strategy with this?
Maël: We want to do two different kinds of pop-ups. One of them being the pop-ups open to the public where we rent a space in Paris and customize it. For these, we want to draw in as many people as possible. We also want to do private events that we host in more intimate and special places where people have to buy tickets to enter. There are more advantages to the private events - customers have more time to shop and there are possibilities of personalized styling sessions with Matthieu and I as they shop.
Matthieu: Our differentiation strategy focuses on the selection of clothes - we really want to sell a curated Rouge Boulevard style and the location of our events.
Caroline: What is your strategy in sourcing your pieces - you don’t have to give away your secrets but maybe a little insight into the mind of Rouge.
Maël: Firstly, we want to source clothes that Matthieu and I are personally drawn to. For example, we stay away from really on-trend pieces such as Carhartt jeans. We want to source men’s and women’s clothing that we are initially drawn to. We specifically look to see if the clothing has special cuts, materials, colors, tags, etc.
Mathieu: We also try to source clothing based on the seasons of our pop-ups. For example, if our pop-up is in the winter months, we tailor the clothing offered in that pop-up to be warmer pieces and vice versa for the summer.
Caroline: Recently, a new member has joined the Rouge Boulevard team. Can you explain your strategy behind growing the team?
Matthieu: Recently, Yasmeen Roundtree joined the Rouge Boulevard team. She was super involved with the photography of the last pop up and branding content. After the second pop-up, we reflected and realized we really liked the work Yaz was offering. So, we made an official meeting where Yaz pitched herself in a sense outlining her skill sets and proposing ideas she has for Rouge. Currently, it is a non-official trial period with Yaz on the team until the third pop-up. However, currently our plan is to have Yaz fully integrated into the project once she finishes her studies and work. We also want to integrate an “étudiant en alternance'' into the company within a year.
Maël: She was super involved even before officially being a member of the project.
Maël, Mathieu and Yasmeen in a promotional image for their 3rd event, December 2023
Caroline: Where do you see Rouge Boulevard to be in 1 year’s time?
Matthieu: First, we want to have a shared office space, where we could have a showroom inside. We want to register Rouge Boulevard as an official enterprise in France. We also want to have produced a full lookbook and website, making shopping more convenient for all types of customers. We also hope to grow the team.
Maël: We want to be a main reference point of vintage shopping pop-ups within Paris. We want to have created more opportunities in stylings and be able to work with inspiring people in projects.
Caroline: To close this interview, what would be your advice to young creatives wanting to launch their own venture today?
Matthieu: Take action on your ideas. Action and results from your actions is where you learn.
Maël: I agree with Matthieu, but I am going to add more. Before taking action, you have to think deeply about what your project is. Once you lay out all the practicalities is when you can start acting and trying out different things. Do not rush.
Follow Rouge Boulevard on Instagram @rouge.boulevard