Carnet de Mode

Carnet de Mode operated as a curated international online marketplace for emerging and independent fashion designers. Founded in January 2011 by Arbia Smiti, the Paris-based company aimed to provide a platform for new talent in the fashion industry to gain global visibility and manage sales. Smiti, who holds a dual engineering and marketing/communication MBA from ESCP Business School, identified a gap in the market for supporting young designers, drawing on her prior experience as an International Product Manager at L'OREAL GROUP and a Fashion Purchasing Manager. Her background in marketing and e-commerce directly informed the company's strategy.

The business model was centered on a zero-inventory system, where designers could establish their own virtual storefronts to present and sell their collections. Carnet de Mode facilitated this by taking a 50% commission on all net sales conducted through the platform, a fee which covered marketing but not shipping and fulfillment. This model offered designers a risk-free entry into the market without upfront costs. The platform featured a wide array of products including ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, jewelry, shoes, and leather goods. Initially, Carnet de Mode launched with a crowdfunding concept inspired by Kickstarter to help designers finance their collections, but it pivoted to a marketplace model a year later in 2012. A unique feature was the "pre-collections" section, allowing consumers to purchase items from future collections at a significant discount, helping designers fund production.

The company successfully raised a total of $1.61 million over two funding rounds. A seed round in July 2012 raised $126,000, followed by a Series A round of $1.5 million in May 2013, led by Elaia Partners with participation from angel investors like Pascal Chevalier and Marie Christine Levet. By 2013, the platform hosted over 200 designer stores and showcased 6,000 exclusive fashion items, reporting a 50% month-over-month growth in sales and customers at the time. In November 2017, after more than six years of operation, Arbia Smiti sold the company to Bagora, a French industrial group specializing in SaaS software.

Keywords: emerging fashion designers, online fashion marketplace, Arbia Smiti, curated fashion, independent designers, fashion e-commerce, ready-to-wear, fashion accessories, designer marketplace, zero-inventory, commission-based model, fashion tech, Paris startup, Elaia Partners, Bagora acquisition, pre-collections, virtual storefront, global fashion sales, independent boutique platform, fashion crowdfunding