Vosges

"The factories have reopened; now it remains to organize the supply of raw materials and energy. It is on this second front that the ingenious “intermediary” of twenty-five years old reveals his dynamism. In association with Paul Léderlin and a group of industrialists from the Vosges, he founded the Company for Import and Export of the North and the East, responsible for chartering Norwegian cargo ships, acquiring barges, and procuring the necessary raw materials. Boussac makes his first trip to England. There he buys cotton and coal. From Cardiff, his fleet transports the fuel and cotton to Rouen, which his barges then convey to the Vosges. This operation, once initiated, will be repeated throughout the war."

"Boussac acquires the friendship of two influential figures: René Laederich, who is at the head of a large spinning and weaving business, and Paul Léderlin, who has just succeeded his father as the director of the most important bleaching and dyeing company in the Vosges. About twenty years his seniors, they will become allies and one of them a partner. Under their protective wing, the novice penetrates the intricacies of the trade, becomes familiar with the different phases of production—he undergoes internships with each of them—and learns to mingle with important people. It is at their school that he perfects his training. From these models, he will draw inspiration when he himself becomes a Vosgian boss."

"However, the spinners in the Vosges work much more cheaply. Now, the young Boussac realized how much the first collection he prepared for his father was appreciated: fabrics intended for women’s clothing, in light colors, with more fantasy than was previously accepted. At that time, provincial women still dressed in black, navy blue, dark brown and wore undergarments, petticoats, corset covers, knickers in calico or thick cretonne. Men of modest means wore shirts in stiff shirting or madapolam. The frills, silk, taffeta, ribbons, and seductive undergarments remained the privilege of the fashionable in high society. The villages and even the towns and cities were populated with dark silhouettes dressed in toned-down colors. Why not make more attractive attire accessible to all women? Why not expand the fantasy inspired by Roanne fabrics? And if the Vosges produce more cheaply, why not manufacture the same items in the Vosges?"

"“One must,” he says, with that slightly sententious tone that will become a flaw for him, “know how to pay a little more for the thread; it is worth the profit gained.” He then takes this carefully selected thread to the best weavers, oversees the fabric production to gradually improve the quality, and finally has them dyed or printed according to his directives by the greatest dye specialist in the Vosges."