BRAND
Astroparis (ASTRO) is a French brand, founded in 2017 by Paris based, Lubna Briand.
Astro creates high-end, oversized hoodies with satin or silk-lined sleeves and hoods, offering unparalleled comfort, style, and softness.
Astro hoodies were initially designed to help calm and soothe sensory issues and other anxiety induced, skin irritations. Astro hoodies
extend great care and comfort to the wearer.
THE CREATOR
As a high school student, Lubna, was always hands-on and passionate about fashion. She began modifying her hoodies to meet her needs
for comfort and reassurance. From the 2000s generation, she began offering these on Instagram and TikTok, in the form of 'drops' or pre-
orders starting in 2017. Astro was born. In 2020, Lubna was mentored by designer, Anastasia Lafey to refine her sewing skills. That same
year the ASTRO brand was registered, and the website was created. Until 2023, Lubna personally assembled all the custom hoodies (over
one thousand) and managed the website, social media, shipping, customer service, and photo shoots.
In summary, these are the behind-the-scenes aspects that many don't see but which make it challenging for small brands to survive if they
don't scale up. In early 2024, Astro successfully transitioned from custom parts, to controlled series production.
"Fascinated by materials, colors and shapes, I wanted to create something unique and simple, with particular attention to comfort and
colors. I started by customizing hoodies, whose sleeves and satin hood I doubled in different colors, making the sweater warmer and more
pleasant to the touch. For me, a garment must be as beautiful and soft inside."Lubna BRIAND
THE PRODUCT
The hoodies weigh around 800g compared to 300g for a standard hoodie. This provides a cocoon-like, weighted, and soothing feeling of
well-being. These high-quality hoodies do not pill over time; great care is taken to select the best fabrics. For each hoodie, the 3D Astro
logo matches the color of the lining. The cords of the hoodies are interchangeable. A custom needle is provided for this purpose with
each hoodie. An interchangeable collection of cords is available on the website.
THE PRODUCTION
It was highly challenging for Astro (which is self-financed) to move from custom hoodies to series production. In 2023, Astro partnered with
a quality focused team in China that enabled it to begin a limited series, with its own quality controlled, design. This manufacturing
workshop employees around sixty highly skilled people. This is a step. Astro dreams of having its own workshops in France and producing its
own fabrics. Well-rooted in its time, Astro is fully aware of environmental and economic issues, as well as its limitations. Astro wants to
equip itself to achieve its ambitions. Astro is doing what can be immediately done at its scale and what is important: producing less and
better. A quality garment is one that lasts. Astro uses high-quality materials. Astro only produces miniseries of 50 to 100 pieces.
Stock shortages are common at Astro, but there is never overproduction.
Astro products are exclusively distributed on
www.astroparis.com
www.tiktok.com/@astro_brand_ and
www.instagram.com/astroandhuman
BEHIND THE BRAND
Brand from present generation for present generation ASTЯO. is here
to make you feel the best of yourself in your clothes. We are a brand
that wants the world to be full of colors. Because our generation is about sharing, is about connection, learning from each other all around the world.
I am talking to you, the ones that are full of passion, of dreams, I am talking to the dancers, painters. I am talking to all the souls that see the world differently.
Be yourself, find your star.
ASTRO. and its beginnings:
It's 2020 and ASTЯO. is finally taking shape!
It all started three years ago. Fascinated by materials, colors and shapes, I wanted to create something unique and simple, with special attention to comfort and colors. At first, I started by customizing hoodies, lining the sleeves and hood with synthetic satin in different colors, making the sweater warmer and more pleasant to the touch. This idea came to me when I realized that fashion focuses, most often, on the external visual aspect of the piece. But, for me, a garment must be beautiful inside, as well as outside. This is how, after many attempts, the custom sweater emerged and my adventure began!
After a few years of research, experimentation, and results, I decided to take the plunge and show the world a universe of colors through my fashion. I no longer wanted to walk down the street and live in a gray and dark world. I wanted to create pieces that could provoke reactions through their bright colors or abstract shapes.
I chose to associate the colors of my collection with emotions. Yellow, linked to the sun, makes the garment warm and joyful. Red, the emotional color par excellence, is linked to love, but also, to its counterpart, hate... At least according to my interpretation, and like me, each person who wears these pieces will be able to appropriate and interpret in their own way the unique and original garment they wear.
From the beginning I wanted my brand, ASTЯO., to be suitable and reach a wide audience. That is why the collection is unisex. I did not see the need to create two categories, men and women, except for the sizes that differ according to gender.
My inspirations are vast. I would define it as a large painting filled with abstract shapes accumulated by my years spent in the corridors of exhibitions, by my travels, by the anchored images of my mother reading Alice in Wonderland to me when I was younger and more... My lucid dreams, from a very young age, have also inspired me a lot. I have accumulated perfect memories of my dreams, details, sensations, maybe even smells, who knows... I have often wondered if dreams build me or the other way around, but after careful consideration I believe it is both. What I am certain of in any case is that I have achieved one through the opening of my brand, of which I am proud.
I simply want to share my imagination with a world that is finding it increasingly difficult to think outside the box.
I welcome you to my world.
ASTRO
ASTЯO collection.
ASTYAO., like many new brands, is trying to find eco-friendly solutions for manufacturing and distributing its clothing, but this isn't always 100% possible. This environmental issue arises for all companies, large and small. Whether they have the resources or not, the real challenge is finding companies that produce and harvest locally (which is virtually impossible these days). Furthermore, we want to be as transparent as possible about our products and will continue to keep you updated on our brand's environmental progress. Many questions arise, but here is our goal.
ASTYAO.'s position is this: we start with the simplest and cheapest, while having the possibility of offering real quality clothing without producing huge quantities in order to avoid overproduction leading to waste.
To begin with, we manufacture in Zhejiang, China. The company we work with is SGS-certified as eco-friendly. Our goal, when possible, is to offer you clothing made in Europe from bamboo, one of the best ecological solutions thanks to its closed-loop system. The companies that offer this service grow bamboo, process it, and replant it. There is no question of deforestation or the mass use of pesticides; bamboo requires very little water for its production, unlike cotton.
We want to offer you a comfortable brand that suits you but is also aware of and open to this ecological issue.
That's our goal, because we can't complain about a situation while participating in it. We have to start somewhere.
CUSTOM
ASTYAO. CUSTOM hoodies are produced in Honduras, and we handle the customization in France, directly in our workshop/home. The company we work with has WRAP certification, awarded to factories that adhere to ethical labor standards. It is a member of the FLA (Fair Labor Association).