Last week French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus took to Instagram to announce his brand’s 10 year anniversary to be celebrated with a show in the South of France on June 24th.
The designer first began his label in 2009 following the death of his
mother whose maiden name was Jacquemus, and the label was named after. In 2011, he began working at the
Commes Des Garçons store in Paris under designer
Rei Kawakubo and CEO partner Adrian Joffe who took him under their wings. This Commes Des Garçons influence became evident in some of the Jacquemus’ earlier work where he often played with the concept of
deconstruction and untraditional asymmetrical silhouettes.
His collections officially first hit the runway in 2014, but didn’t begin to gain much attention until his
Spring Summer 2017 runway show where he introduced what would become some of his signatures looks such as his
ruching techniques, his
polka dot prints and
straw hats.
However, it was a year later following his SS18
La Bomba collection where the designer really began to gain popularity. The collection introduced a woman from the
South of France, who embraced her
sexuality. This was Jacquemus’ breakthrough collection where he flaunted some of his couture training from Rei Kawakubo and presented it in ways that were wearable as well as sexy. This was seen through lots of draped shirt dresses, giant straw hats and abstract accessories. This was a collection that was simple while being complicated at the same time, and when this highly instagrammable collection hit the market, it was everywhere.
The same went for the designer’s following Fall 2018 collection
Le Souk where he introduced some of his signature techniques in a variety of new styles and colours. This was the same type of woman presented in the SS18 collection, only altered in ways for the fall season. The crowd went wild for this type of carefree nonchalant, sexually liberated Southern French woman and
sales accumulated in over $11 million in 2018 alone.
After this success, the designer announced he was launching his first
menswear line called
Le Gadjo at the beginning of 2019 which excited much of his male fans who had been supportive of his vision. However, the collection, a collaboration with American knitwear brand
Woolrich, did not sing the same tune as the female counterpart. It was a much simpler approach compared to his womenswear collection which left much of his male supporters disappointed. Nonetheless, the brand’s supporters were able to settle with a few pieces from the collection including the
Jacquemus neck wallet which dominated much of street style and Instagram during the past two seasons.
Following this, in the last three seasons, the designer has been much more focused on perfecting the brand’s aesthetic rather than honing the couture aspects. Which although may be less exciting for his menswear branch especially, assures him a steady customer for womenswear, which includes clients like the
Kardashians,
Beyoncé,
Rihanna among others. In an interview with
WWD, the designer expressed that by the end of 2019, he expects the brand’s sales to increase by 11.5 million euros from last year, which totals to around 25 million in 2019.
The brand’s
110th-anniversary show later this month will feature a presentation of both men and womenswear in a co-ed show. One can only hope that with this celebration of 10 years of designing, he may not only bring back, but introduce some new and interesting couture-influenced techniques and designs for both the mens and women.
