The early years of MY1996 (part 1)

The story of MY1996 began in January 2019 and even a little earlier…

I'm Marie, creator of the MY1996 online store. In 2018, I obtained my bachelor's degree in human resources. At that time, I was already passionate about fashion and I spent a lot of my free time scrolling on Insta, Pinterest and my favorite clothing sites. I also spend a large part of my first paycheck in online stores.

Although I love my job as a human resources manager, the idea of ​​creating my own e-shop is growing more and more in my thoughts until it becomes an obsession: I too want to try my luck!

Supported by those around me, I began the process of launching my first collection. This involves a succession of stages including the creation of the website (thanks to Alexandre, my boyfriend, who later became my husband, for being good at computers!), the registration of the name of my store, the choice of pieces from the first collection… MY1996 was born!

When on January 25, 2019, I released my very first collection and received 21 orders, I was the happiest in the world! 😍

During this period, collection releases are less regular than currently. I'm just building up my cash flow and a collection represents a significant financial investment. So I can't afford to take too many risks. The collections are also made up of a few models in small quantities.

After a few collection releases and the volume of orders having evolved, I'm starting to feel cramped in my little teenage bedroom. So I go down one floor and move into my parents' garage (thanks to them for allowing me to invade their space!).

The evolution of MY1996 continues, there are more and more customers for my greatest happiness! It's decided: my online store is 1 year old and it's time to take off! I am renting my first premises consisting of 2 rooms with a surface area of ​​approximately 32 m2, it seems huge and so impressive to me.

Shortly after, Alex joined me in the adventure. Indeed, the orders are increasingly large and I need daily support.

The COVID health crisis is taking hold, online commerce is growing and my store is getting a real boost. At this time, our storage space has a surface area of ​​16 m2 (for comparison, we currently have 250) and we are cramped again. And to think that a few months before, it seemed gigantic to me!

Having made great progress since the creation of my store, I left my self-employed status in October 2020 to create our company MY1996 with Alex. It is also time to move into larger premises consisting of 100 m2 including 70m2 of storage, 20m2 of offices and kitchen as well as 10m2 for the photo area.

It is in 2021 that we hire our first employee: Nathalie, my mother. Her help frees up my time on certain tasks: after-sales service management, accounting, etc. Shortly afterward, we recruited Mélissa, our first work-study student who will leave us a few months later for new projects.

During this period, we work a lot with Alex, from Monday to Sunday. We dreamed MY1996, we ate MY1996… It was a very intense period but we don't regret it because it allowed us to be where we are today.

In 2022, with the company still enjoying good momentum, we are continuing to hire Flora and Léonie to manage storage and customer service.

Our evolution does not stop there, and I suggest telling you about it in a second blog article. In it, we will discuss our new premises, our new hires, the launch of our second brand Alma Paris as well as the creation of our showroom. We'll see you on the blog in a few days!

See you soon !