The Epson Monna Lisa Proves To Be A Growth Driver For HUGOTAG ─The Lyon-Based Silk Processing Specialist

PRESS ROOM

6 May

Written By Debbie Mckeegan

Hugotag, a French specialist finisher of silk fabrics for many of the world's most prestigious luxury brands, is now a member of the Chanel Group.

Hugotag works with very beautiful silk fabrics, sheer chiffons that can be as light as 14 g/m", with muslins and satins and heavier twills. The weights of the most delicate fabrics are usually between 20 and 50 g/m" and are produced in average widths from 90 cm to a maximum of 1.9 m.

Created in 2012 from the merger of two companies specialising in silk processing, HUGOTAG is clearly driven by a fierce desire to mobilize to develop and face market changes and the economic context.

With this in mind, HUGOTAG has decided to take on a new dimension, by integrating the Epson Monna Lisa into its production workshop for industrial digital printing directly on textiles.

Interview with Claire Bairros, Managing Director of HUGOTAG, one of the last French companies, heir to the tradition and know-how of Lyon's silks.

Two Centuries Of Experience In Silk Processing

While it is obvious that HUGOTAG combines two areas of expertise that are almost unique in the textile market, namely the dyeing and finishing of precious silk fabrics, it is easy to understand why major luxury houses rely on this company.

In addition to being able to control the entire manufacturing chain of high-end silk fabrics, investing in this sector is also a way to perpetuate this French heritage by promoting the continuity of this exceptional and rare know-how.

But to perpetuate artisanal expertise, you also need to be at the cutting edge. This is the challenge that Claire Bairros set herself when she decided to acquire the Epson Monna Lisa, in order to modernise the digital tool already in place: "Our desire is really to industrialise craftsmanship and strengthen our offer, while maintaining the very essence of HUGOTAG, namely the mastery of the French value chain," she says.

Luxury Customers: The Demand For Excellence

Traditionally, silk weaving is specific to the Lyon region. This explains why most of HUGOTAG's customers are weavers located in the Rhône-Alpes region, who are themselves suppliers to the major luxury houses.

"By integrating an industrial printer for direct-to-textile printing in my workshop, our long-standing customers will benefit from both our dyeing know-how, as well as a state-of-the-art digital printing service thanks to the Epson Monna Lisa. Our priority remains the constant search for the improvement of our quality of work and more generally of our service, because working with the most delicate fabrics requires rigor and perpetual questioning," says Claire Bairros.

Digital Technology, A Response To The Needs Of Small Creators

"With the Epson Monna Lisa, we clearly want to expand our customer portfolio by providing a qualitative and responsive solution for designers who need to produce small collections of clothing or fashion accessories such as scarves, twilly, kimonos, etc. Our vocation is absolutely not to become a digital printer, but to offer a service for small series always in the niche of luxury and hyper-luxury."

In this respect, the manager has perfectly integrated all the benefits of digital printing to face a rapidly changing market, confronted with economic, societal and environmental challenges. A market that is experiencing a real effervescence in terms of designers to whom a response must be provided and who are entitled to benefit from the same quality requirements as the major luxury houses.

Rigorous Tests That Confirm The Monna Lisa Choice

The digital printing project kicked off at the 2019 edition of the ITMA trade fair in Milan. A complex design was given to different brands of textile printers, in order to test the ability to reproduce the colours and the fineness of the dots.

"The Monna Lisa has won the most favourable reviews due to its higher colour rendering and its more relevant crossing quality. We also appreciated its production rate, which reassured us that we could produce with an ideal combination of a high level of quality and printing speed, to guarantee responsiveness and satisfaction to our customers," says Claire Bairros.

This is how a Monna Lisa ML 8000 in 185 cm width, with 8 colours, came to equip the HUGOTAG workshop in 2022, to be able to print 80% on silk and 20% on cotton, mainly fashion accessories, but also all-over for clothing.

Thus equipped, HUGOTAG is able to carry out custom dyeing, printing and finishing according to the high-end requirements required by its luxury-oriented clientele.

GOTS Certification: An Imperative For The Luxury World

The high level of quality is not enough to supply the most prestigious brands of haute couture and luxury. It is still necessary to be able to make eco-responsible and reassuring commitments for customers.

"In the case of MonnaLisa, we are the first to print silk with GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified reactive inks, which allows us to extend our certification from dyeing to digital printing. This certification is in addition to those we have already had for a long time, such as Oeko-Tex, synonymous with trust for customers and great safety for products, and ISO14001 which demonstrates our mastery of the environmental impacts linked to our activity," attests Claire Bairros.

High Standards And Customer Satisfaction: Values In Which HUGOTAG And Epson Meet

The modernization of HUGOTAG's equipment by acquiring a Monna Lisa goes hand in hand with the strategy of reconquest of the market undertaken by its director.

By developing its production capacities, the objective of the finisher is obviously to increase its turnover, but above all to do so in full respect of the core values of this company:

"Our know-how, experience and technicality must carry us in our permanent search for the satisfaction of our customers. With this in mind, and with innovation in mind, we have invested in an industrial solution for direct-to-textile printing. But this is only one step in the transformation that I want to implement, so that all the thousands of meters of silk from our workshop reflect the excellence demanded by our luxury customers and the "Living Heritage Company" label that honors our know-how," concludes Claire Bairros.