Jacquemus is a name you've probably heard of. But do you know who is behind the success of the Chiquito bag?
A child of the south, passionate about fashion
Behind the Jacquemus brand is its creator, Simon Porte Jacquemus, born into a family of farmers at the Salon de Provence in January 1990. He grew up in a rural environment before leaving the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region for Paris. Jacquemus studied for a few months at the Higher School of Fashion Arts and Techniques. But he soon stopped his studies, to become assistant art director for the magazine Citizen K. He lost his mother in 2008. This sudden death, Jacquemus will describe it as "an electroshock", leading him to become a fashion designer. He honors her by calling his brand Jacquemus, his mother's birth name.
To make himself known, the young creator uses his creativity and ingenuity. Her friends wore her designs during the 2010 Vogue Fashion Night Out in Paris. He used this same strategy during the Dior show in 2011. He dressed his friends with Jacquemus' Ouvrière collection. They stood below a banner reading "Jacquemus on strike," drawing the attention of Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Emmanuelle Alt.
The famous "Jacquemus on strike" that propelled the brand
It seems that this strategy worked since he was invited the following year to present his collection during Paris Fashion Week , making him the youngest designer of this event. He is solicited by the ready-to-wear with the Redoute which offers him a collection in 2014, allowing him to discover his style to a wider audience. In 2015, he won the Special Jury Prize at the LVMH Prize. This award gave him international visibility.
Jacquemus, a brand bringing a wave of freshness to French haute couture
But then, how did this brand worn by a young designer meet such success?
Jacquemus stands out from its peers with its style inspired by southern France and its simple but effective cuts. He himself describes his creations as a "naive fashion", which wants to be unique but wearable. He now presents his collections through two fashion shows per year (January and June) which are mixed shows. Jacquemus likes to reinvent ordinary clothes and accessories such as crop tops or sandals to transform them into fashion pieces.
During his last collection L'Amour, he presented us with split dresses, mini crop-tops of puffy shirts, suits in neutral and pastel colors as well as shirts with Picasso pattern and Provencal motif. He uses natural and fluid materials such as linen. Jacquemus also focuses on accessories with jewelry and imposing hats. He also loves the woman's body and does not hesitate to create clothes that reveal her curves and emphasize her sensuality.
Fashion show for the L'Amour collection, 2020
Jacquemus also highlights his rural origins by reworking the straw basket, the straw hat or organizing a parade in a wheat field. He also likes to celebrate the south by bringing the atmosphere, the colors of PACA to his collections. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of his brand, he even organized the show of his collection Le coup de soleil in a lavender field in Valensole, in the south of France, in 2019. His solar and minimalist collections make him an essential designer of fashion.
Runway for the Sunburn collection, 2019
A millennial who handles social networks to perfection
But Jacquemus is also a young man who reveals his life and collections on social networks. He himself says that social networks have greatly contributed to his rise. He first posted his first creations on Tumblr with a significant resharing of Internet users. But it is with Instagram that the creator has created a community. On his Instagram account, he has no less than 2.7 million subscribers. The aesthetics is extremely worked with a homogeneity of colors (wheat tone on these last posts) and structure. Jacquemus regularly shares photos in the form of a triptych: he can repost the same photo up to 3 times. He can post 3 photos in a row with the same model and background or with the same theme.
On his instagram, we find pictures of the parade, his collections but also his personal life with his lover and his family. He also shares photos of landscapes, places he would like to go and photos of his everyday life. The designer also reposts photos where celebrities wear his collections as with Rosalia, Dua Lipa or Kylie Jenner. He uses Instagram as a promotional tool for his collections but also as a preface to his universe. For his last show "love", he did not hesitate to make an Instagram live to present his collection. Through Instagram, Jacquemus is authentic and sincere, and his audience seems conquered.
A craze around his creations
Jacquemus is self-taught. He founded his brand alone, without an investor at only 19 years old. Today, the brand employs more than 60 people and turnover continues to climb: 11.5 million euros in 2018 and between 23 and 25 million euros in 2019. Jacquemus does not have a physical store like all fashion houses can have. Its e-commerce works so well that many celebrities solicit it.
He was able to dress the biggest stars like Chris (formerly Christine and the Queens) or Rihanna on stage. In everyday life, her clothes are worn by Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian, Emily Ratajkowski… During the last fashion shows, the Hadid sisters, Laetitia Casta and Doutzen Kroes worked for him.
Laetitia Casta, Bella Hadid and Mica Argañaraz for the Year 97 collection, 2020
His greatest success is undoubtedly the Chiquito bag. Released in 2017, it made a big buzz, because of its small size, the purity of its design and its accessibility price level for a luxury bag. And the stars are snatching it up. Present everywhere on Instagram with more than 235,000 hashtags, this bag became the hit bag of the summer of 2017 and the following summers. Building on its success, the designer has revisited it in mini, micro, crocodile effect version but also in jewelry. He even confided that last Christmas, Beyonce bought no less than 30 Chiquito bags.
The famous Chiquito that has caused so much ink to flow
But he also extends his creative field to restoration. He inaugurated the Citron restaurant in the Galeries Lafayette on the Champs Elysées in March 2019. In the same store, he inaugurated his second restaurant, Oursin, dedicated to seafood, in September 2019.
With his clean style, inspired by the south of France, Jacquemus is the fashionable fashion designer. Inspiring, poetic, simple, Jacquemus works his universe through his creations and social networks. With fashion shows and pieces that are creating a buzz, Jacquemus is on the way to becoming one of the most gifted designers of his generation.
