It started with a second-hand press.
Lilou bought her first heat press online, paid for with her savings, set up on the kitchen table. The idea wasn’t to start a business. It was to make her own clothes, because what she wanted to wear didn’t exist in stores.
The first pieces were for her. Then for friends. Then a neighbourhood café asked for twelve sweaters for its staff, and the workshop had its first client.
What she found while looking to outsource.
When orders outgrew the kitchen table, Lilou made the rounds of Montréal shops to understand the market. She came out with a single observation, which became Maison Brody’s business model.
Almost nobody posted their prices. Almost everyone turned down small orders. And the neighbourhood café, with its twelve sweaters, interested almost none of them.
So she kept production in-house, added an embroidery machine, and decided to do exactly the opposite: post the prices, accept every order size, and answer herself.
Why “Maison”.
Because a print shop prints and a house dresses. The word says what the workshop really does: it doesn’t put a logo on a garment, it turns a brand into something people wear.
And “Brody”.
A name found in a notebook, among twenty or so others, picked because it sounded like a family name you’d trust on a label. There’s no family story behind it. There’s a young entrepreneur who wanted her brand to look like it had been around for a while, so her clients wouldn’t have to wonder whether she’d still be there next year.