Our Story

The story of JAMYAS is also the story of Majdi.

JAMYAS was founded in 2004 by Majdi. Throughout all these years, he has been driven by his passion for fashion, innovation, and respect for living beings and the planet.

The story begins at the Saint-Ouen Flea Market, the cradle of reuse and second life.

A natural transmission

His relationship with clothing began very early. His mother, a seamstress working from home, passed on to him a love for fabrics and repairing clothes to make them last.

By accompanying her to the market and watching her choose and negotiate fabric remnants, Majdi learned the basics of the trade almost without knowing it.

JAMYAS is a family adventure.

Majdi's children were born into fashion; they grew up surrounded by jeans, fabrics, the Flea Market, and customers. During the week, they continued their studies; on weekends, they would meet at the Saint-Ouen Flea Market.

This immersion gave them concrete knowledge of clothing, but also a taste for innovation, the search for new solutions, and a more responsible approach to fashion.

JAMYAS, born at the Saint-Ouen Flea Market

Later, during his studies, Majdi looked for a part-time weekend job. The Saint-Ouen Flea Market, very close to his home, naturally became his stomping ground.

He started as a salesperson, then went into business for himself. He worked with vintage clothing, occasionally new items, but primarily jeans.

Very quickly, he fell in love with this unique market, its energy, and its diversity. Hare Krishnas, punks, goths, rockers, tourists, regulars, merchants, and customers from all walks of life—everyone crosses paths there.

Very modest people and wealthy individuals alike meet around clothing, second-hand items, recycling, flea markets, and antiques.

But the Flea Market is also a harsher social reality, particularly around Porte de Montmartre, where some sold whatever they could just to survive.

This is everything Majdi loved: a popular, lively, sometimes rough, but deeply human place.

 

From salesperson to running his own business

When Majdi started, he sourced from wholesalers. When it came to second-hand goods, he managed to find them, and for new items, he had a specialty: raw denim. At the time, it wasn't hard to find products Made in France.

Very quickly, Majdi decided to create his own brand. His first productions, his first "Made in France" items, were sweatshirts. They were unbranded, and he sold them at his stand at the Saint-Ouen Flea Market. Over the years, he decided to develop his own brand, but without trying to scale up commercially, because in parallel, Majdi was committed to life.

Preserving the soul of the Flea Market

At the Saint-Ouen Flea Market, Majdi gradually committed himself to defending small shopkeepers and preserving the popular identity of the market.

He is particularly attached to second-hand goods, recycling, creation, style, and the diversity that makes up the soul of the place.

His commitment became union-based. Little by little, the flea market merchants granted him their trust and chose him, during elections, to represent them and defend their interests.

Activism

Majdi's activism was not limited to fashion. He became involved on the ground for the right to housing, the defense of residents in popular neighborhoods, as well as various social and environmental causes, with the same conviction to act concretely where injustices are found.

A thrifter at heart

Long before "leftovers," dormant fabrics, and end-of-stock fabrics became a trend, Majdi was already scouring for these materials to create in small batches. It is an approach that Jamyas continues to pursue today to avoid unnecessarily mobilizing new natural resources.

Entrepreneurial commitment, jeans, and the media

2009, Majdi on RTL, interviewed as a technical specialist on jeans

In 2009, an RTL team came directly to Majdi's stand at the Flea Market to interview him and discover his work with jeans.

Majdi was sought out for his highly technical expertise: his knowledge of denim, materials, cuts, assembly, tailoring, and manufacturing methods.

Majdi also presented his brand dedicated to Made in France, already with the desire to produce locally and promote French expertise.

Majdi, sought out by Envoyé Spécial

Camelia Encinas, a journalist for Envoyé Spécial, came to meet Majdi to gather his expertise on jeans, washing processes, and their risks.

For several days, through meetings and technical exchanges, Majdi chose to help the team of journalists with one conviction: not just to denounce the abuses of the industry, but above all to provide concrete solutions.

He worked on the risks associated with sandblasting denim and on alternatives that better protect workers and improve practices.

At that time, Majdi chose to intervene behind the camera, without appearing on screen, as the subject was sensitive. The report won the 1st Prize in the "Work and Health" category at the International Health Film Festival.

Made in where?

With Jamyas, "Made in France" is not just a label we shout about. When the fabric comes from France, or not too far away, we manufacture it in France. We do not want to look for materials on the other side of the planet to manufacture them in France; this approach makes no sense. We have been working with French and Mediterranean supply chains for a long time, and we continue in this way.

After the end of the WTO quotas, the Asian surge upsets the fashion industry.

Until then, Majdi manufactured in France. Then, after the end of textile quotas on January 1, 2005, within the framework of the WTO, the market was shaken by a real surge of very low-cost products from Asia.

Broken prices, massive volumes, unbalanced competition, and sometimes textiles containing prohibited or dangerous chemical substances—liberalization profoundly disrupted the market.

To maintain control over his models, quality, and timelines, while remaining on production close to France, Majdi decided to create his own factory in Tunisia, with about fifty employees, while continuing to have a portion of his collections manufactured in France.

This factory already operates according to a very specific logic: production is carried out exclusively from leftovers, end-of-stock items, and dormant fabrics. A way to produce using existing materials rather than mobilizing new resources.

This choice was documented at the time by M6, which went to Tunisia to film his activity, while RTL met him in Paris, directly at his stand at the Flea Market.

Rana Plaza and Fashion Vigilant

And then came the Rana Plaza events. Majdi began to work on a social model, a social and environmental model, after the collapse of Rana Plaza. Rana Plaza was that building housing several workshops in completely deplorable conditions, which collapsed and caused many casualties, essentially women in Bangladesh.

And there, he told himself: "I need to write specifications, a label, something to rewrite the fashion of tomorrow." Mid-range fashion. What interests Majdi is not necessarily haute couture or the elite. It is to offer as many people as possible clothing manufactured in a reasonable way, both socially and environmentally. Majdi therefore began to work on these specifications, which he called Fashion Vigilant.

Big Booster, meetings, and an adventure leading to COP21

Since he was traveling back and forth a lot for production between France and Tunisia, the French Embassy in Tunisia sent him an email advising him to apply for anything related to textiles and means of production that respect the environment. Majdi was surprised. He said to himself: "But why? Can I provide a solution? Why would Green Tech be interested in me?" While he considers himself a ragman, a simple second-hand dealer.

And indeed, it was Big Booster Lyon-Boston. He applied, as anyone can apply. Out of thousands of applications, they had to choose a few dozen, and he was chosen to present this concept. The concept had to be presented at a bootcamp in Lyon that lasted several days. This incubator also allowed him to meet people, different models from around the world, with entrepreneurs from all over. And that is where the adventure really took on an totally unexpected dimension. Other incubators contacted him. He was also invited, as part of Big Booster, to present his concept around COP21 to raise awareness. At that time, we talked little about eco-responsibility.

COP21 PARIS

Subsequently, he was contacted to apply for Ticket for Change. It is an incubator for social entrepreneurs. Likewise, he applied, he was selected. And there, it was an exceptional adventure. We had to do a tour of France of everything related to social entrepreneurship, initiatives committed to environmental respect in production methods, and how to do business in a more responsible way. It was something magnificent because he discovered and met other social entrepreneurs. He was in the same cohort as the founders of Yuka.

Africa and the end-of-life of second-hand clothes

Majdi met Roger Nkodo Dang, then President of the Pan-African Parliament, to address the issue of "illegal second-hand clothing" and, more broadly, the end-of-life of clothing in Africa. The goal was to better understand the realities on the ground and reflect on concrete solutions to prevent used clothing from simply becoming waste.

ACIM Marseille and the two shores

ACIM Marseille was a very important experience in Majdi's journey. This NGO, committed to both shores of the Mediterranean, between Europe and Africa, worked on creating a true entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Initially, Majdi participated as a candidate. Then, over time, he was regularly asked to intervene, share his experience, and support this dynamic, notably alongside Véronique.

Taking the time

 

Majdi Jeljeli spent several years conducting research and experimentation between France and Tunisia. He combined his experience in the field, B2B, B2C, and the textile industry with social entrepreneurship and innovation.

Throughout this work, he met institutions, unions, technical centers, manufacturers, associations, and numerous fashion stakeholders from both shores of the Mediterranean. This process led to the creation of Fashion-Vigilant, presented at COP21 in 2015 and then registered in Tunisia in 2016.

The goal was already clear: to better protect the women and men working in textiles, reduce the environmental impact of production, and make the manufacturing chain more transparent. The system provided for on-site inspections, better regulation of subcontracting, and digital traceability of clothing via QR code.

This work laid the foundations for the vision that JAMYAS pursues today: to create, produce, and innovate differently, always keeping humans and the planet at the center.

Majdi Jeans mission-driven company, the laboratory company

Majdi created Majdi Jeans as a laboratory company to test several innovations: repair, reuse, putting back into circulation clothing rejected by brands, but also to analyze the behavior of customers accustomed to fast fashion.

 

Jamyas, Wear your values

Fashion is part of our daily lives, of what we wear and what we want to express. This is the entire meaning of our slogan: "Wear your values."

Around JAMYAS, a community is being created with kindness, tolerance, and the desire to move forward together. We can make mistakes, learn, correct, and progress.

The ambition of JAMYAS is to go further than clothing: to bring about another way of producing, buying, and living fashion, with respect for living beings, resources, and the planet.

The logo 

The "Y" of JAMYAS is a palm branch, a symbol deeply linked to the brand's identity. Present in many landscapes of southern Europe as well as Africa, it becomes a bridge between the two shores of the Mediterranean, between cultures, expertise, and the women and men who participate in the story of JAMYAS.

Together, we can change fashion.