Credits: 2025, Ecostylia Media.
The MIF Expo 2025 brings together, from November 6 to 9 in Paris, nearly 1,000 exhibitors and a large audience. There are hatmakers, seamstresses, watchmakers, spinners and a promise: made here, built to last. Behind the materials and the prices, one question runs through the aisles: how to reconcile the desire for proximity, local employment and purchasing power constraints?
MIF Expo: A Hive Of Concrete Stories
The smell of waxed wood mixes with essential oil scents. Under Pavilion 3 of the Parc des expositions de la porte de Versailles, precise gestures repeat. Stitch after stitch and stitch after stitch, the process continues. Voices answer one another: a chorus of provinces and workshops. You move between booths that look like train-station counters: people talk materials, prices, sizes, deadlines, but above all durability.
The 2025 edition of the MIF Expo took place from 11/06/2025 to 11/09/2025. Nearly 1,000 exhibitors lined up their finds, know-how and trials, for a loyal audience of more than 110,000 visitors at recent editions. Here, the argument is not shouted: it is woven. Artisans defend quality and repairability. Aware that purchasing power and the price differential influence every decision. They bet on the honesty of the demonstration: show, let people touch, explain.
It all starts with encounters. A merino beanie you scrunch. A cape that catches the light. A hat personalized in a minute. Also, a work jacket whose canvas has the thickness of a memory. The gestures tell the same thing: here, we still make things.
Blanc Bonnet: A Knitwear Brand Rooted In Saint-Didier-en-Velay
In front of stacks of beanies sorted by gauge and wool, Arnaud Perrier-Gustin smiles: the brand Blanc Bonnet changed hands “three years ago,” and the trajectory has rebounded. “Brand born in Saint-Didier-en-Velay… we now have more than 200 SKUs: merino, alpaca, recycled denim, recycled wool,” he sums up.
At the booth, prices start around €25. “There is no Black Friday,” the owner slips in. “I position myself among the cheapest on the market, otherwise I don’t sell.” The frankness shows the difficulty of balance: aligning with a desire to buy French, without denying the reality of budgets. Above the cones, a sleek logo catches the eye: “Redesign thought for embroidery and to modernize the brand.”
Here, the beanie becomes a mood marker as much as a technical accessory. Customers ask about material first, then fit. They pass it along, compare softness, put it back, return. The seller explains the fibers and their uses: merino that breathes, alpaca that insulates, recycled that rethinks the supply chain.
Belotsi Paris: Capes And Tailoring, A Subtle Look
On the rack, the Belotsi Paris line asserts itself in clean silhouettes. Fabienne Belotsi speaks quietly but gets straight to the point: “Thirty years in the trade and more… I make winter and summer collections. My preferred materials: wool and cotton.” The capes reign, fluid, ready to turn on the shoulders. All models are made in Paris.
The average price for a jacket or coat is around €250. At that price, the cut and drape must convince. Customers try them on, feel the interlining, look for ease. You hear “it holds,” “it doesn’t itch,” “it will last me a long time.” The patternmaker accompanies, pins sometimes, adjusts a hem, etc. There is something of the atelier boutique: sewing is not a secret, it’s a conversation.
Van Palma: Felt And The Marseille Gesture
A hat takes on the character of the one who wears it. At Van Palma, the demonstration is immediate. Justine Coli grabs a leather strap and, with a gesture, personalizes a crown. The service is charged €15 to €20. The Marseille brand is ten years old, it makes its hats in felt in France and embraces a clear style: crisp brims, hues sometimes mineral, sometimes bright, and always the elegance of a simple line.
On the table, the choice is wide. Try-ons spark knowing looks, selfies, hesitations. The hat, we know, is not a neutral accessory. A customer comes back: the size is right, but she wants a bolder ribbon. We change, cut, tie. She leaves with an object that belongs to her.
Kiplay Vintage: Heritage At Work
A work jacket hangs like a banner a few aisles away. Kiplay Vintage tells a story started in 1921. “We celebrated our 100 years,” recalls Marc Pradal, “with our Miss Normandy and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.” The revival happened “in my own town,” in Normandy.
Jackets and trousers reprise workshop colors, but the patternmaking has shifted toward the city: enlarged pockets, better set shoulders, tapered hems. The canvas keeps its density. Logos, discreet, leave room for topstitching. We talk durability, repairs, spare parts. Younger customers like the story as much as the cut. Meanwhile, older customers recognize the hand that sewed the jackets of their early days.
Fées en Provence: The Aix Laboratory, A Scent Of Craftsmanship
Among the scents, the Fées en Provence booth installs its white clarity. Jazz Drymon Fontani sums up: “Created in 2010, everything is made in Aix-en-Provence in our laboratories.” The clientele is “rather urban,” she notes, “and expands with notoriety.”
Bottles parade, textures are tested, compositions compared. The discussion slides toward supply chains: where does the vegetable oil come from, which supplier for which hydrosol, what certifications? The team answers effortlessly. Craftsmanship here is not a slogan: it’s a process and a place.
Workshops, Territories: A Geography Of Making
Below the main aisles, booths like stations map a country of gestures.
In Romans-sur-Isère, the Atelier Made in Romans and the Cité de la Chaussure have reopened the page of the factory town. The workshops are visitable, the shop assembles 100% Romans brands. You hear a shared vocabulary here: cut, stitch, assembly, shank, sole. Teams tell of patient reshoring, cooperation between houses and the bet of a living anchoring.
In Lorraine, Bergère de France holds the line of a last industrial spinning mill for knitting yarn. At the booth, massive cones lay down their gravity. We talk carding, twisting, dyeing. Customers knit in memory: a stitch learned with a grandmother, a sweater picked up at the collar. Yarn here is not only a material: it’s a link between generations.
In Châteauroux, Les Petites Maries make plush toys with embroidered iris eyes. The EPV label discreetly adorns a corner of the booth. The teddy bears sit up easily, you think of hospital gifts, first nights without a nightlight. Seams are tight, labels explicit: you know where the object was made, by whom, with what.
On the side of Puy-en-Velay, So France is Co is lived as an atelier-boutique. Jeans are cut and assembled behind the shop. You choose the fabric, discuss a hem, talk inseam length and rise. The argument for custom becomes concrete: you see the machine, you hear the needle, you understand the gesture.
Le Petit Dormeur, Atelier Caradant: Two Stories, Two Speeds
Around a corner, we meet Michel de Vasselot and Brieuc Izenic, leaders of manufacturer Le Petit Dormeur, whom we had already interviewed a few years earlier. Their story is short on words and long on stubbornness: taken over in September 2022, the brand sold its stocks in four days at MIF 2023. Since then, growth is visible, with up to 5x revenue. A short range, the travel pillow as a discreet companion, and a care for comfort that speaks immediately to travelers.
A few meters away, Atelier Caradant assembles automatic watches whose some dials are made of paper. The proposition is unique: co-design with the client, assembly in France, fine tuning. You look at those slightly fibrous surfaces that catch light differently. The mechanics beat, steady. Time there seems both slower and more embodied.
Montebourg, The Political Shadow
In this popular fair, people sell and discuss. Moreover, the figure of Arnaud Montebourg, former Minister of the Economy, crosses the aisles like a reminder. He is no longer in government, but his fight for industrial sovereignty continues to fuel conversations. Here, the argument is not a poster: it’s a presence.
You hear simple words: jobs, skills, supply chains, prices. Some call for more demanding public procurement, others insist on the transparency of materials and workshops. Politics, fundamentally, boils down to a question of time: how much time do you give a sector to rebuild? how many seasons to a workshop to balance its accounts?
What The MIF Expo Says About The France That Makes
The MIF Expo 2025 shows a France that does not want to relegate manufacturing to the past. Behind every beanie, cape or hat, there are people, machines, a territory. “Made in France” appears less as a slogan than as a sum of strategic decisions: accepting to pay a little more to keep workshops, skills and jobs here.
Sustainability As Practice, Not As A Slogan
The show highlights a lived sustainability: reinforced stitches, repairability, a reachable service, products that last and are passed on. The criterion is no longer just “how much does it cost?” but “what does it help keep alive?” Leaving Pavilion 3, you understand that if buying is an economic act, it is above all a vote, for the world we want to live in tomorrow.
