It's crazy ! At 63, the age when humans generally think about retirement, I signed my first permanent contract and it's with L'Appartement Français! Never before, and not always by choice, had I signed a permanent contract.
In chronological order here are the various professions exercised by your servant ( servant does not exist and neither servant nor waitress means the same thing): French teacher; usher; copyeditor ; children's author; proofreader; editor; model.
From now on, I am a saleswoman. But not anywhere, not in anything and especially not with just anyone.
I work as a saleswoman at L'Appartement Français. In this concept store, endearing people kept me attached for longer. I call Émilie & David my Dynamos. They have kilowatts of ideas, humor and kindness, they are like rechargeable batteries and have been reinventing themselves for more than ten years.
I owe them a huge debt of gratitude because they had no preconceptions about my age (I am twenty years older than them), nor my lack of experience in sales. Certainly, in my youth, I sold flip-flops and jokaris in a toy store on the sea wall of a Belgian seaside resort, in De Panne. It was a summer job. Several summers but that still doesn't make a career.
Sales can be annoying (like, I imagine, in a fast-fashion brand) but it can also be very fun and instructive, especially when there is an idea to defend, a product that we find beautiful, well done and in respectable human and environmental conditions. This is THE concept of L’Appartement Français; quality know-how, eco-responsible and respecting labor rights.
I have always read labels before buying clothing. First to know the material. Thanks to them, I now verify its origin, the country in which this garment was made. This gives us important information on how the worker was paid and protected. Of course, we must not fall into optimism and it is easier to incriminate made in elsewhere than made in here .
Sales amuses me a lot. It requires different qualities. The taste for welcome, for exchange, the sense of listening (some are undecided), the sense of observation ( helicopter vision as Émilie says because there are thieves like everywhere and that is less funny) and also a certain dose of humility (some, very rare, consider you a servant).
Of course, you have to know the products and like to tell their story because they are all one. From the origin of the fabric to the designer's profile, including the know-how and the atmosphere within the workshop, a lot happens before a garment is on a hanger in the boutique.
Dear Émilie, dear David, thanks to you, I learn things every day. Of course, we don't agree on everything, but that's what's good. However, we agree on the essential, the human aspect. Take care of each other and normally the rest follows. Thank you dynamos!
Article written by Sylviane