Through upcycling and craftsmanship, Seconde Main turns forgotten materials into unique pieces, made to last.
A second life for textiles, hand-made to reveal their worth.
Each year, tons of second-hand garments arrive in Madagascar, while local factories discard similar volumes of unused offcuts, often burned. This overflow becomes a burden, a dead end, a symptom of a system running out of breath. And yet, Madagascar is home to exceptional know-how: sewing, embroidery, crochet, weaving. A refined craftsmanship, widely overlooked. Luxury brands produce there silently or under the guise of social messaging, rarely naming the hands behind their creations or giving them the place they deserve. It is from this tension, shaped by a deep love of craft and a refusal to repeat the same patterns, that Seconde Main was born.
In Antananarivo, reclaimed garments and textile offcuts become unique pieces or limited editions. Here, upcycling meets Malagasy craftsmanship and contemporary design to transform what already exists into a living resource. Each piece begins with what is available, shaped by hand, designed to last and crafted to reveal. Seconde Main imagines a bold, structured, deeply rooted fashion. An alternative that embraces slowness, values precision and honours imperfection. A fashion that respects materials, preserves gestures, creates differently and invites you to choose garments that quietly resist uniformity.
We cultivate a shared savoir-faire through co-creation. Far from rigid frameworks, clothing becomes a space for expression and transmission. Each piece is a dialogue between materials and colours, gestures and stories.
Creating within constraint is not a limit, but a playground. That’s where it all begins.
What seems finished to others is, for us, a starting point. Our creations do not begin from nothing. They are rooted in what already exists, writing new stories, stories of a mindful and committed kind of fashion that values connection over trend. We do not simply make clothes. We contribute, in our own way, to rebalancing a system.
Jessica Solomon studied fashion design and garment construction at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. She began her career at Yiqing Yin, a haute couture house, where she spent two years assisting the Artistic Direction. There, she worked on creative projects combining artisanal and sculptural techniques to enrich the collections.
In 2017, building on this experience, she joined Akanjo, a Madagascar-based company renowned for its expertise in producing for international luxury houses. She founded and led a design studio there, with the mission of developing innovations and bridging Malagasy craftsmanship with the expectations of leading fashion houses.
In 2021, she opened her own workshop in Antananarivo, embracing a more experimental approach: reclaiming and transforming existing textiles to give them a second life.
Seconde Main was born, with the ambition to create thoughtful, singular pieces in small series, blending upcycling with traditional craftsmanship.
Upcycling literally means recycling from above. In other words, the garment tends to appreciate, as opposed to depreciate, unlike traditional recycling which means destroying a fabric to recreate a new one. We don’t use fabric rolls, we cut our material from forgotten garments giving them a seconde chance.
Respect for craftsmen, which must be a priority for us all, is always pushed to the background in the textile industry. Instead, we make a point of creating an ambitious caring work atmosphere so everyone can live in dignity thanks to their passion by expressing their own ideas.
To make our pieces unique, we spend a lot of time on every step of the creative process. Each model requires a special care and its own reflection. That’s what makes them so precious and allows us to face the disposable fashion.
Our pieces are 100% upcycled in order not to further impact their ecosystem.
Our atelier was entirely designed by local artisans, with natural materials. All our sewing machines are 100% reconditioned and all our accessories come from nearby factories deadstocks or from the local market. To product garments with common sense and sincerity, this is our leitmotiv.
Each one of our pieces is delivered in a soft tissue envelope.
They are made of 100% cotton raw fabric and a unique lining cutting from scraps of our collections. They are all crafted in our atelier in Antananarivo, with the same care we give to the manufacturing of our clothes. They can be diverted from their originally intended use.
Our atelier is based in Antananarivo which is the capital of Madagascar, well-known for its high quality handmade know-how. Our raw materials come from Le Relais de Fianarantsoa, a socio-economical goaling company that creates a lot of jobs in Madagascar for excluded people, notably thanks to the textile sorting.